Late Roman Dorset Black-Burnished Ware (BB1)

Much has been written about Roman Dorset Black-Burnished Ware (BB1) and its Late Iron Age Durotrigian origins since the industry was first recognised by Farrar, Gillam and Peacock at the end of the 1960s. However, most of this study has focused on the forms produced and distributed during the 1st to 3rd centuries. Late Roman Dorset Black-Burnished Ware (BB1) covers the late 3rd to early 5th centuries forms produced by the industry, with a corpus and phased distribution of the various products across South-Central and South-Eastern Britain, as well as the Channel Islands, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The various phases of BB1 production indicate that the distribution zone for the industry reached its maximum extent in Britain during the late 3rd century before a decline set in during the 4th and early 5th centuries. On the Continent, however, there was a considerable increase in supply to Northern French sites and those in Normandy and down the Seine valley in particular. The mechanisms behind late BB1 production, supply and the reasons for its disappearance are also discussed and evidence presented for the industry continuing to function on a much-reduced scale after the Roman abandonment of Britannia until the mid-5th century.