Four samples
The most distinctive feature of this fabric is the contrast between the colour of the break and the surfaces: the break is a very pale, sometimes slightly green-grey to more or less white (8/0, 5Y 8/1–7/1), while the surfaces are at least three Munsell values darker, as medium bordering on dark grey (5/0–4/0). The fabric is hard with a smooth fracture and a rough/powdery feel. Evans (1989, 55) distinguishes the fracture as lacking ‘the crisp, brittle fracture of many Norton products and some of the Throlam kiln material’. The surfaces show wiping marks, and are sometimes burnished externally.
Inclusions are generally well sorted and fine with grains measuring 0.1–0.2mm as seen on Plate 165, although occasional samples are restricted to the finest range (<0.1mm). Quartz is usually abundant and is set in a sparsely micaceous (silver) matrix. Also present are red or black iron-rich grains, up to 0.5mm and, less frequently, matrix-coloured or brown clay pellets up to 1.0mm, and fine limestone fragments.
In this sample quartz is abundant and commonly measures to 0.15mm. No limestone or clay pellets are visible.
See the related record on the Atlas of Roman Pottery on the Potsherd website