Fabric and technology
Fairly sandy fabric; black, perhaps with buff surfaces in earlier examples; some quartz grits and soft white inclusions, occasional larger flint fragments. Black slip visible on outer surface of closed forms, and all surfaces of open forms, giving slightly lustrous finish. Hand-formed.
Forms
Early forms (1st-2nd cent.) mirror those of South-East Dorset BB1, but some types (e.g. bead-rim bowls) more common in early SWBB1.
Chronology
No evidence for pre-conquest production, but present on pre-Flavian military sites. Dominant 2nd cent. BB1 fabric in Exeter during 2nd cent. AD. but no evidence of production after early-mid 3rd cent. when displaced by South-East Dorset BB1.
Source
West Dorset or south Somerset.
Distribution
Predominantly south-western Britain, with some examples in south Wales and the northern frontier zone (catalogues in Brown and Vince 1984, 93, 293).
Aliases
Exeter fabric 40.
Bibliography
Brown and Vince 1984, 88-100, 114-37.
References
Brown and Vince 1984. Brown, D. H. and Vince, A. G., ‘Petrological Aspects; the Medieval Pottery of Exeter under the Microscope’ in Medieval and Post medieval Finds from Exeter 1971-1981, ed. J. P. Allan, Exeter Archaeology Reports, 3, (1984), pp. 32-34.
