32 



a great change under the influence of the Romans, and the most 

 recent researches tend to show that comparatively httle care was 

 bestowed upon the dead of the poorer classes. In many cases 

 the bodies are found pitched pell-mell into their refuse pits, an 

 instance of which was exhumed not long since at Portslade, but 

 sometimes an apology for a grave was made in the drains and 

 ditches surrounding their villages and camps. The secondary 

 interments in the barrows of the preceding periods also show 

 that these were used as burial-places both by the Romans and 

 Romano-Britons. 



Broaching the subject of the fictile remains of the Romans 

 and Romano-Britons in Sussex, we find that the more notable 

 examples have been exhumed near Brighton, in the cemeteries in 

 the neighbourhood of Portslade, the approximate site of the 

 Portus Adurni* of the Romans, and at Seaford, Hassocks, and 

 Hardham in West Sussex. Taking the pottery found by Pro- 

 fessor Boyd Dawkins in the Romano-British cemetery at 

 Hardham, we observe the majority of the vessels are of a dark- 

 coloured ware. This colouring, together with the forms and 

 ornamentation of several of the vessels, resembles the Upchurch 

 ware, and the black colour is supposed to have been produced 

 by merely smothering the fire of the kiln and so sending volumes 

 of smoke through the chamber containing the pots in process of 

 baking. 



Another interesting discovery made at Hardham previously 

 to Professor Boyd Dawkins' investigations, is the large amphora 

 now before you. "With the excepti.)n of a coin of Hadrian, and 

 another Roman coin, it contained nothing but a quantity of dark 

 matter, which, in all probability, consisted of the ashes of the 

 dead. Before it had been used for sepulchral put poses, it had 

 lost the neck and handles, and a crack, which must have rendered 

 it useless for holding wine, prevented from extending by two 

 leaden rivets, was probably the cause of its being used to 

 cover human ashes" ("Sussex Arch. Coll.," vol. xvi., p. 51). Of 

 the other perfect amphora exhibited, all information has unfor- 

 tunately been lost ; it is probable, however, that it is a modern 

 foreign production. 



Another class of pottery figuring in our local collection is 

 that known as the New Forest ware, owing to the discovery of its 

 most typical forms at kilns in the New Forest. The two well- 

 known kinds are the cream-coloured and the hard ; the vessels of 

 the latter division are usually decorated with fluted indentations 

 made by the thumb or finger whilst they were in a plastic state. 

 This ornamentation also occurs on specimens of the Castor ware. 



Probably the most artistic little pot we possess from Port- 

 slade is that under the glass shade. It is a typical specimen of 



* Aldrington ; Scarth, Celtic Brit. 



