in Pit XCV. At the same time, a considerable number, including these in which the most remarkable finds were made, produced pottery resembling that recovered from the ditch of the early fort, which is approximately of the first century. The pits are, however, not all necessarily of the first occupation, as the same types of pottery were found in the filled up ditches overlapping the gates and also at the bottom of the great ditch of the second period.
In dealing with pottery, the smallest fragments may give a chronological indication; and it may be that had work been begun at Newstead with the knowledge gained in the course of the subsequent operations, it would have been possible to ascribe more of the pits to the early or the later period with some approach to confidence. But it was only after the excavation of the ditch of the early fort, which was chiefly carried out in the summer and autumn of 1907, that a series of characteristic types was obtained. The most, then, that can be said is that the following pits all gave indications of early date, either from their contents or from their position: Nos. II, VII, IX, X, XII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XLI, LIV, LV, LVI, LVII, LVIII, LIX, LX, LXI, LXII, LXIII, LXIV, LXV, LXVI, LXVII, LXIX, LXXIII, LXXV, LXXVI, LXXVII, LXXVIII, LXXIX.[1]
Among these, Pit LIX was of peculiar interest, for the reason that, while it contained early pottery in its lower levels, fragments belonging to the later periods were encountered higher up. The pit was of considerable depth (twenty-eight feet nine inches), but it was only at twenty feet that the usual black deposit was reached. At twelve feet from the surface some pieces of bowls, which must belong to the second century, occurred (page 225, Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 6). One of these pieces (Fig. 6) appears to be of Rhenizabern manufacture; the others are Lezoux ware. The few fragments yielded by the black deposit were all typically early. Two of them at least belong to carinated bowls (Type, Dragendorff 29). Another was the bottom of a small globular pot (Type, Déchelette 67), and there was also part of a very fine beaker urn of black polished material. It seems probable that at this spot the original surface of the ground has been covered to a considerable depth by the overthrow of the rampart. Even so, however, at twelve feet the Antonine pottery must
1 Particulars of the contents of all the Pits and Wells excavated up to 15th July, 1910, will he found in the Appendix to this chapter.
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