Introduction | Samian from Brough | Mortaria | Amphorae | Brough local production | Fabrics | Forms | The function of the Brough pottery
The quantities and sources of the samian from the excavations and evaluation trenches are in Table 5 below. The main excavations produced 574 sherds (7.467kg); the evaluation trenches 78 sherds, 697g.
| Source | Sherds | % | Weight | % |
| South Gaul | 61 | 9.36 | 429 | 5.25 |
| Les Martres de Veyre | 22 | 3.37 | 165 | 2.03 |
| Lezoux | 465 | 71.32 | 5935 | 72.69 |
| East Gaul | 104 | 15.95 | 1635 | 20.03 |
| Totals | 652 | 100 | 8164 | 100 |
91% of the samian (by weight) came from Trench 1, 8.3% from Trench 2 (more fragmented with about half the average sherd weight from Trench 1), and only three and eight sherds came from Trenches 3 and 4 respectively.
Given the 3rd century character of the rest of the pottery and the coastal location of Brough, the relatively low quantity of East Gaulish samian, mainly from Rhinezabern of late 2nd to 3rd century date, is notable, in comparison to similar coastal sites with extensive 3rd century occupation such as Brancaster (38%), South Shields (28%) and Caister-on-Sea (66-70%). The 16% sherd count, however, may be compared with 17% from the lower colonia and Wigford suburb in Lincoln, the fabric content of the Brough sherds being almost identical to those from the Wigford suburb (SG 9.2%; MV 1.9%; CG 71.6%; EG 17.3%). This suggests that the supply to Brough, the civitas capital, was closer to that to inland civilian sites in the east of England, differing from that to the coastal military sites.
The East Gaulish ware consists of:
| Argonne | 6.33% |
| La Madeleine | 2.53% |
| Rheinzabern | 74.68% |
| Trier | 8.86% |
| Indeterminate | 7.59% |
The above are the commonest sources of East Gaulish ware in Britain and the proportions are in general not unexpected, with the normal preponderance of Rheinzabern ware to be found on sites close to the east coast.
The spatial distribution of the sources between the two main Trenches is shown in Table 6.
| Trench 1 | Trench 2 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source | Sherds | % | Weight | >% | Sherds | >% | Weight | >% |
| South Gaul | 35 | 7.35 | 279 | 4.1 | 13 | 15.12 | 90 | 14.45 |
| Les Martres de Veyre | 14 | 2.94 | 120 | 1.76 | 2 | 2.33 | 12 | 1.93 |
| Lezoux | 345 | 72.48 | 4960 | 72.94 | 62 | 72.09 | 457 | 73.35 |
| East Gaul | 82 | 17.23 | 1441 | 21.19 | 9 | 10.47 | 64 | 10.27 |
| Totals | 476 | 100 | 6800 | 100 | 86 | 100 | 623 | 100 |
Of the eight sherds from Trench 4, five were South Gaulish, one from Les Martres-de-Veyre; Trench 3 sherds were all Lezoux sherds.
Only five sherds of South Gaulish ware were stratified prior to Period 5 in Trench 1, and 19 were stratified in the latest Roman and post-medieval to modern deposits. The earliest deposits in Trench 2 date from the 3rd century. All were residual.
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URL: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue9/brough/potsam.html
Last updated: Tue Nov 28 2000