Samian ware in northern and western Britain (awarded 2016; 2018)

The less common fabrics and their significance

The grant for this project has been to enable research based in Chester to record and analyse evidence of anomalies in the Samian supplies to northern and western Britain and, by publication, to illuminate and discuss those anomalies. The Gazetteer by Margaret Ward, being geographically orientated by the archaeological commissions received, focuses largely (but not exclusively) on the northern and western zone. Allowing for bias within the distribution of the sites and thus towards those with a military connection, it is nonetheless possible to discern patterns in the distribution which could usefully be tested elsewhere. Work has continued this year on the next part of the gazetteer of Samian ware, to follow the publication of the first part of this study concerning anomalies and ‘minority products’ mostly from South Gaul, which was published in the Journal of Roman Pottery Studies 2015. It is anticipated that the next chapters will be published in forthcoming volumes of JRPS.