ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE The potteries are far better known. They were examined by the late Mr. E. T. Artis in the course of his excavations in 1821 and subse- quent years, of which we have already had occasion to speak (p. 167), and the results have been recorded, along with the other results of his work, in a folio volume of illustrations without text, in two articles communicated to the British Archaeological Association and in occasional information given by him to Mr. C. Roach Smith. The record is imperfect and in some respects unsatisfactory, but it enables us to sketch the salient features of the industry.' The potteries are situated near Castor, Chesterton and Wansford on both sides of the river Nene, and therefore both in Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire. Here, as we have seen above (p. 177), there were two adjacent Romano-British towns at Castor and at 'the Castles' near Chesterton, and numerous outlying dwellings, which indicate a compara- tively dense population. The pottery works lay thick in the immediate vicinity of the towns, notably in Nor- mangate Field and between 'the Castles ' and Water Newton : they also extended westwards beyond Wansford and, accord- ing to Mr. Artis, were scattered over an area of twenty square miles. Mr. Artis adds that, if all were in use at once, they may have employed two thousand fig. 28. Kiln at Castor. hands ; but this is, at the best, a rash estimate, and it is improbable that the kilns are all of the same age. The ordinary kilns in use at Castor are thus described by Mr. Artis in the 'Journal of the British Archaological Association (fig. 28) — A circular hole was dug, from 3 to 4 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter, and walled round to the height of 2 feet. A furnace, one third of the diameter of the kiln in length, communicated with the side of the hole. In the centre of the circular hole so formed was an oval pedestal, the height of the sides, with the end pointing to the furnace mouth. Upon this pedestal and the side wall the floor of the kiln rests. It is formed of perforated angular bricks meeting at one point in the centre. The fur- nace is arched with bricks moulded for the purpose. The side of the kiln is constructed with curved bricks set edgeways in a thick ' slip ' or liquid of the same material, to the height of 2 feet. [The illustration shows the mouth of the furnace, the floor of the kiln with its perforated bricks, and the lower part of the walls of the kiln.] The French scientific writer, M. Brongniart, a contemporary of Artis, compared this type of kiln to one found at Heiligenberg near Strassburg ' Artis, Durobrivae of Antoninus (London, 1828, folio: plates only) and Journal of the British Jrchtrolopcal Association, . 1—9, ii. 164-9 ; Thos. Wnght, Cf/t, Roman anJ Saxon (ed. I 885), pp. 263-9, and Intelkctiutl Observer, vii. 456, mostly reprinting Artis ; C. Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqtus, . 169, iv. 81. S. Birch, Hist, of Ancient Pottery (ed. 2, 1873), pp. 572 foil., has some good remarks, but his account is confused and some of his facts and references wrong. The best collections of Castor ware which I have seen are (i.) that in Peterborough Museum, which includes some of the actual pieces found by Mr. Artis ; and (ii.) the Knipe collection in the Cambridge Archseological Museum, which consists of pieces found in or near Water Newton. Specimens from the former are figured on the plate numbered fig. 32. 207
