Romano-British Pottery was produced from the 1st through the 5th centuries AD in Britain, during the period of occupation by the Roman Empire. [1] Before the invasion of the Romans, pottery in Britain was handmade and fired in a bonfire. The Romans introduced the new technology of fast potters wheels and kilns for firing. The newer manufacturing methods resulted in a pottery that was different from the previous period's pottery. Romano-British pottery has a thinner, harder and smoother fabric than both Iron Age (800 BC–100 AD) and Anglo-Saxon pottery (500–1066 AD). [2]
This is a partial list of Romano-British pottery.
Pottery Name | Time period | Characteristics | Origin | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|
Black-burnished ware | 2nd to 4th centuries CE | Two classes of wares: I and II | Dorset area and Thames Estuary [3] | ![]() |
Crambeck Ware | 4th century AD | One of two main Romano-British pottery industries in Yorkshire | Crambeck, Yorkshire [4] | ![]() |
Dales ware | 3rd to 4th centuries AD | Used often as burial urns | South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire [5] | ![]() |
Hadham Red ware | 2nd to 4th centuries AD | Used often as burial urns | Cambridgeshire [2] [6] | ![]() |
Huntcliff ware | 4th to early 5th centuries AD | Used often as burial urns | East Yorkshire [7] | ![]() |
Nene Valley Colour Coated Ware | 2nd to 4th centuries AD | Barbotine-type decoration | Lower Nene Valley [8] | |
Oxfordshire colour coated ware | 3rd to 4th centuries AD | Produced in Oxfordshire, distributed across Britain | East Anglia [9] | ![]() |
Vectis ware | 2nd to 5th centuries AD | Production began prior to Roman occupation | Isle of Wight [10] | |
The Jutes were one of the Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the departure of the Romans. According to Bede, they were one of the three most powerful Germanic nations, along with the Angles and the Saxons:
Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to the Isle of Wight.
Terra sigillata is a term with at least three distinct meanings: as a description of medieval medicinal earth; in archaeology, as a general term for some of the fine red Ancient Roman pottery with glossy surface slips made in specific areas of the Roman Empire; and more recently, as a description of a contemporary studio pottery technique supposedly inspired by ancient pottery. Usually roughly translated as 'sealed earth', the meaning of 'terra sigillata' is 'clay bearing little images', not 'clay with a sealed (impervious) surface'. The archaeological term is applied, however, to plain-surfaced pots as well as those decorated with figures in relief, because it does not refer to the decoration but to the makers stamp impressed in the bottom of the vessel.
Badbury Rings is an Iron Age hill fort and Scheduled Monument in east Dorset, England. It was in the territory of the Durotriges. In the Roman era a temple was located immediately west of the fort, and there was a Romano-British town known as Vindocladia a short distance to the south-west.
Sub-Roman Britain is the period of late antiquity in Great Britain between the end of Roman rule and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. The term was originally used to describe archaeological remains found in 5th- and 6th-century AD sites that hinted at the decay of locally made wares from a previous higher standard under the Roman Empire. It is now used to describe the period that commenced with the recall of Roman troops to Gaul by Constantine III in 407 and to have concluded with the Battle of Deorham in 577.
Michael Gordon Fulford, is a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in the British Iron Age, Roman Britain and landscape archaeology. He has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading since 1993.
Prehistoric Orkney refers only to the prehistory of the Orkney archipelago of Scotland that begins with human occupation. Although some records referring to Orkney survive that were written during the Roman invasions of Scotland, “prehistory” in northern Scotland is defined as lasting until the start of Scotland's Early Historic Period.
African red slip ware or Phoenician Red Slip ware, is a category of terra sigillata, or "fine" Phoenician pottery produced from the 7th century BC into the 7th century in the province of Africa Proconsularis, specifically that part roughly coinciding with the modern country of Tunisia and the Diocletianic provinces of Byzacena and Zeugitana. It is distinguished by a thick-orange red slip over a slightly granular fabric. Interior surfaces are completely covered, while the exterior can be only partially slipped, particularly on later examples.
Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. It is found all over the former Roman Empire and beyond. Monte Testaccio is a huge waste mound in Rome made almost entirely of broken amphorae used for transporting and storing liquids and other products – in this case probably mostly Spanish olive oil, which was landed nearby, and was the main fuel for lighting, as well as its use in the kitchen and washing in the baths.
Dales ware is a type of pottery produced in the South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire areas of England and widely distributed across northern Britain during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
Black-burnished ware is a type of Romano-British ceramic. Burnishing is a pottery treatment in which the surface of the pot is polished, using a hard smooth surface. The classification includes two entirely different pottery types which share many stylistic characteristics. Black burnished ware 1 (BB1), is a black, coarse and gritty fabric. Vessels are hand made. Black burnished ware 2 (BB2) is a finer, grey-coloured, wheel thrown fabric.
The Shorwell helmet is an Anglo-Saxon helmet from the early to mid-sixth century AD found near Shorwell on the Isle of Wight in southern England. It was one of the grave goods of a high-status Anglo-Saxon warrior, and was found with other objects such as a pattern-welded sword and hanging bowl. One of only six known Anglo-Saxon helmets, alongside those found at Benty Grange (1848), Sutton Hoo (1939), Coppergate (1982), Wollaston (1997), and Staffordshire (2009), it is the sole example to derive from the continental Frankish style rather than the contemporaneous Northern "crested helmets" used in England and Scandinavia.
Redware as a single word is a term for at least two types of pottery of the last few centuries, in Europe and North America. Red ware as two words is a term used for pottery, mostly by archaeologists, found in a very wide range of places. However, these distinct usages are not always adhered to, especially when referring to the many different types of pre-colonial red wares in the Americas, which may be called "redware".
Nene Valley Colour Coated Ware is a type of Romano-British ceramic produced in the lower Nene Valley centred on Durobrivae from the mid-2nd to 4th centuries AD. The closest city is Peterborough, which vies with Northampton, Wisbech and London museums as a main repository and exhibition location of finds, arguably the most impressive of which are at the British Museum. The name of this type of ceramic is often abbreviated to NVCC.
Crambeck Ware is a type of Romano-British ceramic produced in North Yorkshire primarily in the 4th century AD.
Shelly ware, is a type of pottery found in Great Britain from the seventh through the twelfth centuries. Shelly ware includes Late Saxon Shelly ware, Early Medieval Shelly Ware, and Lincolnshire Shelly Wares. The pottery fabric is tempered with shell powder or reduced shell. Shelly ware was typically handmade until the tenth century, when potters transitioned to wheel-thrown pottery. Shelly wares were manufactured and distributed in the Upper Thames Valley, southeastern coastal areas of Britain and the East Midlands.
Surrey whiteware or Surrey white ware, is a type of lead-glazed pottery produced in England from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The white-fired sandy earthenware was produced largely from kilns in Surrey and along the Surrey-Hampshire border. Surrey whitewares were the most commonly used pottery in London during the late medieval period. There are four classes of Surrey whiteware: Kingston-type, Coarse Border ware, Cheam whiteware and Tudor Green ware.
Border ware is a type of post-medieval British pottery commonly used in the South of England, London and then later in the early American colonies beginning in the sixteenth and ending in the nineteenth century with a height of popularity and production in the seventeenth century. The lead-glazed, sandy earthenware was produced from kilns along the border between Hampshire and Surrey. There are two classes of Border ware, fine whitewares and fine redwares.
Vectis ware is the pottery produced on the Isle of Wight during the Roman period.
Ipswich ware is a type of Anglo-Saxon pottery produced in Britain between the eighth and ninth centuries AD. Manufactured in the Ipswich, Suffolk area, it is considered to be the first wheel-turned and mass-produced pottery in post-Roman Britain. The pottery is a simple, hard grey ware with little or no decoration. Most vessel types include jars, cooking pots and decorated pitchers. Ipswich ware was distributed primarily in eastern Britain, but was also traded in smaller numbers from Kent north to York and west to Oxfordshire.