The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 128 • Colin Haselgrove
distribution, although by the end of the period potters in the Wareham-Poole Harbour (Dorset)
area were supplying highly standardized wares to most of the surrounding region. In much of
Britain, however, localized manufacture remained the norm until the Roman conquest.
The introduction of the fast potter’s wheel in the late second century BC led to the appearance
in eastern and southern England of curvaceous new ceramic forms with horizontal grooves or
raised cordons. Not all areas adopted the new technology, and traditional handmade vessels often
continued in use alongside finer, wheel-thrown forms. When Roman pottery began to be imported
in quantity after c.20 BC, the new shapes—beakers, cups, dishes, flagons, lids and platters—were
quickly copied. Although domestic ovens are common on settlements, there is no firm evidence
for pre-Roman pottery kilns in Britain, and even wheel-thrown vessels were probably fired in
simple bonfire-clamps.
Bronze luxury goods were probably made by a small number of highly skilled and possibly
itinerant metalworkers, adept in working both sheet and cast metal, and conversant with continental
fashions. At Gussage All Saints (Dorset), a single pit yielded enough casting moulds for 50 sets of
horse gear and vehicle fittings, although the context of this operation remains uncertain
(Wainwright 1979). Another relatively small settlement, at Weelsby Avenue, Grimsby (Humberside),
yielded debris, including failed castings, from the manufacture of horse harness, although here
the evidence suggests a longer timespan for production. The main sources of copper, tin and
lead seem to have been in the west and south-west, although some metal may have been imported.
From the late first century BC onward, imported Roman brass (an alloy of copper and zinc) was
often used for decorative metalwork in place of tin bronze.
The categories of decorative metalwork found reflect the same social and ritual
preoccupations —feasting, warfare and driving vehicles—as in the Later Bronze Age. Sheet
bronze was employed for cauldrons, shields and scabbards, and to clad wooden objects like
buckets and tankards, while lost-wax casting was used for chariot fittings and horse harness,
and to make components of composite artefacts like mirrors and torcs. A range of decorative
techniques such as engraving and repoussé work, adding coloured ornament such as coral and
enamel, and plating were all used. Based on the evolving form and decoration of the objects,
insular art is divided into five stages (I–V), starting in the fifth century BC and lasting to the
early centuries AD (Stead 1996).
Gold and silver objects were rare until the later second century BC, when imported Gallo-
Belgic gold coinage began to circulate in south-east England and hoards containing torcs were
buried in some numbers. The presence at Snettisham of older torcs indicates that such objects
may have been less uncommon in earlier centuries than the archaeological record now suggests.
By the later first century BC, most areas of lowland Britain were striking gold and silver coinages
(De Jersey 1996). Copper-alloy coinage is, however, confined to south-east England, where struck
types replaced cast issues at about this time. Most later coinages bear the name of the issuing
ruler in Roman letters (Figure 7.11). No British coin dies have yet been found, but several oppida
have yielded baked-clay slab moulds, evidently used for minting or other forms of high status
metalworking.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CHANGES
Climatic and environmental deterioration persisted well into the Iron Age. Continued retreat
from upland areas and competition for land in favoured lowlands are likely to have been factors
behind the construction of many early hillforts. The prominence of storage facilities confirms
the importance of food supplies to such sites, many of which are in areas like southern Scotland