A Roman Bath-House at Little Chart, Kent

A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT By JOHN EAMES INTEODTJOTION Position The site lies on the north-eastern slope of the Lower Greensand, looking across the vUlage of Little Chart, 4 \ mUes north-west of Ashford, towards the high chalk ridge on which runs the Pilgrims' Way (National Grid Reference 51/939458) (pi. I, and Fig. 1). Immediately west of the village is a large, open field, known as Stambers Field, now bounded to north and west by woods and to the south by the Little Chart-Pluckley road, which here forms the northern boundary of Surrenden Park. The south-western part of this field had been used over a period of many years by Messrs. Robert Brett and Sons, Ltd. of Canterbury (now the Kent Tarmacadam Co.) for the quarrying of Kentish rag. Discovery In 1942, in the course of stripping overburden in preparation for an extension of quarrying activity, a fragment of mosaic pavement was torn up by the bucket of a mechanical excavator. Work in this area was immediately stopped and, except to the outer face of the apse waU of the frigidarium plunge, no other damage was done. In October of that year Major J. G. Brinson, R.E. (then Lieutenant), with a smaU party of assistants, was able to uncover a part of the building, comprising room B and its apsidal plunge, room C, part of the hypocaust of room D and a small area of room A.1 This excavation was subsequently filled in and, owing to the preoccupations of war, work was not resumed until the September and October of 1947, when, under the auspices of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments of the Ministry of Works, the whole buUding was cleared with the assistance of members of the Ashford Archseological Society and others.2 Thanks are in particular due to the late Mr. R. J. Geering, whose energy and enthusiasm were responsible for initiating the excavation, and to Mr. E. J. Kinnear of Robert Brett and Sons, Ltd., to whose appreciation of the importance of the site and assistance during the excavations are due the results embodied in this report. 1 A.C., 55 (1942) 76 i.: also reported in J.B.S., 33 (1943) 77. 2 A preliminary notice appeared in J.R.S., 38 (1948), 96. 130 PLATE I m_ ^ • ^ • n H The site looking north-east. The bath-house lies between the figures at the confluence of t h e arrows. PLATE II Apodyterium (A), frigidarium (B) a n d tepidarium (C), from the west. [face p. 130 PLATE III «_WF %J?$, * /ML. The apsidal bath of the frigidarium, showing (left, below) the period 2 drain of the bath and (above, in the foreground) the original drain of the frigidarium floor. L I T T LE CHART IQm.O 10 JOkmO 10 100 0 building $? bath-house * « « * * 0 8 '• &^ 1600-800 ft 1400-600ft m 200-400 ft _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . * * <5> *„ *«* & *§ ^ [Based! wpon ffe Ordnance Survey Map with the sanction of the Controller of S.M. Stationery Office. Crown Copyright reserved FIG. 1 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT THE BATH-HOUSE (Figs. 2 and 3) Stambers Field has in the past been extensively ploughed—in the nineteenth century with steam ploughs—and for a period it served as a hop garden. As a result the bath-house had been stripped to its foundations and the debris of its destruction completely removed. These operations had involved the disappearance of virtually every stone of the walls above and at floor level. They had also destroyed almost the whole floor of room B, together with more than half its underlying concrete, most of the pavement of room C, a smaU part of the tesserae of room A and the complete floor of room D. So thorough had been the disturbance in this room that only a few loose tesserae of the floor were found in the hypocaust filling, many of the bricks of the piers carrying the floor had been removed and at its northern end a hole had been broken through the hypocaust floor and its foundation of pitched stones. The natural surface on which the buUding was constructed consisted of strata of rag, 2 to 3 in. thick, interleaved with bands of simUar thickness of clayey grey-green glauconitic sand. Though there was rock within inches of the surface, its stabUity was considered inadequate for the construction of the buUding directly upon it and the foundation waUs were carried down to a securer rock stratum some 4 ft. 6 in. lower. On the north-eastern and south-eastern sides of the buUding these walls are built up against the natural which inside the building is removed down to the lower stratum of rag. Those of the two opposite sides, however, are free-standing. The limits of excavation revealed the relation of the latter to the natural rock in two places only. At the western corner of the apsidal bath of room B, a spur wall runs up to the face of the rock, here cut back 6 or more inches from the wall-face and lying at a level about a foot lower than on the opposite side of the buUding, and from this point springs the curve of the outer face of the apse. On the north-western side the edge of the rock runs paraUel to the wall face and 4 ft. 6 in. from it, but at a point 7 ft. from the western corner of the building turns away at right angles. It is impossible to say with certainty why all the foundation waUs were not built alike, lining, as it were, the sides of a pit. No doubt, however, the buUding was founded in its own quarry and the quantity of stone requhed for its construction may weU have been greater than that afforded by the resources of its superficial area. PERIOD 1 Construction The quahty of workmanship was everywhere of a high order. The walls and theh foundations were constructed of random Kentish rag in 132 C H H 0 U SECTION B natural removed as quarry overburden mortar spread rag tesserae concrete SECTION A- 77777777777 rafl, tesserae concrete SECTION A robber hole hop pole hole SECTION C - SECTION C SECTION B period I altered in period 2 | | period I period la •'•.'•: period 2 natural rag rock . '• i)r,iii-)iiii-r)7miitn/>-f)/ir'u/7/7)7j7rT?/7f?/r!7 777fK77?\ -1 to back of period 2 v stokehole 6ft Fia. 2 I face p . 182 L I T T L E C H A R T S E C T I O N S SECTION A SOUTH-EAST NORTH-WEST floor level ') 'A rammed clay and rag 'A t jiiiiifliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii -=> a et <=> burnt claw r-i p .- . . i f . . - Mflnd < "*• ;•'.charcoal)," V Lvhile ash-.•: | f 11J r | T-rnprtary T ] , | . | r | NORTH-WEST i t i i i illinium 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 1 1 I I 10 ft £ FIG. 3 [face p. 132 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT lime mortar, faced with neatly dressed stones of the same material of average dimensions of 4 in. by 6 in. by 5 in. The junction of waU with foundation was marked by a course of bricks along the inner face of the wall, some of which remained, though the majority left only theh bedding mortar. The few waU stones surviving above this course showed that there had been a 2 in. offset at this point. The apodyterium (A) PL II No trace remained to suggest the position of the main entrance to the building, but reason demands that it shall have been in room A, which must have served on an apodyterium. The larger part of its floor of plain red brick tesserse, each 1 in. to 1£ in. cube, was undamaged though it lay up to 6 in. higher than the surviving level of the foundation waUs. It had, however, owing to the subsidence of the filling beneath, assumed an evenly dished shape. The tesserse were bedded on a layer of hard, yeUowish mortar some 3 in. thick, which in its turn overlay up to twice that depth of a softer mortar. Below this was a thin spread of mortar containing pulverized brick, perhaps the dUuted surplus of the concrete underfloor in room B. The main body of the fill consisted of brown clay containing fragments and chippings of rag, the lowest layer of it, however, immediately above the rock floor, being of greenish clay and rather large stones. The frigidarium (B) Pis. I I and III Stripped of his clothes, the bather passed by way of a doorway, of which nothing remained to indicate its exact position, into room B, the frigidarium. This was a small room, some 8 ft. square, with a mosaic floor of patterned black and white tesserse, surrounded by a plain border of rag tesserse, aU approximately | in. cube (Pig. 4). Only a smaU fragment of the decoration of this pavement remained, together with a corner of the border. It had rested on a 4-in. raft of concrete, mixed with pulverized brick, which had disappeared over more than half the room. This in its turn rested on a filling of layers of clay or clayey soil, mixed with mortar or fragments of rag. In this room also subsidence had caused a concavity of the floor, the concrete slab being actuaUy cracked. The water from this floor emptied itself through the south-eastern wall at its southern corner by way of a drain, of which a fragment survived on the upper surface of the waU in the form of a roof tile. On the south-western side of the room was an apsidal plunge bath (pi. I l l ) , to which access was gained by two steps, the upper level with the floor of room 2 and paved with bricks, of which only fragments of the bedding remained, and the lower covered, like the risers of both steps and the walls of the plunge, with concrete about 1 in. thick, con- 133 L I T T L E C H A R T F R I G I D AR &mo {msfflkEW FIB. 4 UM P A V E M E NT +:: + • k i M T "•-4- k * ^ • " - 4 - • in fc'd + k < • r« • k * + k i k 4 +::+ k i • k J • r» • k i • »'-*- k ^ ^ •T4k-«" k 4 • # / : : • BECONSTRUCTION 0 I 2 PLATE IV -Js** Calidarium (D) : the hypocaust, looking south. PLATE V Calidarium (D) : the hypocaust, looking towards the stoke-hole (E). [face p. 134 PLATE VI The period 2 furnace. To the right of the pole can be seen traces of the demolished rear wall of the period I stoke-hole. A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT taming much pulverized brick. The floor of the plunge was paved with brick tesserse, with the exception of two whole bricks, set irregularly in the centre of the curve. These were certainly original and do not represent a repah of the floor. The outer of the two was sealed by a chamfer of white cement which ran right round the bath at the juncture between floor and side, being broken only by the drainage arrangements of period 2. The original drain seems to be represented by the hole, some 6 in. square, in the tesserse at the western corner. The south-eastern foundation waU of room B had been built against the natural; the stub wall at the western corner of the plunge, together with the first 3 ft. of the curve of the apse, which here overrode the rock surface, were on the other hand free-standing. The exact juncture of these two modes of construction had been obscured, in part by the drainage arrangements of period 2 and for the rest by the complete removal of the natural down to the lower stratum of rag, coupled with damage to the outer face of the apse wall by quarry workings at this point. The complete absence of facing stones over the full height of most of the chcumference of the apse suggests, however, that this is the raw, though damaged, back surface of a wall once built into the natural and that the point of juncture with free-standing wall was in approximately the position that the present state of the waU suggests. The tepidarium (C) PL II The doorway into room 0, the tepidarium, lay near its eastern corner and was marked by the bedding mortar of tesserae on a brick threshold. These were continuous with the floor of room B and the same paving of rag tesserse once ran without interruption through rooms, B, C and D. Whether C and D also had decorative patterns in the centre cannot now be determined. In this room also the tesserae were bedded on 3 to 4 in. of concrete, topping a buUders' make-up simUar in general character to that of room B. There was no evidence of arrangements for heating the room and this was presumably achieved by proximity to the calidarium, possibly supplemented by a brazier. The calidarium (D) Pis. IV and V. As the floor of the tepidarium extended through the doorway into the calidarium and remained projecting a few inches beyond, the margins at least of the floor in this room may be assumed to have been of white rag tesserse. It was otherwise totaUy missing, only a few tesserse being found in the disturbed fining of the hypocaust. The structure of the hypocaust had not, however, been seriously damaged. The floor had been carried on a series of brick piers arranged in pahs down the length of the room. The distance between the two piers was 135 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT about 2 ft. 2 in. and suggests that the interval may have been arched though no dhect proof of this was forthcoming. The piers themselves rested on two stepped ramps, 2 ft. 6 in. wide and running the fuU length of the room. The steps had been smoothed into a glacis with a covering of cement, which extended down to the top of the lowest riser. Between the two, ramps and their piers the floor of the central channel of the hypocaust was of concrete, resting on a pitching of stones directly on the natural clayey sand. The purpose of these sloping ramps was, of course, to block a functionaUy useless part of the hypocaust which would otherwise serve only for the accumulation of relatively cold air. It is surprising that the economy effected by the construction was not more widely recognized. The only other examples known to me are the clay ramps of the late Antonine bath-house in the Lullingstone vUla1 and the very feeble versions in chalk at Darenth.2 The virtuaUy complete destruction of the floor and of the walls above its level made it impossible to determine whether the calidarium had been further heated by waU flues, but the absence on the site of any fragments of box tUes suggests that any flues there may have been were not extensive. The Stokehole (E) Pis, VI and VII. The stokehole was an extension of the calidarium hypocaust, and was separated from it by brick-faced stub walls, carried forward as far as the full width of the benches and leaving a furnace arch of the same width as the central channel of the hypocaust. They served also to carry the main north-eastern waU of the buUding against which the pent-roof of the stokehole would have in aU probability abutted. The furnace itself was extended to nearly 5 ft. by buUding into the adjacent corners of the stokehole rectangular piers of mortared brick rubble, regularly faced with brick. The floor of the furnace was paved to the fuU extent of these piers with rectangles of broken brick, set on edge herring-bonewise in concrete, in four paraUel rows. The junction of the furnace floor with that of the hypocaust had been destroyed by the robber hole. No trace remained of means of access to the low-level floor of the stokehole, being, no doubt, obliterated by the alterations to the stokehole in period 2. Dating Removal of the buhders' make-up below the floors of the southwestern half of the frigidarium, the whole of the tepidarium and 32 sq. ft. 1 I am obliged to Lt.-Col. G. W. Meates, F.S.A., for details of these. 2 A.O., 22 (1897) pi. G : A., 59, pfc. 2 (1905), pi. lix, fig. 2. 136 PLATE VII The furnace : period 2 structure removed on the right, revealing the remains of the period 1 furnace. Robber hole in the background. PLATE VIII Apsidal tank, added in period 2 to the calidarium. [face )>. 13(i PLATE IX , 4* The well, with steyning partly removed. PLATE X I M Belgic pottery from the pit. A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT at the south-eastern end of the apodyterium failed to produce a single piece of evidence to date the structure. Nor was the stokehole ash sealed by the furnace of period 2 any more productive. The soU back-filled along the faces of the western walls of the buUding was also, where excavated, enthely without objects, which suggests that the immediate site had hitherto been unoccupied and that this back-filling process had occurred, as might be expected, in the course of construction, before occupation debris had been aUowed to accumulate on the surrounding surface, and not in anticipation of the thickening of these waUs in period 2 (see below, p. 138). The earhest material from the vicinity is the pottery from a pit (see below, p. 142), 40 ft. from the west corner of the bath-house. This was the only one excavated of a series of pits and hollows sectioned in the face left by a mechanical excavator in the process of removing the overburden. The type of occupation represented by this pit cannot be determined on present evidence, but if it may fahly be supposed that 260 ft. is not too far for occupation material to wander (and if the unexcavated pits and hoUows be assumed contemporary with this one, the distance would be half that amount) and so appear in, for example, the back filling against the western waUs, then the bath-house can hardly be later than the pit which its pottery places at latest in the latter part of the first century (p. 144). This evidence is extremely tenuous, but would accord very well with what may be inferred from the quahty of the construction. PERIOD la The corrosion of the brickwork of the furnace arch eventually became sufficient to necessitate its replacement. The old brick facing and part of the rubble and mortar core were dressed back, further at the spring of the arch than at floor level where the lowest course remained untouched, and the whole archway was renewed in dressed rag. The masonry was not greatly inferior to the work of period 1, and was structuraUy and qualitatively distinct from the furnace extension of period 2. It is, therefore, certainly earher than the major alterations of the latter period, and probably to be dated closer to period 1 than period 2. PERIOD 2 The alterations here hsted may be assumed to be contemporary, though theh association is generaUy to be inferred rather than proved. They share a hke crudity of workmanship, being much inferior to the work of period 1. 137 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT The drain of the frigidarium plunge Blockage or fracture of this drain made it necessary to open another, which was inserted into the eastern corner of the plunge. This was some 3 ft. below the level of the rock surface outside, and, to provide an outfaU for the new drain, the natural rock and greensand were cut away from a point 14 ft. 3 in. from the east corner of the building, leaving the raw exterior face of the foundation waU exposed. This cut sloped down for 4 ft. 5 in. and then dropped into a gulley which ran away in a south-eastern dhection. The new drain was inserted into the wall by quarrying through a rough hole into the corner of the plunge. Two pieces of imbrex used to floor the drain remained cemented in position. The thickening of the western walls The southern slope of the gulley had been destroyed by the quarry workings and the outer face of the apse had also received rough treatment from the same cause. It is, therefore, impossible to say at what point the thickening of the free-standing western waUs by the addition of some 2 ft. 4 in. of inferior masonry began. This addition survived only from a point 3 ft. 2 in. from the western corner of the plunge. Had it once run round the apse as far as the southern hp of the gulley and been stripped in the removal of quarry overburden (as well it might be, being of poor masonry and crumbly mortar) from the raw outer face of the apse, exposed in period 2 by the dressing down of the natural in this quadrant of the buUding, the rather battered appearance of the outer face might be explained. The thickening wall ran along the south-western face of the building, but at the western corner it had disappeared. Up to a point 9 ft. along the north-western wall nothing of it remained except the thick spread of crumbly mortar on which it had been buUt over soU filled back against the outer face of the waU of period 1. No clue was forthcoming to explain the function of this addition to the waUs. Had it run right round the frigidarium apse it might be supposed to have afforded it a decent face, but, the condition of the period 1 waUs as surviving do not suggest it was necessary along the remainder of its length, unless these had been extensively destroyed at a higher level, the old masonry and addition being topped by walling contemporary with the latter and of such similar inferiority as to requhe greater width for stabUity. The apsidal tank (PI. VIII) The mortar foundation spread of the waU thickening impinged on the topmost surviving stones of the hypocaust beneath a small apsidal 138 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT addition near the centre of the north-western waU of the calidarium. No trace of the tank, which must have stood at the floor level of the calidarium, remained. The hypocaust was heated with ah borrowed from that of the calidarium by way of a channel roughly broken through the intervening waU. The roughness of the passage was partly smoothed by a patching of the sides of the channel. The hypocaust had been buUt by excavating a roughly semicircular hole in the soU filling the gap of about 4£ ft. between the outer face of the calidarium and that of the natural. The rough rag masonry rose as a lining against the sides of this hole in a series of narrow steps, impinging at the rear of the hypocaust against the face of the natural itself. The apse waU above rested on the surface soU, sandwiching between itself and the rock surface, where it overlay the latter, a thin layer of period 1 surface soU. Apart from the projecting piers of the lowest step, which may at a higher level have been carried out to match corbeUing from the waU of the cahdarium, there were no indications to show how the floor of the tank above was carried. There was no trace that there were ever piers on the hypocaust floor. The Stokehole (PI. VI) In order to increase the size of the furnace to cope with the extra demands made upon it by the addition of the apsidal tank, it was vhtuaUy doubled in length. The square furnace piers of period 1 were largely demohshed and were replaced by two rectangular piers of rough rag masonry set in clay, with a core of rubble and earth. Where the new piers extended beyond those of period 1, they overlay 3 in. of ash which covered the earher stokehole floor of rammed clay and fragments of rag topping a mortary fill over bed-rock. The concrete furnace floor was also extended with a paving of broken brick roughly set in mortar. A single whole brick was incorporated in the floor at the mouth of the furnace. The inner faces of the piers leaned irregularly towards one another and presumably enclosed the furnace in a roughly corbeUed tunnel. The resultant furnace structure would have almost fiUed the stokehole, which was, therefore, enlarged by demohshing its rear wall and most of that on the south-eastern side down to the floor level. Both these waUs had in period 1 been buUt against cuttings in the natural, which was now quarried back beyond the hmits of excavation, but, behind the stokehole, to a point which could be estabhshed by surface indications and a small trial hole to be 7 ft. 3 in. further back. The calidarium hypocaust To be associated with these various constructions are a number of 139 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT patches making good corrosion of the sloping sides of the hypocaust of the calidarium. Access below the floor could readUy have been obtained whUe either the hypocaust of the apsidal tank or the renewed furnace were under construction. Dating The sole dating evidence for the structural alterations of period 2 is afforded by heavily burnt coins found in the ash of the stokehole (p. 145). These proved indecipherable, but provide a fourth-century date. The duration of period 2 cannot have been long. The sides of the furnace, for example, which, being of rough masonry set in clay, would be eminently corrodable in the fire, and the reused furnace arch of period la, were not badly damaged. Some part of the fourth century would, therefore, appear to cover both the beginning and end of the period. The long interval between the two periods of occupation makes the very good condition of the floors the more surprising. The surviving pieces show no sign of patching or renewal and must have been protected by an accumulation of material upon them. The occupiers of period 2 wUl, therefore, have been obliged in part to excavate the buUding before re-roofing it and adapting it to theh needs. THE WELL (PL IX) WhUe excavation on the bath-house was in progress, blasting operations at the quarry face, at a point 82 yd. from the corner of the cahdarium, exposed the outer face of the steyning of a cylindrical well. The upper part of the weU, to an estimated depth of 6 ft. 2 in, from the modern surface, had been swept away unobserved in the mechanical removal of the quarry overburden. The excavated portion, 10 ft. 6 in. deep and about 3 ft. 4 in. in diameter, had been quarried through the rock and lined with roughly squared, unmortared stones. Excavation was discontinued 2 ft. below the level of the quarry floor. These last 2 ft. were subsequently fiUed in ; the upper part, discovered in the working face, has now been quarried away. A considerable depth remains untouched, for layers of reddish ash in the filling were depressed towards the centre of the well as much as 3 ft. below theh outer edges. The fiU was of a consistent grey-black mould, at intervals layered with ash, and contained only fragments of pottery (p. 143) and window glass. Pieces of the same bowl (Eig. 5, 3) were found at both top and bottom of the excavated portion. The date of the filling of the well is given by the pottery as not later than the mid-second century. Its original construction may perhaps be associated with that of the bath-house, though its distance from the 140 7 1 ) . < I 0 - 1 2 Skttn Eio. 5 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT latter shows that its primary function was not to supply water for bathing. BUILDING 2 During the winter of 1947-48 quarrying operations 16 yd. northwest of the bath-house demohshed the corner of a buUding, of which it was possible to trace short lengths of the two adjacent walls (see site plan, Eig. 1). They were built of random rag, faced with dressed stones, about 2 ft. thick and plastered internaUy. They were very similar in construction to those of period 1 in the bath-house. I t was not possible to investigate further and the structure has since been consumed by the quarry. THE PIT The removal of quarry overburden had left an exposed face westnorth- west of the bath-house. In it were visible a number of shallow pits and irregular hoUows extending for 130 ft. Only the largest pit was excavated. It was the furthest from the bath-house and lay at a distance of 260 ft. from its western corner. It was 6 | ft. in diameter and 3 ft. deep, and proved to have lost to the mechanical excavator about a quarter of its volume. It was bowlshaped in section and uniformly full of fine grey soU containing fragments of Belgic oUse (below, p. 144). No specific function could be detected for it. CONCLUSION In the reports of the 1942 excavations1 mention was made of "evidence during periods of dry weather, of masonry near to the surface both adjoining to and nearby". Apart from buUding % of which there was no trace on the surface, but which was subsequently exposed in the course of quarrying, no remains could be discovered to substantiate this conjecture despite extensive digging of trial holes and probing to the north and north-east of the bath-house, in that part of the field unaffected by quarrying operations. In aU cases the rock surface was met at a depth varying eastwards from 2 ft. 6 in. to 9 in., the surface declining relative to the level of the rock with the faU of the ground in that direction. I t is not possible, therefore, to be precise concerning the activity with which the bath-house was associated, though the identification of building 2 might have greatly assisted in this. An earher find, however, suggests that it may have been farming. In 1936s a pit containing 1 A.O., 55 (1942) 76 f. and J.R.S., 33 (1943), 77. 2 A.C., 48 (1936) 234 f. For other finds at Little Chart see V.C.H., I l l , 158 (?Roman cremations near Warren House) and A.C., 48 (1936) 236 (Anglo-Saxon burials in the Stambers Field quarry). 142 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT charred wheat was reported to have been discovered " just outside the walls of Surrenden Park, Little Chart ", but, inconsistently, its exact position is given as lat. 51° 11' 20" N. and long. 0° 46' 39" E. The description, however, aUows Stambers field as a possible site. No description of the pit is given which might in fact identify it With a storage pit of the type best known from the Iron Age A site of Little Woodbury1 and the Romano-British farms of Cranbourne Chase.2 The wheat proved to contain a few grains of oats and barlev, and seed of the cornfield weed Bromus secalinus.3 A Roman date is most probable in view of the presence over the pit of a flanged tile and inside it of two stones of a species of Prunus, perhaps cherry, a tree of Roman introduction.* THE POTTERY (Eig. 5). The well This group of fragments was found in the excavated section of the well between the stripped rock surface and the quarry floor. The filling was consistent throughout and pieces of the same vessel (3) were found at both top and bottom. The terra nigra (3, 5 and 7) cannot be long post-Claudian, but some pieces, including the inferior wares of pronounced native character (10, 12,14 and 18), may be as late as the early second century. The pottery is consistent with the disuse of the well and its deliberate filling over a comparatively short period of time not later than the mid-second century. Figured Samian Eig. 5 : 1 . Eorm 30 Drag. Good pinkish-red glaze. Vine scroll with pointed heart-shaped leaf; double outline. Perhaps Claudius- Nero. Plain Samian Eig. 5 : 2. Form 27 Drag. Dull, reddish glaze ; overfired. EuU bead-rim ; perhaps a grooved foot-ring. Mid first-century. Gallo-Belgic : terra nigra Eig. 5 : 3, 5 and 7. Bowls. Well levigated, pale grey ware ; black wash mostly disappeared. Terra nigra rarely occurs after Claudius. 1 Gerhard Bersu, Excavations at Little Woodbury, Wiltshire. P.P.S. 6 (1940) 30 ff., esp. 48 ff. 2 General Pitt-Rivers, Excavations in Cranbourne Chase I, 1887, 7 ff. and II, 1888, 51 ff. C. F. C. Hawkes, Britons, Romans and Saxons round Salisbury and in Cranbourne Chase, Arch. J., 104 (1948), 27 ff., esp. 36-48. 3 Prof. John Percival, A.C., 48 (1936), 235. * M. P. Charlesworth, The Lost Province, Cardiff 1949, 71 f. 143 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT Coarse pottery Eig. 5 : 4, 5 and 6. Everted rim beakers, 6 with shoulder cordon. Hard brownish-grey ware, burnished. Richborough 1: 75-7 and III: 290 ; A.D. 80-120. Eig. 5 : 9. Reeded rim bowl. Ware as last. Eig. 5 : 11. Reeded rim bowl. Dense granular grey ware. Richborough I. 79 : first century. Eig. 5 : 10 and 12. Bowls. Coarse grey-black ware, varying to brown, soapy surface ; hand made. Cf. Richborough 1: 73 and III: 223 and 224 ; A.D. 70-120. Eig. 5 : 13 and 15. Pie dishes. Grey ware ; black-brown slip, lattice on outer face ; late first-early second century. Fig. 5 : 14. Olla. Black ware with soapy surface, as 10 and 12, but wheel-turned. Cf. Richborough 1: 52 and Leicester Eig. 42 : 30. Fig. 5 : 16. Storage jar. Heavy rolled rim ; coarse, unevenly fired ware, grey to brown. Fig. 5 : 17. Mortarium. Pinkish-buff ware. Cf. Richborough IV : 495 ; late first century. Wroxeter 1912. Fig. 19 : 22, 26 and 30 ; A.D. 80-120. Fig. 5 : 18. Jar. Black ware ; soapy surface, as 10, 12 and 14 ; perhaps hand-made. Cf. Richborough 1: 13 and II: 140 ; both Claudian. Eig. 5 : 19. Flagon. Pink ware. Cf. Wroxeter 1912 : 2 ; A.D. 80- 120. Silchester pi. Ixii, 118. Eig. 5 : 20. Lid. Hard grey ware with granular surface. Leicester, p. 119, type C ; conquest-mid-second century. The pit With the exception of an unidentifiable fragment of Roman ware, the pottery from the pit was Belgic. There is, however, no reason to beheve that any of it is pre-Roman, as the ware continued in vogue well into the second half of the first century. Ollae with combed decoration Coarse, gritty grey fabric. The ware is discussed in Richborough II, pp. 97-9 ; v. pis. xxix and xxx : 135 and 136. Cf. Canterbury 1945 and 1946 no. 61. PI. X : 1. Body fragment of a large olla, maximum diameter perhaps 26 in. Oblique combing in bands of alternate dhection, 1 | in. wide. PI. X : 2-5. Rim fragments of smaller bead-rim oUse with plain band, 1-1| in. wide, below rim, and horizontal combing below. PI. X : 6. Body fragment of similar oUa with combing horizontal above and, below, curving diagonally down. 144 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT PI. X : 7. Body fragment of a large oUa comparable in size to 1, with applied strip of finger-pinched decoration. Cf. Verulamium, pi. h, 17, from Wheathampstead oppidum. THE COINS Tetricus I (270-3) 1. Ant. M. and S. 100. Obv. IMP C TETRI . . . bust rad. dr. r. Rev. PAX vert. sc. 2. Ant. M. and S. 101/2 (barbarous). Carausius (287-93) 3. Ant. M. and S. 101. Obv. Bust rad. dr. cuh. r. Rev. PAX vert, sc. F/O :ML Fausta 4. AE3, reduced 12.5 Obv. ? FLAV MAX EAVSTA AVG diademed bust, r. Rev. % Victory Cohen 7, p. 337 : 24. IConstantine II as Cajsar (317-37). 5. AE3, reduced 13.5-15. Rev. GLORIA EXERCITUS two soldiers and standard. ? —rnrJS— None of the coins listed above was found in a stratified context. Four illegible coins were recovered from the top layer of stokehole ash—1 AE2, 1 AE3 and 2 AE4 (thick flan. 8-9 mm.). SMALL FIND Bone pin. Leicester type C.2, fig. 90 : 8. From the top layer of stokehole ash (fourth century). ABBREVIATIONS A. Archaeologia. A.C. Archaeologia Cantiana. Arch. J. Archaeological Journal. J.R.S. Journal of Roman Studies. P.P.S. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. V.C.H. Victoria County History. Canterbury 1945 and 1946 Audrey WUliams and Sheppard Frere, Canterbury Excavations, Christmas 1945 and Easter 1946. A.C. 61 (1943) 1 ff. Leicester K. M. Kenyon, Excavations at the Jewry Wall Site, Leicester. Report of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries No. XV, 1948. 145 A ROMAN BATH-HOUSE AT LITTLE CHART, KENT Richborough I, II, III, IV, J. P. Bushe-Fox, First, Second, Third and •Fourth Reports on the Excavation of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent. Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries nos. VI, VH, X and XVI, 1926, 1928, 1932 and 1949. Verulamium, R. E. M. and T. V. Wheeler, Verulamium. Report of the . Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, no. XI, 1936. Wroxeter 1912, J. P. Bushe-Fox, Excavations on the Site of the Roman Town at Wroxeter, Shropshire, in 1912. Report of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, no. 1, 1913. Cohen, H. Cohen, Description historique des monnaies frappis sous I'empire romain. Paris, 1885-8. M. and S., H. Mattingly and E. A. Sydenham. The Roman Imperial Coinage, London, 1923. 146