The Portable Antiquities Scheme

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A group of pottery from a pottery production site at Legsby, Lincolnshire. Report by Ian Rowlinson.

A small group of Roman pottery from Legsby was presented to the author for comment by Adam Daubney (Portable Antiquities Scheme) after being found after dredging a ditch. This group consists of six large greyware sherds all weighing above 190g that can be dated to the later 2^nd to 3^rd century including a nearly complete carinated beaker which has been burnished externally. Carinated beaker and bowl forms were a common product of the pottery kilns in the area around Market Rasen. Parallels for this vessel include an example illustrated from North Row, Lincoln (Webster 1949, Fig. 14.81) and a similar vessel found at Tealby containing a hoard of 6,000 silver pennies of Henry II, probably a re-used waster from one of the Roman pottery kilns in the Market Rasen area (Samuels 1983, Fig. 13. 4).

The vessel from Legsby is a later variant on the more common 2^nd century form that was manufactured by a number of pottery industries in Lincolnshire (eg. Darling 1999, Fig. 29. 98, Darling 1984, Fig. 16. 94). The Legsby example also has a small cross incised below the carination prior to firing, probably a batch mark. Of the remaining pottery in the group three of the sherds in a local GREY fabric, including fragments from a wide-mouthed bowl and the base of a jar, show signs of dunting (cracking caused by rapid cooling) and spalling. The fabric of these sherds is similar to those produced by the local Market Rasen industry which was sited on similar geological deposits as the find spot. As sherds in this group shows signs of misfiring and the fragments are large and fresh it suggests they are from a dump of kiln waste. The find spot is near a number of kilns in the Market Rasen area recorded by Swan (1984) and it appears highly likely that this group is from a further kiln in the parish of Legsby in the vicinity of the findspot .

References

Darling, M.J., 1999, Roman Pottery, in C. Colyer, B.J.J. Gilmour & M.J. Jones, The Defences of the Lower City. Excavations at The Park and West Parade 1970-2, CBA Research Report 114, 52-135.

Darling, M. J., 1984, Roman Pottery from the Upper Defences, The Archaeology of Lincoln, 16/2.

Samuels, J., 1983, The Production of Roman Pottery in the East Midlands, Unpublished PhD, Nottingham University.

Swan, V.G., 1984, The pottery kilns of Roman Britain, RCHM Suppl. Ser, 5, HMSO, London.

Webster, G., 1949, The legionary fortress at Lincoln, J Roman Stud, 39, 57-80.

No references cited so far.

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Created: Wednesday 25th January 2012
Updated: Friday 27th January 2012