A Samian Repair and Recycling Workshop at Kempston Church End, Beds

Abstract

in use, particularly after the end of the second century A.D., when export from the Central Gaulish potteries at Lezoux ceased and it became more difficult to replace breakages. Hence, broken vessels were commonly riveted together. The mend may not have been watertight , but could have been made so by the use of adhesive. Sherds with rivet-holes and grooves are a common find on sites. 114 Others have the break coated in a black tarry substance, probably some form of adhesive. A measure of the quality of samian ware and its prestige is also shown by the way in which vessels were reworked to form other, smaller objects. Geoff Marsh provides a useful summary of these procedures. 115 Broken rims could be filed down to make smaller vessels. Bases could be trimmed to produce small dishes, lids, or palettes. The 'kicked' base of form 31 could have been used as a spinning top. Smaller sherds could be converted into counters or spindle whorls. In her study of the samian ware from the late second century onwards at Piercebridge, Margaret Ward notes 74 vessels showing repairs, about 40 trimmed bases with evidence for reuse, and a large group of counters and spindle whorls. 116 On the basis of this evidence, she suggests the presence of a workshop in the vicus, responsible not just for repairs, but also for the production of reworked items for sale. That repaired and reused samian should have been on sale is a not unreasonable supposition, particularly in less affluent settlements and in the later Roman period. Wroxeter, however, where Atkinson mentions repaired items along with a deposit of samian interpreted as a stall-holder's stock, 117 does not seem to offer an altogether convincing example of the regular sale of secondhand products. The material interpreted by Atkinson as reserve stock, as no doubt it was, was found in the fire-damaged East rooms of the forum rather than in the gutter, into which the contents of the stalls had fallen. In discussion, intended primarily to establish the date of destruction, he notes the presence of repaired samian and also of coarse ware in these rooms in addition to the piles of samian. Whether these, too, were for sale is a matter of interpretation, particularly in the case of Room 3, the findspot of the single repair illustrated, 118 where later disturbance is mentioned. The repaired pieces were not openly displayed on the stalls, but with the reserve, and could equally be interpreted as specially commissioned repairs. While it is not impossible that the odd repair was on sale as a 'second', in a major town and tribal capital in the mid-second century the inhabitants were able to obtain, and could no doubt afford, new products. The most convincing evidence for a workshop for the repair and reworking of samian ware, by commission or for sale, comes from Kempston Church End, a village or roadside settlement in a rural area, on the bank of the River Great Ouse outside modern Bedford. Recent excavations revealed a group of pits, 119 one of which contained a large group of samian ware, alm...