ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Romano-British pottery as a functional artifact to see whether any archaeological conclusions can be drawn. The study of Romano-British pottery began with its use as a method of dating as a supplement to historical sources using the time factor. There is a long tradition of dividing Romano-British pottery into shape categories such as jars and bowls. The imported Romano-Gallic and Gallo-Belgic types which begin to complement the native assemblage late in the Iron Age, and become common in the early Roman period, are typically shallow vessels of types which are not produced by native Iron Age potters. The pottery typology normally published in an excavation report is very specific and is designed, whether explicitly or implicitly, to illustrate the diversity of vessel forms. The clusters of similar pit assemblages do not conform to any obvious pattern suggested by other evidence, but the clusters conform closely to the pit clusters on the site.
