Abstract
Roman Pottery Kilns in Yorkshire.—The investigation of a Roman pottery kiln site at Throlam Farm, near Holme-on-Spalding, is recorded in the Transactions of the Bast Yorkshire Antiquarian Society, vol. 27, pt. 1, by Mr. T. Sheppard and Mr. P. Corder. The site is a mound, about a hundred feet in circumference and about six feet above ground level, consisting almost entirely of wood-ash and sherds. Near the centre is a mass of puddled clay forming a mound 14 ft. by 7 ft., stratified into clearly marked layers by bands of black ash and sherds, representing successive occupations or reconstructions. On the west end of this are two roughly constructed kilns, 3 ft. 6 in. and 2 ft. 7 in. in diameter respectively, which were fed from the same stokehole. They were constructed on the oven floor of an earlier and larger kiln which was itself superimposed on another. This larger kiln has been almost completely preserved. It differs from the usual type of small Roman pottery kiln only in certain particulars. No pit was excavated, but a mass of puddled clay was dumped on the floor of the kiln, and from this the later kiln was fashioned. The floor was supported on pillars which divided the furnace into three. The pottery, with the single exception of a Samian sherd, is of the Yorkshire coast Signal Station type of the last part of the fourth century; but as the bulk of the pottery is earlier than that of Huntcliffe or Scarborough, the most probable date is the later half of the third century.
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Research Items. Nature 127, 870–872 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127870a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/127870a0