| Abstract: |
The studies explore possibilities, define problems and suggest areas for future research. A C Renfrew (1-20) considers production and exchange in early state societies and points to the value of combining laboratory studies of the Peacock school with economic, ethnological and spatial interpretations. D P S Peacock (21-33) considers the objectives of studying Roman and medieval ceramics, how to integrate scientific and conventional archaeological approaches, and how to reorientate pottery records to provide the information now required of them (rather than undigested catalogues). M Fulford (35-84) presents the evidence for later Roman pottery trade and its routes: three major fabric types were imported from Gaul and Germany (Argonne, middle Rhenish coarse, and 'à l'éponge' ware from the Poitiers area), while two British ones (Oxfordshire and Dorset black-burnished) were exported from about 250 to 400 AD; comparisons with trade in perishables and with coin evidence are of interest. N Loughlin (85-146) provides a detailed study of Dales ware and Dales type vessels, including petrology, which demonstrates this as a standardized commercial product probably made in N Lincolnshire c 200-375, and showing variable marketing patterns. Peacock (147-62) has identified at least seven fabrics in the Pompeian Red ware found in Britain, and suggested possible sources (including Colchester) for six of them. These are individually datable within the period early 1st century BC to late Flavian and beyond. In a study of RB black-burnished wares D F Williams (163-220) has performed heavy mineral analyses of 300 samples from many different sites and defined twenty-four separate groups from their distinctive mineral suites. Although Dorset was the major source of BB1, a number of other centres also produced it; BB2, made largely at Colchester, was also produced at numerous Kentish sites. David Hinton (221-38) sketches the history of the study of coarse wares of 12th to 15th centuries and points out some problems with particular reference to the Oxford region. A study to determine the relative usefulness of different methods of producing the basic data for future studies concluded that weighing was preferable to sherd count or volume. R Hodges (239-55) makes an archaeological assessment of the vessels connected with the early French wine trade with Britain, arising out of his identification of thirty different 8th and 9th century imported fabrics at Hamwih (Southampton). Imports in 10th and 11th centuries are rare but the trade began again in 12th with new patterns of distribution. Alan Vince discusses (257-305) the 12th to 17th century wares whose thin sections betray a Malvernian source, and provides a gazetteer of sites with Malvernian pottery, bricks and tiles. Hinton's second contribution (307-12) is a brief survey of fashions in floor tiles. Finally C J Arnold (313-36) provides an economic study from port records and other documents of the clay pipe industry in Southampton, 1706-72 (including exports to the American colonies and Europe) and of actual pipe makers 1618-1914. However, few Southampton pipes are identified in excavated material. |
