The Emperor Nero's pottery and tilery at Little London, Pamber, by Silchester, Hampshire. The excavations of 2017

Fulford, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8780-9691 (2022) The Emperor Nero's pottery and tilery at Little London, Pamber, by Silchester, Hampshire. The excavations of 2017. Britannia Monograph Series, 36. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, London, pp200. ISBN 9780907764502

Abstract/Summary

The geophysical survey and excavations of 3 pottery and 2 tile kilns and associated features at Little London, Pamber, Hampshire in 2017 are described. Individual chapters follow setting out the finds: the pottery, the brick and tile, including tile stamped with the Emperor Nero's name and titles, the wood charcoal, the charred plant remains and a few miscellaneous other finds. Chapters follow on radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling and an archaeomagnetic investigation. A concluding contextual discussion reviews the various strands of evidence: while the pottery appears to have been consumed locally at Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum), the brick and tile, including distinctive, relief-patterned tile, was consumed in Calleva but also reached destinations c. 100km distant from the kilns. Production appears limited to a period between the AD 50s and 70s. The visit of freedman Polyclitus to Britain in the aftermath of the Boudican rebellion may account for the Nero-stamped tiles.