The Roman Pottery Manufacturing Site in Highgate Wood: Excavations 1966-78

Description

Excavations over a period of eight years uncovered at least ten pottery kilns, waster heaps, ditches and pits, but only a few definite structures. The pottery from the site indicates a period of operation extending from the first half of the 1st century AD to the later 2nd century. The pottery made at the site included initially a vegetable tempered handmade ware, but subsequently the bulk of it consisted of a grog tempered ware and then pottery in a sandy fabric which is well known from assemblages in London. The type of kiln varied with the pottery fabric; there was possible evidence for a pre-Roman pit firing, and later kilns set in ditches were of the twin flued type, eventually replaced by the more familiar above ground kilns with raised floors. Changes in pottery fabric were reflected in different methods of clay preparation, which led to changes in the function of the various ditches, the stratigraphy of which, along with the variation in the fabrics, was significant in enabling the four broad phases into which the site has been divided, to be proposed. The report includes a very detailed analysis of the forms and fabrics of the pottery made at Highgate. Finds of prehistoric flintwork and pottery during the excavation, and of material of later date, together with the observation of earthworks and historical research, have been used to show the place of the pottery kilns as an element in the exploitation of the woodland of northern London over the last eight thousand years. Table of Contents Part I: The Excavations 1. Introduction 2. The Excavation Part II: Highgate Wood, wider aspects 3. Evidence for other pottery making sites in or near Highgate Wood 4. Highgate Wood before and after the Roman potters Part III: The Pottery 5. The pottery from Highgate Wood 6. Analysis of the excavated pottery 7. Terra Sigillata 8. The Mortaria 9. Potter’s stamp on grey ware (no. 1245) 10. The Hercules Medallion in sigillée claire B (no. 1056) 11. Report on a Spouted Strainer Bowl (no.1049) 12. The reconstruction of vessel no. 174 13. Petrographic Analysis of Roman Pottery 14. Chemical Characterization of Pottery by ICPS 15. The Baked Clay Objects Part IV: The Other Finds 16. The Metal Small Finds 17. The Stone Artifacts 18. The Glass 19. Highgate Wood and Queen’s Wood: The Flintwork 20. The Prehistoric Pottery 21. Biological Remains Bibliography