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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
A variety of ware types have been associated with production at Cooling, but only the BB2 is included here.
The classic fabric produced at Cooling has a medium grey (5/0–4/0) core, frequently with margins in both a lighter or darker shade of grey. The surfaces are a deep, even black with a slightly lustrous and, in some cases, metallic burnish. A small proportion of the Cooling products were slipped, while approximately one-third were not burnished (Monaghan 1987, 189). The fabric is hard with an irregular fracture and a smooth feel. Williams (1977, 197) suggests that forms are restricted to the later cooking pots (Gillam 143) and bowls (Gillam 225, 313, 319, G/M 19) and that they are thicker and less well made than products from other centres.
Overall the fabric comprises ill-sorted inclusions, up to 0.8 or 0.9mm, set in a sparsely micaceous clay with fine silver mica. Abundant quartz, normally 0.3–0.4mm, dominates, while red and black iron-rich grains (c 0.3mm) are routinely present but sparse.
A well-sorted groundmass of abundant silt-sized quartz set in a clay with common muscovite and rare biotite mica is visible in thin section. Larger inclusions, unevenly distributed throughout the fabric, normally c 0.2–0.3mm but up to 0.7mm in size, are angular to rounded. In the larger size range, flint, quartz-rich clay pellets and opaques are common; polycrystalline quartz, quartzite and feldspar sparse to rare. Distinctive glauconitic pellets occur in all sizes, but are only common in the larger range.
Production of BB2 has been associated with a kiln at Cooling, with additional evidence from extensive production debris in the area (Monaghan 1987, 34).
Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery
Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery
Gillam, J P, 1970 Types of Roman coarse pottery vessels in northern Britain (3rd ed)
Miles, A, 1975 Salt panning in Romano-British Kent, in Salt. The study of an ancient industry (ed K W deBrisay), 29–39
Monaghan, J, 1987 Upchurch and Thameside Roman pottery. A ceramic typology for northern Kent, first to third centuries AD, BAR 173
Pollard, R J, 1988 The Roman pottery of Kent
Thornhill, P, & Payne, P, 1980 Some sites in north Kent, Archaeol Cant 96, 378–82
Williams, D F, 1977 The Romano-British black-burnished industry: an essay on characterization by heavy mineral analysis, in Pottery and early commerce. Characterization and trade in Roman and later Ceramics (ed D P S Peacock), 163–220
Plate 137: Fresh sherd break of COO BB 2 (width of field 24 mm)
Plate 137.1: Photomicrograph of COO BB 2 (XPL) (width of field 1.74 mm)
Plate 137.2: Photomicrograph of COO BB 2 (PPL) (width of field 1.74 mm)
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