| Description |
The Skeleton Green material
includes the first substantial group of Central Gaulish
jars published in Britain since the
Camulodunum
report in 1947.
Most match the form of
Cam.102
but there are a few similar to
Cam.262,
and a few more unusual forms such as plates
(Partridge 1981, fig.51,23)
and small beakers without moulded-rims
(ibid.,fig.51,20-1).
The petrological report by D.F.Williams
(Williams in Partridge 1981, 101-2)
describes two wares:
- Fabric 1
-
A reddish brown fabric with plentiful flecks of mica ..
Thin-sectioning shows an anisotropic matrix of fired clay
containing frequent inclusions of colourless or pale green augite,
sanidine and plagioclase felspar,
a littlebrown hornblende,
some grains of quartz and numerous flecks of mica ..
- Fabric 2
-
Thin-sectioning reveals a scatter of fine-grained sand-stone,
a little plagioclase felspar,
flecks of mica and numerous grains of quartz
(some polycrystalline) ..
Fabric 1
should be linked with the `Standard Fabric' described
in 1986 by Rigby and Freestone (1986, 13).
The second ware remains more of a mystery,
but it should be noted that the Skeleton Green assemblage
includes in addition a number of other fabrics,
including some rather undiagnostic pieces which
show quartz, iron ores and mica in thin-section
Clearly a number of sources are responsible for the
moulded-rim jars at Skeleton Green,
most of which remain unprovenanced.
A typological discussion of the jars by the author
(Tyers in Partridge 1981, 102-3)
drew attention to Ferdière's 1972
paper on le type Besançon,
and suggested an origin in Central Gaul for
at least part of the group
(contrasting with the suggestions of Italy or the Rhineland
given in the petrological report).
However,
at that time the importance of the various wares of le type Besançon
was not given sufficient weight,
and the invoking of `Romanizing' influence in the evolution
of the
Cam.102
jar type can now be seen as rather over-simplistic.
The
floruit
of the Skeleton Green occupation
has been placed in the decades
20 BC - AD 20,
thus predating,
in part at least,
the Sheepen material.
Some of the material from the nearby Gatesbury hillfort should be
as early this,
and the assemblage includes a number of moulded-rim jars
(Partridge 1981, Fig.126)
and two large
dolia
type vessels with horizontal reeded rims
which should also be Gaulish imports
(ibid.,Fig.127).
Some of this material is probably in the `Standard Fabric'.
but the assemblage would benefit from re-examination
in the light of our current knowledge.
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