Pudding Pan : a Roman shipwreck and its cargo in context

Abstract

Through contact with national and international institutions and with private collectors, this study has doubled the known assemblage.  Analysis of the enhanced assemblage has confirmed the existence of at least three discrete sources of material dating from c AD65-85, c c AD175-195, and from the early third century.  As well as confirming that, contrary to popular belief, artefacts continue to be recovered from the site, local fisherman have also provided more accurate locational information for two of the sources which has clarified the long-standing confusion between Pudding Pan and Pan Sand.  Detailed analysis of the wear and damage coupled with assessment of the rate at which artefacts have been recovered suggests that the main second century source represents a significant and cohesive buried deposit of plain samian wares.  This has serious implications for our current understanding of the trade in pottery which consensus suggests was of too low value to transport in its own right, hence the notion of a parasitic, piggy-back trade.  However, this study has shown that supporting evidence from Mediterranean shipwrecks reflects a heavy detection bias in favour of amphora-laden wrecks; pottery cargoes do exist but have only been found on multiple wreck sites during the investigation of other more visible wrecks.

In this light, the Pudding Pan cargo is assessed as one link in the samian supply chain; the recovered assemblage is compared with deposits from similar sites closely associated with the trade in samian wares such as shops, warehouses and dockside dumps.  The assemblage is also compared with samian assemblages from probable destination sites in Britain which reveals that decorated wares appear to have been deliberately excluded in favour of large plain bowls.

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