Fabric and technology
Drab cream fabric, often friable and powdery, with moderate fine quartz; quartz and red-brown and black grits. Wheel-thrown.
Forms
Mortaria with low bead and curved flange.
Stamps
Several named potters are known; also a series of illiterate stamps (e.g.Walker 1958)
| Potter | Date |
|---|---|
| DECANIUS | 110-160 |
| DOCI .. | 140-170 |
| MELUS ii | 110-150 |
| VITALIS iii | 100-150 |
Table 1. Principal Wroxeter mortarium potters
Chronology
AD 100-70. There is earlier production associated with the legionary fortress (Darling 1977, fig.6.7, 44-5).
Source
Wroxeter.
Distribution
The west Midlands and Wales, with occasional examples in the northern frontier zone, perhaps carried by individuals from Wroxeter.
Aliases
Caersws mortarium fabrics 2 and 6. Gloucester fabric TF9G. JRPS bibliography fabric wxm. Usk mortarium fabric 19.
Bibliography
The principal Wroxeter potters are described in Britnell 1989, 122-3; Manning 1993, 420.
References
Britnell 1989. Britnell, J., Caersws Vicus, Powys. Excavations at the Old Primary School, 1985-86, British archaeological reports. British series, 205, BAR, Oxford, (1989).
Darling 1977. Darling, M. J., ‘Pottery from early military sites in Western Britain’ in Roman pottery studies in Britain and beyond Papers presented to J. P. Gillam, July 1977, ed. J. Dore and K. T. Greene, British archaeological reports. International series, 30, BAR, Oxford, (1977), pp. 57-100.
Manning 1993. Manning, W. H., The Roman pottery, Report on the excavations at Usk, 1965-1976, University of Wales Press [for] the Board of Celtic Studies of the University of Wales, Cardiff, (1993).
Walker 1958. Walker, I., ‘Excavations on a Romano-British site at Astley, 1956-68’, TWorcsAS, 35, (1958), pp. 29-57.
