Type 36

Plate XLVII., Type 36, also Plate XLIX. (A), Fig. 5, is a cooking-pot of yellow-brown colour, hard-baked, of medium fineness (height 6 inches, diameter of opening at mouth 378 inches). It came from Pit XI, where it was found in association with a flat saucer-like platter, the interior of which was coloured with a thin pink slip (Plate L. (B), Fig. 8). There was nothing in the position of this pit to fix its period. But the quality of the ware—a specimen of which is also to be noted from Pit LIV—and the outline of the rim, which is not found in similar vessels from the later pits, together with the characteristics of the dish found in association with it, appear to justify its being allotted to the earlier period, and it has been figured as the type of the early cooking-pot. Before leaving these vessels, it may be noted that they were much less common in the early pits than was the corresponding dish in the later series. It is probable that in an expeditionary force metal cooking-pots were more commonly employed than those of earthenware. That it was so at Newstead is perhaps borne out by the fact that all the metal cooking-pots found came, with possibly one exception, from the early pits or ditches.

3. BEAKERS

The ditch of the early fort produced one example of this type sufficiently complete to permit of its restoration (Plate XLIX. (A), Fig. 9). It is a vessel of a hard reddish-brown ware, 5 inches high. The surface is roughened by the application of small particles of pottery. The interior shows a metallic lustre. Fragments of two other beakers from the same ditch must also be noted. The first is of fine buff-coloured ware (Fig. 25, No. 4), showing some traces of a band of decoration produced by slight indentation of the surface. The other (Fig. 25, No. 7) is of fine, thin, black ware, highly polished on the exterior. The same texture, colour and surface were observed in a beaker from Pit LIX (Fig. 25, No. 10). This vessel was decorated by three lines of moulding round the shoulder, the surface of each broken by a series of vertical incisions (see also LI., Fig. 5).

Type 31

Plate XLVI., Type 31, also Plate XLIX. (B), Fig. 6, is a beaker of thin, hard, grey ware, with vertical depressions in the sides. Its height is 5¼ inches, diameter of opening at mouth 3½ inches. The whole surface is granulated. It has been suggested that such vessels were specially designed to contain unguents, the roughened surface making it more easy for oily fingers to hold them. The interior shows a metallic glaze.

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