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Hand specimen picture panel
Thin section picture panel
Appendix 1: Keywords and Definitions
Appendix 2: Physical Layout of Sherds Housed in the NRFRC
Four samples
This fabric is typically a ‘warm reddish brown in colour’ (Peacock 1977b, 149). Our samples are similarly coloured (10R 5/6, 2.5YR 5/6–4/6), although occasionally more purple (10R 4/4) in tone. Slip, which thickly covers the inside of the vessel, is similar to the red (10R 4/6–4/8) seen in wall paintings at Pompeii. The fabric is hard with a hackly fracture, rough on the exterior and smooth where slipped. A distinctive range of plain-rim dishes and lids were imported into Britain, and the frequent exterior sooting indicates that they were used for cooking (Greene 1979).
Overall the inclusions are well sorted. Black vitreous grains are common, mostly 0.2–0.3mm but ranging to 0.5mm, and it is these that give the distinctive ‘black sand’ appearance to the fabric. The remaining inclusions are sparse and may occur up to 0.5mm, or occasionally 1.0mm: mica (<0.2mm), quartz, feldspar and unidentified rounded white grains, possibly decayed feldspar, the latter of which are prominent in Plate 30. The fabric is identical to that described for Campanian amphorae 1.
The clay matrix contains abundant well-sorted fine to medium-grade sand, composed of subangular to sub-rounded grains of pelloidal limonitic material, quartz, clear feldspar, green pyroxene, and lava. Hornblende, chert and volcanic glass are less common. The brown garnet ascribed to this fabric by Peacock (1977b, 149), when viewing a greater number of samples, was not detected in this sample. Silt-grade material is rare, and mica is barely visible.
Peacock (1977b, 149–50) has strongly argued for a source in the region of Pompeii and Herculaneum due to the richness of green augite inclusions and the correspondence with other local products.
City Museum and Art Gallery, Gloucester; Museum of London
Fishbourne Roman Palace and Museum, near Chichester; Colchester Museums; City Museum and Art Gallery, Gloucester; Museum of London
Fishbourne Roman Palace and Museum, near Chichester; Colchester Museums; City Museum and Art Gallery, Gloucester; Museum of London
Boon, G C, 1967 Micaceous sigillata from Lezoux at Silchester, Caerleon, and other sites, Antiq J 47, 27–42
Greene, K, 1979 Report on the excavations from Usk 1965–1976. The pre-Flavian finewares
Peacock, D P S, 1977b Pompeian red ware, in Pottery and commerce. Characterization and trade in Roman and later ceramics (ed D P S Peacock), 147–62
Peña, J T, 1990 Internal red-slip cooking ware (Pompeian red ware) from Cetamura del Chianti, Italy: mineralogical composition and provenance, American J Archaeol, 94, 647–61
Scatozza Höricht, L A, 1988 Pompejanisch-rote Platten, Rivista di Studi Pompeiani 2, 91–6
Wynia, S L, 1979 Töpfersignaturen auf Pompejanisch-roten Platten: quantité négligeable, Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek 29, 425–32
See the related record on the Atlas of Roman Pottery on the Potsherd website
Plate 30: Fresh sherd break of CAM PR 1 (width of field 24 mm)
Plate 30.1: Photomicrograph of CAM PR 1 (XPL) (width of field 1.74 mm)
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