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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
Two samples
Previously this fabric has been published as Wessex Grog-tempered Ware or Portchester Hand-made Fabric A (Fulford 1975, 286). These fabrics can now be seen to represent more than one industry.
This is a handmade fabric, soft and dark-coloured, grey or grey-brown (value 4 or darker, 5YR 3/2) with a hackly fracture and a rough feel. Flanged bowls, dishes and everted-rim jars are the most typical forms.
The inclusions are ill sorted (normally 1.0–3.0mm but ranging to 4.0mm) and consist of common or abundant angular and subrounded grains of grog (grey, pale brown, red-brown, white and orange). The clay matrix contains common or abundant angular and subrounded quartz, typically 0.1–0.2mm but up to 0.7mm.
In thin section this fabric exhibits a clean matrix containing common well-sorted and frequently angular quartz (0.05–0.1mm, with grains to 0.6mm) and sparse to common opaques, up to c 0.25mm. The fabric is characterised by abundant ill-sorted grog (both isotropic and anisotropic) measuring between 0.3–2.0mm, but most frequently 0.5–1.0mm. Also present are rare fragments of polycrystalline quartz, feldspar and mica. Many of the grog inclusions are identical to the matrix clay, but rare ones are quartz free and may indicate that more than one fabric was utilised for this purpose.
At least two significant sources exist for the ware, one of which is located in the north of the Isle of Wight (Lyne 1994; Lyne in press; Lyne in prep).
County Archaeology Service, Isle of Wight
Fort Blochurst, Fareham; County Archaeology Service, Isle of Wight
Fulford, M G, 1975a The pottery, in Excavations at Portchester Castle 1: Roman (B Cunliffe), Rep Res Comm Soc Antiq London 32, 270–367
Lyne, M A B, 1994 Late Roman handmade wares in south-east Britain, Unpublished PhD, University of Reading
Lyne, M A B, in press The Iron Age and Roman pottery, in The Wootton/Quarr project (D J Tomalin), Engl Heritage Archaeol Rep
Lyne, M A B, in preparation The pottery, in Rock Roman villa (D J Tomalin), Engl Heritage Archaeol Rep
See the related record on the Atlas of Roman Pottery on the Potsherd website
Plate 113: Fresh sherd break of HAM GT (width of field 24 mm)
Plate 113.1: Photomicrograph of HAM GT (XPL) (width of field 3.5 mm)