The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

The Iron Age
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Lodsworth (West Sussex) were
distributed over much greater areas
than earlier saddle querns. The latter,
variable in shape and size, suggest
that an activity once undertaken by
individual communities had become
more centralized. In northern
England, however, the changeover to
rotary querns saw greater reliance on
local sources, at the expense of high
quality products from further afield.
Iron Age production thus does not
conform to a simple model of
increasing centralization through
time.
The existing Late Bronze Age fine
wares set the tone for Earlier Iron
Age ceramic developments in
southern Britain (Cunliffe 1991).
Alongside coarse wares, most early
assemblages contain a significant
proportion of decorated forms such
as situlate jars with finger-tip
impressions, or furrowed bowls,
often with a glossy red haematite
coating, presumably intended to
replicate the metal vessels from
which they were copied (Figure 7.10).
From the late sixth century BC, partly
under continental influence, new
forms appeared, including vessels
with markedly angular profiles and
pedestal bases. The Western Isles too
developed distinctive decorated
Figure 7.10 Selected Iron Age pottery: 1–3. Early Iron Age types; 4. scratchcordoned
bowl; 5–7. angular and pedestal forms; 8. Middle Iron Age decorated
pottery, which was used for most of
the later first millennium BC. While bowl; 9–10. saucepan pottery; 11. Glastonbury ware; 12. Western Isles jar;
most wares were locally produced, a 13. Poole Harbour ware; 14–15. Late Iron Age forms; 16. buttbeaker copy.
few fine wares, like the distinctive Sources: 1–10, 12 and 14—Cunliffe 1991; 11—Coles, J.M., 1987. Meare Village
scratch-cordoned bowls of Wessex, East: the excavations of A.Bulleid and H. St George Gray 1932–56. Exeter: Somerset
Levels Papers 13; 13—Cunliffe, B.W., 1987. Hengistbury Head, Dorset, Vol. 1.
were exchanged more widely.
Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph; 15—
During the Later Iron Age, the Fitzpatrick 1997; 16—Stead, I.M. and Rigby, V, 1989. Verulamium: the King
character of pottery production Harry Lane site. London: English Heritage Archaeology Report 12
altered significantly. Over much of
southern England, distinctive regional traditions dominated by new forms of decorated jars or
bowls emerged, including a distinctive form known as ‘saucepan pots’. In some areas, such as
the Welsh Marches and south-west England, local workshops all but disappeared in favour of
production concentrated at a few locations, wares from which were then exchanged over
considerable distances (Morris 1994). Wessex shows evidence for both local and regional