Welcome to the Winter Newsletter.
Committee News
The committee presently looks like this:
   President: Rob Perrin            Hon. Treasurer/membership: Ted Connell        Hon. Secretary: Alice Lyons
   Hon. Editor: Jude Plouviez    Production Manager: Pam Irving     
   Ordinary Members:  Bernard Barr,  Kayt Brown,   Maggi Darling,   Laura Jones,   Vivien Swan
   Co-opted Member: Fiona Seeley

Since our successful and enjoyable conference in Liverpool last June the committee has only had one meeting, held in January 2002 at the Museum of London. The delay was caused by a mixture of very full schedules and ill health - hopefully all such problems are behind us now. The meeting dealt mostly with the publication timetable and the forth coming Winchester conference.

The committee was delighted with the publication of the Journal of Roman Pottery Studies, Volume 9 ‘The Roman Pottery Kilns at Rossington Bridge Excavations 1956-1961’ and hope that all members have received their copy and are equally pleased. The committee would like to take this opportunity to thank the Doncaster Archaeological Society for their generous grant of £300 towards the publication costs of this volume. Several other volumes are near to completion so hopefully our back log of publications will soon be cleared and the membership have something more to show for their subscription – an issue that the committee takes very seriously.

However, three new committee members will shortly be needed to continue this work as the President (Rob Perrin) and two ordinary member (Vivien Swan and an unfilled slot) positions are due for re-election at the next AGM. A nomination form is attached to this Newsletter – but please remember to ask permission from the nominee before you submit it.

New Members
We would like to welcome our new members this year: Ray McBride, James Gerrard, Chris Lydamore, 
Dr Robert Philpot, Alex Whitehead and Paul Wilkinson. Membership currently totals 135.

Conference News
Summaries of papers given at the Liverpool 2001 conference, from those kind enough to respond, can be found at the end of this Newsletter.

Our next conference is approaching fast. It is to be held at King Alfred’s College in Winchester between the 5th and 7th of April 2002. Please find a booking form (coloured pink) attached to this Newsletter. I look forward to seeing many of you there, Winchester is a beautiful place and we have some excellent speakers lined up – so come if you can.

ANNUAL SGRP WEEKEND CONFERENCE 2002
at King Alfred’s University College, Winchester, from Friday April 5^th - Sunday April 7^th

The venue
King Alfred’s University College is located in the historic city of Winchester, and we will be staying on-campus in Alwyn Hall East where the accommodation comprises single rooms each with a washbasin and access to shared toilets, showers, also a kitchenette. The College is small, so it is only a few minutes walk between the halls, dining room and meeting rooms. Number attending the conference are restricted so accommodation will be allocated on a first come basis, although there are a number of B&B’s nearby if we do become fully booked. Parking is available on-campus with permits issued by the College at registration.

We have been allocated a large meeting room for our lectures and a second, smaller lockable room, for members to display pottery. There is also room for poster displays for anyone wishing to present work in-progress etc.

The conference theme.
Some papers have a local emphasis, other a more international and national flavour, these include The Eruption of Vesuvius and its implications for Roman Pottery Studies (Dave Williams), Indo-Roman Trade (Roberta Tomber), Claudian Pottery from Richborough (Malcolm Lyne), Early Hadham Wares (Andy Fawcett), New evidence for Derbyshire Ware (Scott Martin) and Approaching our predecessors: ways of looking at the history of Romano-British Pottery Studies (Colin Wallace). There will also be an evening lecture will be given by Gary Momber of the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology.

Events.
A wine reception will be held on Friday evening at Winchester Museum. On Saturday afternoon Graham Scobie, of Winchester Museum Service, will give a tour of ‘Roman Winchester’. This will be followed by a short talk by Helen Rees and an opportunity to view a range of material from Winchester excavations.

Getting there.
Winchester is approximately 60 minutes from London by road and by rail (Waterloo). The campus is a 15 minute walk from the station and on a good bus route. Maps with directions to the college will be sent out with confirmation of bookings.

Costs. There is a basic conference fee of £10 (payable by all) to cover administrative costs. The total residential cost for accommodation, meals and conference fee is just £106. A day rate is also available (£22 plus registration) and includes all tea/coffee and lunch (on Saturday or Sunday).

Offers of papers, poster displays and all enquiries about booking and accommodation should be directed to:

Kayt Brown, 7 Donnington Grove, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1RW.
e-mail:kayt@kaytb.fsnet.co.uk

Notice Board
All contact details are available on the membership list attached to the end of the Newsletter.

It has been proposed by Bernard Barr that the time may be right for a new samian training course, as several years have passed since the last very successful programme . English Heritage may support this idea if the group can recruit at least twenty-five interested people. It has also been suggested that two levels may be required: ‘beginners’ and ‘further learners’. This training course would be open to both SGRP members and non members, so if you are interested - or know anyone who may be - please forward your details to Bernard as soon as possible.

Maggi Darling is arranging another print run of the ‘Guidelines for the Archiving of Roman Pottery’ 1994. Could any member who would like a paper or e-mail copy of this publication please contact Maggi and let her know. I would also like to remind members an electronic copy of this work is available through the SGRP Website.

Colin Wallace and Scott Martin are editing for publication the session at the Chelmsford Meeting on Unusual Forms in Roman Coarse Pottery. They have prepared a table of the Key Literature, with Bibliography, as part of an introduction to the draft set of papers. Anyone who would like a copy of the Table, for reference and/or to draw attention to items missed, please contact Colin.

I would like to ask all members to consider putting forward their recent research for publication in the SGRP journal (Journal for Roman Pottery Studies). Papers for volumes 12 and 13 are now being considered. Please contact Jude Plouviez if you are interested.

Colin Wallace asks if anyone knows what is happening about publishing the Eccles excavation.

Diana Briscoe asks if anyone with any stamped pottery from the Roman period, whether early or late, could please contact her with details to help her complete her MPhil.

Could I please remind all members to keep us up to date with changes to name and address. If there were any new e-mail addresses out there we would be very happy to receive them, especially as the group now has an electronic distribution list for those extra snippets of information and news. Also could you please check your details – as several e-mail addresses do not work.

SGRP Liverpool Conference 2001
Lecture Synopsis
Recent Work in the Romano-British North West
Rob Philpot
Traditionally the lowland North West has been considered a virtual blank on the map of Roman Britain for rural settlement. Research by Liverpool Museum and others over the last two decades have radically changed this picture. Environmental studies have shown three major woodland clearance episodes in the 1^st millennium BC and earlier 1^st millennium AD with a final phase, possibly corresponding with the Roman period, having a marked rise in cereal pollen. The physical expression of these clearances in settlement terms has now started to emerge. Several Iron Age sites, found through aerial photography as curvilinear enclosures, have now been excavated, and cropmarks are known for a number of untested examples, notably in river valley situations. Perhaps the most important Iron Age site was the port at Meols which has coins of Augustus as well as ‘exotic’ imports such as the coins of the Coriosolitae and a Syrian coin of Tigranes II, indicating long-range contacts in the 1^st centuries BC and AD. The trade in Cheshire salt, charted through the largely coastal distribution of VCP, indicates one product that was probably shipped through Meols.
   The Roman military occupation thus occurred in a context of extensive existing settlement. Romano-British sites in the region are now increasingly well known through aerial photography, systematic plotting of metal finds and fieldwork, and in certain localities they are relatively densely clustered. We now have some idea of rural settlement economies – characterised by activities such as iron smithing, other metalworking, a mixed agricultural regime and low coin use – as well as site chronologies and structural forms. The latter include oval buildings of a distinctive regional type. Pottery use is low by comparison with urban and military centres but is considerably above that of neighbouring regions such as Cumbria and North Wales. A short-lived episode of tile and pottery production occurred at Tarbock, north of the Mersey, probably by a civilian contractor for the XX legion at Chester as attested by tile stamps. Another recent development is the location of new military sites. Amongst these are a series of over a dozen temporary camps near Chester, another camp at Manley and a fortlet at Ince with a superb location overseeing the river Mersey. Work by Gifford and Partners has confirmed a fort at Middlewich providing a military origin for the settlement there. The recent work has reinforced the view of the Mersey/Dee basin as an industrial region with strong military connections.

Pottery supply to rural sites in North Wales and Cumbria
Jerry Evans
The results of this survey suggest that whilst there are many similarities between rural assemblages in north Wales and Cumbria there are also some subtle differences. In both areas pottery usage was low and appears to have been adopted principally in the 2^nd century AD. However, the utilisation of pottery in Cumbria seems to have continued into the later 4^th century, whereas it seems to have ceased earlier in north Wales. Furthermore, potting technology and manufacture appear to have been absorbed effectively into the local culture in Cumbria, but in north Wales this was not the case and as a result nearly all ceramics used on rural sites were imported into the region, or made at regional centres.
   Another contrast is that although BB1 and samian were similarly available in both regions, in Wales they form the vast majority of most assemblages, whereas in Cumbria a much wider range of fabrics are used. It seems likely that this reflects the almost exclusive use of BB1 for cooking vessels in north Wales (and samian for status display) and very little interest in any other Roman ceramics. In contrast the wider range of fabrics found on Cumbrian sites suggests ceramics were used there for more than just cooking, and that they may not have been chiefly used for cooking at all.
   Functional analysis and levels of fine wares from sites in both Cumbria and North Wales suggest that some sites, morphologically little distinguished from the rest, were of higher status, (the presence of other material goods from these sites tends to confirm this). These seem likely to be elite residences, as although hill forts continued to be occupied in north Wales during the Roman period, for example Tre’ Ceiri, there is little evidence of resident elite’s within them.
   Functional analysis also points to a fascinating contrast between the two regions. The low status north Welsh sites have a functional composition directly comparable with those of any other basic level rural site in the province. However the Cumbrian sites, with the exception of the higher status Penrith Farm assemblage, show a remarkably high level of mortaria. Whatever these vessels were used for it is very difficult to imagine that it was for a Roman cuisine. Strangely one high-status Welsh site, Cefn Cwmwd, also exhibits this pattern, but Bryn Eryr, the other high-status site does not.
   Pottery usage in both regions is united in the paucity of the material recovered from sites, and probably in the amount used, with Cumbrian sites often apparently consuming even less material than Welsh sites. Although many Cumbrian data are lacking it would appear that in both regions material incorporated into the archaeological record was severely macerated, with very low average sherd sizes. This may result from most material coming from wall cores, floor surfaces and pits, rather than ditch fills as it tends to on ‘Lowland zone’ basic level rural sites.
   I hope I have suggested that there is a little more potential in the apparently unpromising assemblages from these ‘Highland zone’ sites than is often assumed.


Dating the Lancashire Roads: the samian evidence
Felicity Wild
Ian Rogers has recently argued (Brit. XXVII 1996, 365-8) that the initial route of the Roman conquest of the north-west was not the road up the western edge of the Pennines, (through Manchester and Ribchester), but King Street (which wends through the Lancashire plain). King Street, usually dated later than the western road, linked the estuaries at Wilderspool, Walton-le-Dale and Lancaster and is thought to have been built between the late 1^st and early 2^nd centuries AD. Ian Rogers uses the evidence from recent finds at Middlewich and Wilderspool and the presence of pre-Flavian (pre 69 AD) coins around the estuaries to suggest a military origin for the road but makes no use of the pottery evidence.
   Early Flavian installations can be distinguished from sites of the late 1^st-early 2^nd centuries on the basis of the samian ware, particularly by the presence or absence of form 29. The samian ware assemblages from the sites along King Street were reviewed and the results showed that while those south of Chester and York (Chesterton, Middlewich) produce early Flavian material, those to the north of it (Wilderspool, Wigan, Walton-le-Dale, Lancaster, Watercrook) on the whole do not. Although in the cases of Wilderspool and Lancaster, the position remains slightly equivocal. By contrast, on the western road, both Manchester and Ribchester produce early Flavian samian ware, with the 1989 excavations at Ribchester producing a fair case, on the evidence of samian, coins and dendrochronology, for foundation under Cerialis. Petillus Cerialis campaigned against the Brigantes, using York as his headquarters in AD71.
   It is the opinion of the author, with an absence of fort sites between Middlewich and Lancaster and no sites north of the Mersey producing more than the odd sherd of early Flavian samian, that King Street still seems best regarded as a post-conquest military supply road.


The Study Group Website
Ted Connell
See www.sgrp.org

Pottery from Recent Excavations at Pompeii
Jane Timby
In collaboration with the Soprintendenza di Pompeii and initially the University of Naples, the department of archaeology, Reading University undertook an excavation at Pompeii between 1995 and 1999. Surprisingly there has been until very recently no proper stratigraphic excavation, both of the AD 79 levels and below to understand the history of development of any one area or property. The work identified two properties, Houses 11 and 12 in Insula 9 as having considerable potential for further study. The complex consists of two units, which seem to have been connected through much of their development. At the time of the eruption House 11 functioned as a wine bar. In the atrium of House 12 there were the remains of dozens of amphora, arranged in tidy rows. Most of these were Cretan wine amphora and at least 75 individual vessels can be recognised. In addition examples of Italian and Aegean Dressel 2-4 and other types were present. The atrium of House 12 thus seems to have been a storage area for the wine served at the bar of House 11. Behind the bar in House 11 were more amphorae, this time stacked upside down and therefore presumably empties. These included Cretan, Aegean, Italian and possibly Palestinian types. Three amphorae were marked with the same name, Sex Pompeii Amaranti who was probably the proprietor.
   Once the AD 79 levels had been cleared the excavations continued down in the area of the garden in House 11 and in smaller areas in House 12. The excavations proved that the houses in their present form were constructed in the later 1^st century BC. Occupation on the site eventually went back to the 6^th/5^thcentury BC.
   In total 31,500 pottery sherds weighing 558 kg were processed. These were divided into four groups: amphorae, tableware, coarse/cooking ware and fine wares. Previous pottery work at Pompeii has been very much divided up between specialists focussing on specific elements of the assemblage, particularly the fine and traded wares. The aim of the present study is to give an overview of an assemblage from one particular site through time using quantitative methods. Not only it is hoped that this will enable broad economic patterns to be revealed but will provide a detailed pattern of the ceramic variability to be found in the two selected properties.

Three experimental Kiln Firings
Chris Lydamore
A series of three experimental Romano-British type kiln firings were carried out at Harlow Museum to investigate the degree to which a secondary lining of a kiln will protect an oxidised primary lining from a subsequent firing under reducing conditions.
   The kiln was dug into a gently sloping (1 in 9) paddock and consisted of a circular combustion chamber approximately 75cm in diameter with a central pedestal 35cm high supporting a temporary floor of peg tiles laid over mild steel kiln bars. The firing chamber was 50cm high and was constructed of turf cut during the excavation of the stoke hole. The whole of the interior of the kiln was then lined with well-puddled sandy clay mixed with grass.
   The Kiln was initially fired and re-lined in September 2000 then left to over winter in an unprotected condition until May 2001 when it was fired twice in quick succession, firstly under oxidising and then under reducing conditions.
   The third firing was only partially successful as, although all the pots were fired, we failed to achieve reduction. However, upon examination of the secondary lining it was noted that its inner surface (i.e. that surface in contact with the initial lining) was clearly still unfired clay. Although we had failed to achieve reduction it is still arguable that, given the unfired inner surface of the secondary lining, a primary oxidised lining could be protected from subsequent reduction by a secondary lining.

* This includes 8.4 kg of green wood used to create a reducing atmosphere

A further programme of experimental firings to further test this theory is planned for spring/summer 2002.

I would like to thank Mr Bernard Barr for his willing assistance and advice throughout these experiments and especially for his information on his Bromley Hall Farm excavations (kiln 1), which provided the original inspiration for the firings.

Synopsis of ‘Much Hadham revisited.’
By Kay Hartley, Bernard Barr and Val Rigby
The excavations in 1968 were set up by the Ministry of Works following the discovery of pottery and tile kilns at Bromley Hall Farm by Bernard Barr and the late Eric Stacey. The first fortnight was spent sectioning a huge pit close to the multi-layered kiln excavated in 1964 from which masses of pottery and two small dome fragments with grass-markings were recovered. The line of the road, that was known to cross the site, was also explored. After Tony Clark carried out a magnetometer survey the plough-soil (c.10") was stripped from an area of high magnetic activity measuring 60ft by 60ft. This revealed an expanse of pottery waste (mainly oxidised with some reduced ware) mixed with very little soil that covered the whole area and continued outside it in all directions. About two inches below the cleaned surface two kilns (A and B) were found as well as the road, which skirted the area to the north-west. Both kilns and the eastern roadside ditch had been cut into the spread of pottery waste.
   Both kilns were of the same basic type, oval, with very short flue and no indication of pedestal or of kiln bars, the walls were extremely thin without any of the clay backing one normally expects. A fragment of 4th century glass and two 4th century coins, one dated c.367 were found in the filling of kiln B, also an early 4th century coin was recovered from the pottery waste into which the kiln had been cut. Kiln B was the more complete and probably the later of the two. Three other coins dated c. AD 367 came from the pottery waste adjacent to the kilns. Kiln A had been reduced in antiquity, but enough of the walls and floors survived to show its close similarity to the multi-layered kiln (re-lined 8 times), excavated by Bernard Barr in 1964. A coin of cad 335-337 was associated with Kiln A. A minimal amount of pottery directly associated with the kilns was recovered, largely due to the insubstantial nature of their stokeholes. However, the coins leave no doubt that the activity here was 4th century in date. Kiln B at least could belong to the second half of the 4th century, possibly about AD367 or later. The road also appears to be 4th century, its ditch cut through the deposit of waste pottery where it was thinning out.
   A fragment from an earlier kiln was discovered beneath Kiln A. This kiln appeared to be in situ and was associated mainly reduced ware. The 4th century road and road-ditch had cut through a second deposit of similar reduced ware that was either part of a kiln or a pit. Both deposits gave every indication of containing abundant waste pottery. Lack of time meant that neither deposit was excavated, but enough was recovered to show that the production included platters copying Gallo-Belgic imports dated by Val Rigby within the period AD75-150/200 and by parallels at Baldock and Skeleton Green, Puckeridge, Herts.
   The 4th century products of Hadham are common at Baldock, Herts that is approximately 20kms distant on the main east-west route from Camulodunum to Ermine Street and Watling Street. They were grouped in Fabric 7 of the site fabric series where it is described as ‘a group of even textured sand-tempered wares made from iron-rich clays kiln-fired to produce a range of self-coloured reduced light grey and, more rarely, oxidised orange-red wares. Red, white, grey and black firing slips were also applied to some (Stead and Rigby 1986, 262). Fabric 7 proved to be one of the earliest, common and persistent fabric groups produced using Roman manufacturing techniques, flourishing from the Flavian to the late Antonine periods and then re-emerging in the 4th century. In the 1^st and 2^nd centuries AD the form range is wide and includes close copies of Gaulish prototypes foot-ring cups and platters, Butt Beakers, narrow-necked and wide-mouthed carinated beakers. Also an unusual range of fancy vessels with incised ornament particularly lozenges of stamping or rouletting (Stead and Rigby 1986, figs. 101-2, nos. 10, 12, 14-6). The platters and fancy decorated vessels are indistinguishable from the few sherds recovered from earlier contexts at Hadham and it therefore seems probable that at least some vessels in Fabric 7 were made at Hadham. The late Iron Age and Roman settlement at Skeleton Green, Puckeridge, Herts, provides supporting evidence as identical parallels to these early products were found in cremation burials there. Since Hadham is just 5kms distant it could have been the ‘local pottery’ for much of the Roman period (Partridge 1981, fig.92-7, nos. 38-41, 44-8, 53-8). Presumably road communication with Baldock was good, taking no more than half a day by cart, so providing a large market for Hadham products.
   Evidence for 7 pottery kilns (4, B. Barr, 3 K.F.H) and 2 tile kilns has now been found and the importance of the Hadham industries is not in doubt. There is, however, no evidence to show that mortarium production was of similar importance to that of other coarse wares. A small number of 2nd century mortaria including mortaria with block-stamps, are believed to have been made there, though no mortaria of this date have yet been found on the production site. 3^rd-4^th century mortaria in a finer fabric have been found at the site and had a distribution of moderate importance mainly in Hertfordshire and Essex. The similarity of most of these mortaria to red-slipped Oxford mortaria attests a link with the Oxford potters.
   For a published note on oxidised wares attributed to the Hadham industries see Going 1999; the mortaria are not mentioned here, but are in the main mortarium catalogue.
   Bibliography
C.J. Going, ‘Oxidised Hadham wares’ in Robin P. Symonds and S. Wade, Roman Pottery from excavations in Colchester, 1971-86 (eds. P. Bidwell and A. Croom). Colchester Arch Trust. 297-304.
Partridge, Clive, Skeleton Green: a Late Iron Age and Romano-British Site. British Monograph Series no. 2. 1981. Gloucester.
Stead and Rigby 1989: I.M. Stead and V. Rigby, Verulamium: the King Harry Lane site. English heritage Arch. Rep. No. 12. London, 1989

Hadham Revisited 3
Bernard Barr
A newly discovered Roman pottery kiln at Plashes Farm, near Standon, Hertfordshire was briefly described. The kiln was a twin flue up-draught type that yielded less than a kilogram of pottery. The two largest sherds were of a ‘Braughing’ cooking pot and a bowl, with a handful of pot lid fragments and date to approximately AD 100 (Scott Martin pers com.). This kiln lies some 1600 metres west of the known main concentration of Hadham ware kilns and may be a forerunner of the later industry.
   In marked contrast the first kiln excavated, together the first waste dump yielding 458Kg of pottery, and of possible mid-3^rd century AD date, was also described. The pottery was produced in a variety of forms and mainly in two fabrics. The predominant grey ware fabrics may, on occasion be confused with Alice Holt products. Reference was made to wasters of a rare Hadham Ware vessel decorated with a stamped swastika and ovolo design, similar to Roman Colchester, 247, fig 111, 4. Much of the so-called ‘Romano-Saxon’ pottery noted by J.N.L. Myers in Dark Age Britain was made elsewhere on the site. Attention was drawn to the production of straight-sided flanged bowls with an internal wavy, or arcaded, line decoration similar to those produced at the Crambeck kilns. The Hadham kilns also produced a number of flagons decorated with mould made face masks, three and a quarter of these moulds have been found on the kiln site.

Late Roman Pottery in Scottish contexts – does it mean anything yet?
Colin Wallace
After the end of the Severan occupation of Lowland Scotland in the early 3^rd century AD, Roman material culture in the form of pottery vessels continued to reach points north of Hadrian’s wall. Scottish sites have produced, like others in Atlantic Britain, Really Late Roman pottery of the 5^th to 7^th centuries AD that demonstrates connections with the south of Britain and the Mediterranean. These connections – however expressed in terms of ‘trade’ or ‘exchange’ – brought in first red-slipped wares and Eastern amphora and later Gaulish coarseware containers and glass beakers.
   What my research (supported by the Antiquaries of Scotland) has focussed on is something else however- later 3^rd to 4^th century pottery. Pieces characteristic of southern Late Roman assemblages are to be found: red-slipped wares from Oxfordshire and (perhaps) North Africa and black-slipped wares from the Lower Nene Valley, perhaps with some accompanying northern coarsewares. From this and other evidence like coin hoards and the Traprain Treasure, it can be argued that the South of Scotland in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries belonged – in ways that present themselves as extremely simplified, but informative if the pseudo-historical approach to the archaeology is abandoned – to a roman Britain. Long live Cycles.
Paul Buckland

Stirred, not shaken: Roman cocktails and fancy food
Edward Biddulph
Constant use of a vessel eventually removes its surface. If the same regular process is applied on a single vessel, a wear pattern will emerge. Identification of wear patterns is therefore crucial for assigning functions to specific vessel types. Samian is probably the best pottery to use, since wear is clearly seen and the range of vessels is sufficiently wide to reveal information about a variety of household settings. The large samian assemblage from Heybridge, Essex, totalling 5000 sherds, provides an excellent sample.
   Wear patterns noted on bowl forms, particularly the f38, suggest that these forms had preparatory functions, perhaps serving as mixing bowls or mortars. Preservation of samian mortaria at Elms Farm was poor. Although many mortaria sherds were recovered, no vessel was near or fully complete, and wear patterns could not be fully identified. However, a good wear pattern was present on a Nene Valley colour-coated ware copy of samian mortaria f45. The interior surface was not entirely utilised, however, with the wear concentrated in one area on the vessel wall towards the spout, perhaps indicating that the vessel was tilted during mixing.
   Two cup forms, f27 and f33, were particularly strong in wear pattern evidence, with many examples displaying very consistent patterns. The pattern noted on f27 cups is centrally placed on the interior surface of the base. In some examples, the wear extends to the lower wall. Form 33 cups tend to have a ring of wear at the junction of the base and wall. The remarkable aspect about both forms is their consistency. The wear suggests that f33 cups were used differently from f27’s. In the kitchen, spices or herbs might have been placed inside f27s and ground. In the dining room, the cup may have contained foodstuffs, which required the use of a spoon. The f33 was a drinking vessel. Its wear pattern suggests that the form was repeatedly subjected to a single process, such as stirring. Hot beverages may have been sweetened with honey, or ingredients added to the cup to create something akin to a modern cocktail. The regular occurrence of the wear ring in the f33 cup suggests that the form was indelibly associated with a specific function or drink, just as a modern wine-glass or whisky tumbler are defined by their shape and tend to contain only those beverages.

Cretarii et Salinarii: a tale of two industries?
James Gerrard
This paper argued that we currently understand the distribution of Romano-British pottery in terms of formalist economics. Essentially capitalist models are imposed on Roman economic history but their historiographical origins remain untheorized. These models constrain Romano-British ceramic production within the twin dates of AD43 and AD410. By altering our theoretical perspectives it can be suggested that the end of Romano-British pottery production need not have been a sudden event in the early fifth century AD.
   An economic model based on the primacy of taxation and estate production was suggested as an alternative means of explaining the distribution of South East Dorset Black Burnished Ware. A link between pottery and salt production in Poole Harbour was claimed and the importance of salt to agricultural economies explored. It was further argued that the use of salt as a preservative enabled the extraction of an agricultural surplus from SW England to feed the garrison on Hadrian’s Wall. SEDBB1 was postulated as parasitic on the movement of this tax in kind and its disappearance from northern military sites c. AD350 associated with a change in the way tax was extracted from southern Britain. This model, rather than one based on markets and military contracts, provides a trajectory from which possible 5^th century pottery production can be explored.

Alice Lyons, Hon Secretary SGRP, Norfolk Archaeological Unit, Spire House, 
13-15 Cathedral Street, Norwich NR1 1LU
Tel: 01603 878219  E-mail: alice.lyons.mus@norfolk .gov.uk

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