export of Arvernian pottery is believed to have gradually superseded that of Rutenian ware. Lezoux, however, did not reach the zenith of its prosperity until the second century, in which it seems probable that its exports attained to a wider proportion than those of the earlier Rutenian potters had ever done. This climax may with some confidence be assigned to the age of the Antonines. With the barbarian inroads of the middle of the third century, about the year A.D. 260, the manufacture probably ceased. But long before this date the export trade must have shrunk as newer potteries arose in the north. By the first half of the second century, the manufacture of Terra Sigillata had apparently commenced at Heiligenberg, near Strassburg; at Trier; and at Rheinzabern, near Speyer. The potteries of Westerndorf in Bavaria probably began somewhat later. It was from Rheinzabern that the later forts on the Limes drew their supplies, and its wares were exported as far as Britain. Westerndorf, on the other hand, seems never to have established a trade connection with Western Europe at all.
Terra Sigillata at Newstead
The quantity of decorated Terra Sigillata found at Newstead during the four years of excavation is not, on the whole, very large, when the extent of the area turned over is considered. At the same time it forms the most extensive collection as yet obtained in Scotland. Its chief importance, however, lies in the fact that it falls readily into at least two periods, the first corresponding to the campaigns of Agricola in the first century, and the second probably to the re-occupation under Antoninus Pius and the subsequent operations in the second century. It is difficult to over-estimate the value of such a distinction, inasmuch as it appears to afford a certain clue which, properly applied elsewhere, may enable us to distinguish the camps and forts of Agricola throughout Scotland from those of the later advance.
In the first of the two periods the decorated pottery is chiefly Rutenian. It is uncertain at what date the products of the Arvernian potteries first began to come to Britain. At Newstead we find no trace of the orange-yellow colour or of the designs peculiar to the early carinated bowls of Lezoux. When we pass from these to the hemispherical bowls, with decoration corresponding to the second Lezoux period, we have no stamps of the potters cited by Déchelette as typical of the period. The sole exception is DIVIXTUS, whose place in Scotland is clearly among the potters of the Antonine age. Further, we have no examples of the finely executed reliefs in the manner of LIBERTUS. At the same time it seems certain that Lezoux pottery
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