Fabric and technology
Hard, with irregular fracture; normally dark-grey or black, but occasionally lighter yellow-brown or red-brown; abundant dark mica, and angular feldspar, with sparser quartz sand; exterior surfaces facet burnished. Most wheel-thrown, but some (larger) vessels hand-formed.
Forms
Later assemblage dominated by BB1-derived flanged bowls and everted rim jars; earlier jar forms with moulded rim may originate from later Iron Age Cornish gabbroic ware prototypes.
Chronology
Earliest specimens from Neronian deposits, but wide distribution dates from late 2nd cent. to 4th cent.
Source
South Devon.
Distribution
Devon, Cornwall and west Dorset; outliers in London.
Aliases
Exeter fabric 5. JRPS bibliography fabric sdw.
Bibliography
Bidwell and Silvester in Cunliffe 1988, 47-9 Holbrook and Bidwell 1991, 177-81;; for London specimens: Richardson 1986, 125 (but see comments by M. Wood in Holbrook and Bidwell 1991, 181, no. 18.1 on possible alternative source for some of these vessels).
References
Cunliffe 1988. Cunliffe, B. W., Mount Batten, Plymouth. A prehistoric and Roman port, Oxford University Committee for Archaeology. Monograph, 26, Oxford, (1988).
Holbrook and Bidwell 1991. Holbrook, N. and Bidwell, P. T., Roman finds from Exeter, Exeter Archaeological Reports, 4, Exeter City Council and the University of Exeter, Exeter, (1991).
Richardson 1986. Richardson, B., ‘The Pottery’ in The Roman quay at St. Magnus House London: excavations at New Fresh Wharf, Lower Thames Street, London, 1974-16, ed. Miller, LAMAS Special Paper, 8, LAMAS, London, (1986), pp. No 1.164-68.
