Fabric and technology
Hard, fine-textured fabric with smooth or conchoidal texture; generally cream (10YR 9/4) or pink-orange (7.5YR 8/4) ; abundant ill-sorted quartz and composite granitic rock fragments (up to 3mm) in a micaceous matrix; trituration grits of coarse quartz sand. Large flakes of gold or red-brown mica visible in surfaces. Wheel-thrown. In poor soil conditions the surface may become soft and powdery, leaving the coarser inclusions protruding.
Forms
Mortaria, with bead and hooked flange. The inner surface is scored horizontally by the trituration grits.
Chronology
From c. AD 50 to early 2nd cent.
Source
Probably from the Rhône valley, in the Lyon-Vienne region. The petrology of some British specimens can be matched by examples from St Romain-en-Gal (nr. Vienne), the location of many pottery workshops.
Distribution
Only sparse records from Britain, due to conflation with North Gaulish mortaria (NGMO) group I in older reports. In London, moderate numbers in pre-Flavian contexts. Distribution in Gaul uncertain, but there is one specimen from Orléans, on the Loire, and a few from Valence (south of Vienne).
Aliases
Dorchester fabrics 42S and 42X. Exeter mortarium fabrics FC6-FC11. Gloucester fabric TF9AA. Sheepen mortarium fabrics 14-16. Usk mortarium fabrics 13 and 14.
Bibliography
Tyers (forthcoming) .
References
Tyers (forthcoming). Tyers, P. A., ‘Rhône valley mortaria’, forthcoming.
