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Oare reconsidered and the Origins of Savernake Ware in Wiltshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Vivien G. Swan ,
V. Rigby ,
B. R. Hartley  and
D. F. Mackreth
Vivien G. Swan
Affiliation:
Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), Salisbury
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Extract

The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the significance of the so-called ‘Late Celtic rubbish heap’ near Oare (Nat. Grid Ref. SU 172643) in the parish of Wilcot, near Marlborough in central Wiltshire and to assess its implications for Savernake ware, a regional variety of grey culinary coarse pottery, known to have been produced in Savernake Forest, just south of Marlborough, Wiltshire. The site in question (FIG. I), 6–4 km south-west of the Roman walled town of Cunetio (Mildenhall) was dug into in 1907–8 by Benjamin and Maud Cunnington. Mr. and Mrs. Cunnington were attached to Devizes Museum from the late nineteenth until almost the mid twentieth century and became well known for their many excavations and publications, particularly on prehistoric sites in Wiltshire.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 6 , November 1975 , pp. 36 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Vivien G. Swan, V. Rigby, B. R. Hartley and D. F. Mackreth 1975. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Wilts. Arch. Mag. xxxvi (1909), 125–39.Google Scholar

2 Benjamin Cunnington was the fourth generation of antiquaries in that well-known Wiltshire family, being the great-grandson of William Cunnington, assistant to the antiquary Colt Hoare of Stourhead. However it is clear that his wife Maud, who wrote their excavation reports, was by far the more able.

3 Britannia v (1974), 262–79.Google Scholar

4 In this matter I have benefited from discussion with Mr. Peter Woods, who has confirmed the difficulties experienced on several of his excavations in Northamptonshire, when attempting to locate kilns of this type by these methods.

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12 Textile Manufacture in the Northern Roman Provinces (1970), 135, 130 and 133.

13 Cunnington, op. cit. (note 1), pl. III, D, B, and A.

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17 See British Mus. Quarterly xiv. 1 (1951), 17–18 for a helmet which had been re-issued three times. The famous Hagenau (Germany) helmet is another recirculated item and instances of other types of re-used equipment are known. I am grateful to Mr. H. Russell Robinson for discussing this matter with me.Google Scholar

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42 Annable, op. cit. (note 5), fig. 5, Nos. 5 and 6.

43 The fabrics and forms produced by this centre are very similar to the Savernake repertoire and it may represent an attempt by some potters from the Savernake Forest factories to move nearer the markets of Wanborough, Cricklade and Cirencester.

44 Contrast Hodder, I., Britannia v (1974), 341–2Google Scholar, and Wilts. Arch. Mag. lxix (1974), forthcoming.Google Scholar

45 B. Cunliffe, Iron Age Communities in Britain (1974), 343, fig. A 28, Nos. 1–10.

46 Information kindly supplied by Mr. and Mrs. W. Rodwell.

47 I am most grateful to Mr. B. R. Hartley for examining the samian and for the notes upon which this report is based.

48 From notes (based on the published drawings) by Mr. D. F. Mackreth, to whom I am most grateful.