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Queries/Research(Pictures)                                                                                       

Swastika Decoration on Romano-British Pottery

	Some sherds from the Hadham Ware kiln site carry a decoration in the form of a stamped swastika. A stamped ovolo above, and possibly below, the decoration suggest an attempt to imitate a Dr. form 37. The fabric is typically Hadham, dull red in colour, with inclusions of red iron stone. One of the sherds is a waster and almost certainly made on the site. The only other similar vessel carrying this decoration, together with a "devolved floral motif",  is from Colchester (Roman Colchester, 247, fig 111, 4). Two sherds are known from elsewhere carrying only the ovolo design.    The use of the swastika on RB material has been noted on a copper alloy mount from Brougham (inf. Quita Mould) and on a brooch found on the Continent (inf. Donald Mackreth). Any information about the use of the swastika decoration on any artefacts, but ceramics in particular, would be of considerable interest to the writer.                                          Bernard Barr 22-05-2001
The only use of the swastika on Romano-British pottery that I have come across is from Holbrook, Derbyshire.  However, this example is painted and not stamped.  Furthermore the dating is much earlier than the Hadham example.  The Holbrook vessel is likely to be Antonine in date.  Brassington (1980, 46) describes the vessel as a flanged bowl in a cream fabric with a reddish-brown painted swastika on the underside of the flange.                                                                                                           Scott Martin, 23-05-01    In the course of my research for my dissertation, I located four C4th swastika stamps, which are as follows:      Stamp      County           Site                                      Description       J 1ai        Yorks        Malton, Roman vicus    Negative, left-facing swastika      J 2aii         Herts        Bromley Hall Farm        Positive, right-facing swastika in a negative ring     J 2aiv        Cambs      Cambridge, Castle Hill   Negative, right-facing swastika in a negative ring     J 3ci          Essex        Billericay                       Negative, left-facing swastika with multiple arms (hand-drawn)                                                  (In this context, negative means the area below the level of the pot surface -- the  area of clay depressed by the application of the stamp.)    The Cambridge stamp (shown here) is particularly interesting as it is directly paralleled by a stamp from the AS cemetery at St John's, Cambridge. It is the one stamp which appears to demonstrate continuity over the Roman/Dark Age divide. It is published in: _Roman Cambridge: excavations on Castle Hill 1956--1988_by John Alexander & Joyce Pullinger. Vol. LXXXVIII (1999) of the 'Proceedings of Cambridge Antiquarian Society'. ISSN 0309--3606                                                                            Yours ever   Diana Briscoe  24-05-01
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