Nos. 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13 and 14 are grey, 8 is red and 4 and 12 are buff, the last being furnished with a lid (No. 16). The remainder are black. Nos. 1, 5 and 11 are distinguished from the rest by the treatment of the surface. After the bowls had been turned on the wheel and to some extent hardened, there had been applied to the sides a dressing of clay, usually moulded, so as to produce the effect of a layer of strong spiny leaves. It is probable that the object of this device was more to prevent the vessel slipping than to decorate it. For want of a better name, pottery so treated is here referred to as 'rustic ware.' Plate XLVI., Type 29, also Plate XLIX. (A), Fig. 3, reproduces a specimen found in Pit LXIII. It is black in colour and of hard and close texture. The height is 7¼ inches, and the diameter at the mouth 4½ inches. The vessel is to some extent restored.
Type 29
Rustic ware appears to be characteristic of the first century occupation of the fort. It was never found upon the surface nor in association with the later types of Terra Sigillata. On the other hand, it occurred in the ditch of the early fort, and. beneath the clay of the later rampart filling the ditch. A specimen came from the bottom of the overlapping ditch on the north side, and also from that on the west side. Others were recovered from Pits XVI (Plate LI., Fig. 2), LIV, LVIII (Plate XLIX. (A), Fig. 3), LXIII (Plate LI., Fig. 1) and CII. The first of these pits contained no Terra Sigillata at all. In each of the remaining four the pottery was of an unmistakably early character. One example was of a yellow colour, while the others were either grey or black. As a rule, the band of rough decoration is about 4 inches wide, the lower part of the vessel being quite plain.
A similar method of treatment is to be seen on the small cups, often of a brown colour, which come from sites on the Rhine, dating from the early first century. The material of these, however, is very fine and thin. The rustic ware would seem to be purely British. It is common at York, where the Museum possesses a number of specimens. A complete cooking-pot from Lincoln is now in the British Museum. A vessel with a raised surface analogous in its technique is at Carlisle. Recently the ware has been met with in association with first-century pottery at Corbridge. On the other hand, it seems to be unknown in the south. It does not occur at Silchester or Colchester, nor apparently in the kilns of Northampton or Kent. The inference is that it was probably produced in the North of England.
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