A recent paper in Britannia explored some of the potential factors which might have led to potters in the Silchester area continuing the production of flint-tempered pottery, already established in the Iron Age, into the start of the Roman period. This paper attempts to expand the discussion by considering the viewpoint of the potters’ customers and what they might have been looking for when purchasing their pots, with particular emphasis on the characteristics required of cookwares.

The analysis method is developed to obtain dynamic characteristics of the rotating cantilever plate with thermal shock and tip-rub. Based on the variational principle, equations of motion are derived considering the differences between rubbing forces in the width direction of the plate. The transverse deformation is decomposed into quasi-static deformation of the cantilever plate with thermal shock and dynamic deformation of the rubbing plate under thermal shock. Then deformations are obtained through the calculation of modal characteristics of rotating cantilever plate and temperature distribution function. Special attention is paid to the influence of tip-rub and thermal shock on the plate. The results show that tip-rub has the characteristics of multiple frequency vibrations, and high frequency vibrations are significant. On the contrary, thermal shock shows the low frequency vibrations. The thermal shock makes the rubbing plate gradually change into low frequency vibrations. Because rub-induced vibrations are more complicated than those caused by thermal shock, tip-rub is easier to result in the destruction of the blade. The increasing friction coefficient intensifies vibrations of the rubbing plate. Minimizing friction coefficients can be an effective way to reduce rub-induced damage through reducing the surface roughness between the blade tip and the inner surface of the casing.

Both free and sessile haemocyte counts in Alphitobius piceus showed wide variations between 06.00 and 22.00 hr. Variations in the haemogram appeared to be related to sex related cycles of activity, presumably with special reference to feeding patterns. Males showed higher total haemocyte counts during the day in comparison to females. In both sexes, the percentage of prohaemocytes and spherule cells and only in males, plasmatocytes increased during the early hours of night. In females, the percentage of granular haemocytes decreased notably between 18.00 and 20.00 hr. Number of adipohaemocytes and oenocytoids did not vary significantly. Heat treatment caused release of sessile haemocytes into the circulation resulting in a notable increase in total haemocyte counts during the day. This increase was comparatively high in females in comparison with males. Altered photoperiod had little effect on these haemocyte variations. Blood volume was slightly higher in the night than in the day in both sexes. The variation of blood volume was insignificant under both heat treatment and altered photoperiod conditions.