The grey wares were usually made of fine clay, of which there were two varieties: a sandy loam like that of which bricks are made on the borders of the chalk formations in England, and a heavy stone-coloured paste, sonorous when struck, which has been compared to the clay of modern Staffordshire ware. The colour of the first-named is light and its texture brittle, and it was chiefly used for mortaria, or for cooking-vessels which were exposed to the heat of the fire. The mortaria resemble modern milk-pans, being flat, with overlapping edges and a grooved spout opening in front. They appear to have been used both for cooking, many bearing traces of the action of fire, and for grinding food or other commodities, the latter purpose probably explaining the presence, in the interior of many examples, of small pebbles, or a hard coating of pounded tile, to counteract the effects of trituration. They are usually of a hard coarse texture, but compact and heavy, and their colour varies from pale red to bright yellow or creamy white.
FIG. 230. ROMAN MORTARIUM FROM RIBCHESTER (BRITISH MUSEUM).
They are frequently stamped with the name of the potter, placed in a square or rectangular panel on the rim and often arranged in two lines. The names are either single, denoting the work of slaves, as Albinus, Brixsa, Catulus, Sollus, and Marinus, or double and occasionally even triple, for the work of freedmen, as Q. Valerius, Sex. Valerius, Q. Averus Veranius, and so on.[[3627]] The example given in Fig. [230] is from Ribchester in Lancashire, and bears the stamp BORIED(us) F(ecit). A mortarium recently dug up in Bow Lane, London, now in the Guildhall Museum, has the name of Averus Veranius with O · GARR · FAC in smaller type between the words, apparently referring to the place of manufacture.[[3628]] One of the commonest names is that of Ripanus Tiberinus, who gives the name of the place where he worked: RIPANVS · TIBER · F · | LVGVDV FACT, Ripanus Tiber(inus) f(ecit); Lugudu(ni) fact(um).[[3629]] The potters’ names are usually accompanied by the letters OF or F. The mortaria vary from seven to twenty-three inches in diameter, and are found in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Of the second or heavier variety a curious vase in the form of a human head was found at Castor[[3630]]; much of the New Forest ware also comes under the same heading,[[3631]] including the small cups with pinched-in sides, some being covered with a slip of micaceous consistency.
Of black ware many varieties have been found in Gaul and Britain, besides the special local wares which have already been described. Some were employed as funerary urns, but the majority are of small size, and in quality they vary from the extremest coarseness to a fine polished clay, producing an effect almost equal to the Greek or Etruscan black wares. The finest specimens of plain black ware are to be seen in the vases with a highly polished surface, presenting a metallic appearance and an olive hue which almost approximates to that of bronze. Examples of this ware are found in Gaul at Lezoux, in Britain at Castor, and elsewhere.[[3632]]
In the first century after Christ a superior kind of black ware seems to have been made in Northern Gaul and Germany, described by Dragendorff as “Belgic black ware.”[[3633]] The clay is bluish-grey, with black polished surface produced like that of the bucchero ware by smoke, not like the black glaze of later Roman ware. A similar variety of grey ware exists, but without glaze or polish. The forms of the vases vary very much from the Roman, including a typical high, slim urn and other more squat forms, closely imitating metal; they bear some relation to those of the La Tène period, and are Celtic or Gaulish rather than German.[[3634]] Such ornamentation as they bear is exclusively linear, and never in relief. There is, however, a Roman form of plate which often occurs, and, generally speaking, the fabric may be described as a continuation of pre-Roman pottery influenced by Italy. It is well represented at Xanten and Andernach, but is not found on the Limes, and is rare in Britain; it does not seem to have been made after the beginning of the Flavian epoch, when it was largely superseded by the ordinary Roman black glazed wares.
A special kind of black ware seems to have been made in the valley of the Rhone, consisting of pots of a coarse, gritty paste with micaceous particles, breaking with a coarse fracture of a dark red colour. They have been mostly found at Vienne, where they seem to have been made. The bottom of the vase is usually impressed with a circular stamp with the potter’s name in late letters, as L · CASSI · O, F(ir)MINVS · F, SEVVO · F, SIMILIS · F (from Aix).[[3635]] The well-known name of Fortis has also been found on black ware from Aix.
In Britain black ware is, as elsewhere, exceedingly common, and a typical group of the smaller varieties is afforded by a series of five found in a sarcophagus at Binsted in Hampshire, now in the British Museum,[[3636]] consisting of two calices, a jar (olla), an acetabulum, and a kind of candlestick. The Upchurch ware largely belongs to this category, and much of the same kind has been found at Weymouth.
Brown ware of a very coarse style is often found with other Roman remains, consisting of amphorae and other vessels for domestic use. Examples of amphorae and jugs with female heads modelled on the necks have been found at Richborough and elsewhere.[[3637]]
At Wroxeter the excavations yielded two new classes of pottery, one consisting of narrow-necked jugs and mortaria,[[3638]] very beautifully made from a white local clay, which has been identified with that found at Broseley in the neighbourhood, nowadays supplying material for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes. The surface is decorated with red and yellow stripes. The other kind is a variety of red ware which has been styled “Romano-Salopian,” made from clay obtained in the Severn valley, and differing from the common Roman ware.[[3639]] It is, however, exceedingly doubtful whether these types should be classed under the heading Roman.