Bookshelf
"Lullingstone Park - The Evolution of a Mediaeval Deer Park
by Susan Pittman
15 X 21 cm, 96 pages, 69 photographs, line illustrations and maps.
Paperback £3.95 + postage.
The evolution of this excellent study followed a request to the author from a natural history study group for two paragraphs on the subject. In attempting to meet this request, Mrs Pittman found that little had been written up on the subject and even less was known.
Whilst the natural history group were satisfied, we readers, too, benefit from a tightly written-up account of the history of the emparking of this considerable area in the Darent Valley of NW Kent as well as drawing together as much of its pre-history as has been discovered to date.
This original research has resulted in a modestly priced work which should find a ready place on all library shelves.
The Cantiaci
by Alec Detsicas
21 x 14 cm, 220 pages, 43 line illustrations and photographs.
Hardback £9.95, paperback £5.95.
This is the latest work in the "People of Roman Britain" series formerly published by Duckworths, which readers will remember included "The Regni" by Barry Cunliffe.
"The Cantiaci" encompasses the area of Britain now known as Kent as well as part of Sussex in its survey.
The new book has sections on the Tribal Territory and the pre-Roman Iron Age; a history of the area from AD 43 to 367; Communications and Urban Settlement; Religion; Industry and the Economy; and one on the eventual collapse of Roman authority. We are pleased to be able to draw attention to the author who will be known to members as the Hon. Ed. of Archaeologia Cantiana.
Both of the above books, as well as hundreds of others, are available from the KAS Travelling Bookstall.
The Roman Pottery of Kent
by R.J. Pollard
Richard Pollard's thesis, submitted for the degree of Ph.D., at the end of 1982, represents a step forward in understanding the Roman pottery of the county. The work is essentially assemblage-oriented, 115 sites being investigated at first hand and a further 145 studied through publication. The emphasis is therefore on the distribution and use of native and imported wares in the region.
The types and fabrics of pottery in use are first described and the way they develop with time is traced. The cross-section of pottery use at each site is then used to construct "Style-Zones", defined separately for six phases of the Roman occupation. This may prove to be the work's most useful and enduring feature. A straightforward review of the native industries, their development and demise is followed by a study of the Canterbury industry as compared to similar production centers in the southeast. This leads to general discussions of various economic aspects of production and distribution. The way in which different classes of vessels follow different marketing patterns is investigated. The appendices contain a quantitative analysis of the sites and a key to the fabrics identified.
The work is an awesome 700 pages long and being an academic presentation is discursive in places. It does however contain a mass of information and ideas useful to those interested in Roman pottery, and Kentish archaeology as a whole. The author informs me that publication of a polished version cannot be contemplated before 1985 at the earliest. An expansion of some of his ideas is, however, to be found in the forthcoming Lullingstone II and Marlowe Car Park publications. The K.A.S. library has therefore obtained two photocopies of the complete thesis, one of which will be available for loan to members.
Jason Monaghan
