A Further Vessel by the Aldgate-Pulborough PotterAuthor(s): Julian BennettSource: Britannia, Vol. 9 (1978), pp. 393-394Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/525955 .

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Notes

A Further Vessel by the Aldgate-Pulborough Potter' Mr Julian Bennett writes: One of the few pot- ters producing samian ware in Britain was that known as the Aldgate-Pulborough Potter, whose work was first identified by Dr Grace Simpson2 and has more recently been considered by Peter Webster. During a recent examination of the samian collected from the Roman town site of Abonae (Sea Mills, near Bristol),4 one large sherd representing a further vessel by this potter was identified, thus extending the series previously published.

The sherd itself was collected by Arthur Selley, a noted local antiquary, between June 1924 and January 1926 from an unspecified site within the Roman settlement. It is in a fabric similar to the material discussed in Simpson 1952 and Webster 1975, a deep orange-red in colour, and charac-

15 FIG. I. A further vessel by the Aldgate-Pulborough

Potter. Scale I: 2 except ovolo at I: I.

teristically heavy for its size, due to semi-vitrifica- tion through over-firing. The slip is a dull red, with an egg-shell texture, again due to over- firing. As with other products by this potter, the surface decoration is blurred and smudged, while at least three of the decorative details have been superimposed in the mould. Other surface blem- ishes include the potter's own fingerprints, sur- viving both on the inside of the vessel and around

the footring. The piece is, however, technically better than some other examples of this potter's workmanship (e.g. Simpson 1952, fig. 5, Nos. 4 and 5) and is amongst his best (e.g. Simpson 1952, fig. 5, 2).

The vessel represented is a form Dr. 30o and, following Webster 1975, is here given the number 15 to continue the single series for the products of this potter. It bears a simple, small ovolo, but insufficient survives to determine if this was im- pressed by means of a poingon or a roulette; the former is more likely, as the other ovolos of this potter seem to have been impressed thus (cf. Simpson 1952, 69; and Webster z975, 164-65). The ovolo itself is of a new type and, following Webster 1975, is here designated Type c. The main decoration is in free style, and surmounted by this potter's normal wavy-line border. Two of the figure types present are known on a Dr. 37 of his, the cloaked rider and the lion,5 respectively Dechelette i58 = Oswald 249 and D. 736 =

O. I378. A further new type is represented by the back- or fore-feet of a running animal, but in- sufficient survives to determine the exact type. The Aldgate-Pulborough Potter is known to have extensively used the figure-types of Attianus,6 and this may just be the running hound used by him.7 Two new decorative details are also present, but neither is clear enough to allow adequate identification. The first, below the lion, could be an imitation of the six-leaved motif used by Dru- sus II,8 a further potter copied by the Aldgate- Pulborough maker,9 while the second, an L- shaped motif below the main decorative scheme, defies interpretation.

The decorative details, fabric and poor tech- nique and finishing of this piece indicate that it represents a new vessel by the Aldgate-Pulborough Potter. Simpson and Webster, in summarizing the evidence, have made it clear that this potter had copied the main figure-types used by certain Central Gaulish potters of the early second cen-

393

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394 NOTES

tury, and had attempted to start his own officinae in Britain to capitalise on the increasing demand for this ware at that time. Closer analysis of the motifs used suggests that he was principally active c. I20-150, and a similar date is applicable to another attempt to produce samian in this coun- try, represented by the mould of the potter X-3, at York.o0 Interestingly, a similar early second century date is applicable to moulded coarse wares made in this country in Oxfordshire" and Wiltshire.12 To return to the Sea Mills sherd, how- ever, this is of interest not only in representing a further vessel by this itinerant potter, but in showing how well distributed his products are. The concentration of finds in the south and south- east, at Aldgate, Pulborough, Silchester, Chiches- ter and Wiggonholt clearly indicate the main market, but the presence of this new sherd at Sea Mills confirms that he had 'some apprecia- tion of the needs of the Romano-British market', and although technically erratic and inferior, was able to capitalise on the market for samian ware.

Dept. of Archaeology, Durham University

An Unusual Late Roman Mortarium from Caistor by Yarmouth, Norfolk Mr Paul Arthur and Dr David Williams write: Fulford has recently published evidence for a

sifinigcant amount of late Roman ceramic impor- tation into the Romano-British provinces from Gaul and the Rhineland,' whilst other workers have drawn attention to late imports from further afield, notably Tunisia.2

An internally glazed mortarium, excavated at Caistor by Yarmouth by the late Charles Green in

1952, can now be added to the growing list of late Roman imports. Although, by itself, it provides little justification to be regarded as an article of trade, its possible source as suggested by the typo- logical and petrological evidence offered below is

interesting. Pending the full publication of the Caistor excavations3 the find cannot be examined in it sfull context. However, it is referred to in the site notebook as SF 1570, and comes from Room I of a rectangular building, beneath a burnt wattle partition-wall. It was associated with many coins of the House of Constantine.

The vessel (FIG. 2, No. I) is a deep-bowled

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FIG. 2. Internally-glazed mortaria. (I) From Caistor by Yarmouth; (2) from the Mooseberg, near Murnau (after

Garsbch, 1966, Taf. 48, No. I3). Scale, I: 4.

mortarium with a maximum external diameter of about 290 mm. The fabric is hard-fired and ranges from orange to dark buff and light brown, some of the reduction possibly having been caused by later subjection to fire. The vessel dis- plays fettling marks around the base and has wet finger slurry marks on the exterior surface. There is an internal lead glaze which, in most areas, comes to the bead of the mortarium but does not run over the top and onto the flange. Beneath the glaze are rounded white quartzite trituration- grits which are present two-thirds of the way up the interior surface. The lead glaze is thick and varies from a light green to a dark treacle brown. Round spots of glaze are visible on the exterior of the vessel. Even though no spout remains amongst the sherds recovered, it is likely that the mortarium was originally spouted.

The closest parallels to the Caistor mortarium are found distributed throughout Hungary, Aus- tria, Switzerland, southern Germany, northern Italy and northern Yugoslavia. Garbsch illus- trates a large number of such vessels from the

Mooseberg near Murnau4 (FIG. 2, No. 2), which lies between the Danube tributaries of the Lech and Isar, south-west of Munich. Associated coins were mainly of the fourth century, ending with

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