This chapter considers the supply of pottery to early Roman London and examines some of the key pottery industries which contributed significantly to the pottery vessels in use in Roman London in the 1st and 2nd centuries. The foundation stones for the study of early Roman pottery in London remain two publications that resulted from the prolific work of the Department for Urban Archaeology (DUA) and Department for Greater London Archaeology (DGLA) in the 1970s and 80s. The Roman Pottery from Southwark (Marsh and Tyers 1979) summarises key industries supplying pottery to Southwark, as well as outlining a form type-series that remains the core of the system still in use in London. A dated corpus of early Roman pottery from the City of London (Davies et al. 1994) presents fabrics and forms across all key ware groups found in London and the analysis of a series of Roman Ceramic Phases (RCP) which examine assemblages in chronological groups and considers the changing composition and sources over time. This paper does not attempt to duplicate the breadth and detail of these two publications but instead to bring together more recent findings and flag new research and publications.
In particular, the evidence for production at the Highgate Wood and Brockley Hill/Verulamium industries will be considered including their location, resources, kiln technology, and the extent and nature of the archaeological evidence for each of these industries, as well as the products themselves (Fig. 16.1). The development of these industries will be considered against the backdrop of pre-Roman late Iron Age ceramic traditions. Evidence for pottery production within Roman London will also be explored and through these studies it is hoped we will review critically the evidence we have for the production of so many vessels – beyond the pots themselves