The pottery shop
A pottery shop?
The fort and vicus needed a good supply of pottery. In the past pottery was used for storage jars, for flagons for holding liquids, and for cooking pots, as well as the ‘tablewares’ that we are familiar with. Some pots were made locally, but others were imported to Britain from Spain, Germany and France.
The archaeologists found a large quantity of unused pottery in one of the vicus buildings. Archaeologists identified it as either a pottery shop or a large storeroom for pottery.
What did the building look like?
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1. The pottery shop... It was a large wooden building next to the Roman road. The pottery shop had two large rooms at the back and two small rooms next to the road. There was an oven in one of the large rooms.
Fire!
The archaeologists discovered that the pottery shop was destroyed in a fire. Before the fire the pots had been stacked ready for sale. The building collapsed and the pots were broken into hundreds of pieces. The heat from the fire also left burn marks on the pottery.
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2. The heat from the fire and the collapse of the building caused the pots to break into many small pieces.
What kind of pots were for sale?
There were two types of pottery in the pottery shop:
Samian
The Romans liked to have Samian pottery to use at the dining table. It had a red, glossy finish and was often decorated with moulded patterns showing plants, people and animals. Most Samian was made in Central France. Samian is important to archaeologists because it can be closely dated from the potters’ stamps. The potters’ stamps on the Samian show that the fire happened in about AD 140.
Mortaria
The mortarium was a mixing bowl with grit set into the inside surface to help break down This type of pottery was used to make mixing bowls.
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3. ’s mark. This is the mark of a potter called Pateratus who worked in Lezoux, Central France in AD 135 – 155.
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4. The pottery shop also stocked mixing bowls called mortaria. The Romans introduced mortaria to Britain but local potters soon began making it as well. The mortaria from the pottery shop were all made in Castleford.
Timeline:
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