CELTIC AND ROMANO-BRITISH HERTFORDSHIRE 



^•dVouSS^i2^^^??7r:^^ 



■■. Furnace' Flopif;.^ 



which had been destroyed by the fall of the dome of the oven, but the furnace had been 

 damped down by covering the mouth with puddled clay which still remains. Roman ovens 

 of circular shape with floors supported in a similar fashion to that of the Radlett kiln have 

 been found at Castor (Northants.), Shoebury (Essex) and under St. Paul's Cathedral (London). 

 The pots found in the kilns were mostly whitish-red coarse mortaria, but also included jug- 

 shaped amphorae, urn-shaped pots and perhaps their covers and various forms of paterae 

 (PI. XV, xvi), some of these having sand mixed with the clay, which gave them a bright appearance. 

 Twenty-two of the mortaria were stamped on the rim ' castvs,' ' castvs fecit ' or ' fecit castvs.' 

 On one was ' albinvs ' and on two 



'fecit' spelt backwards, and four P'-^s^"^ °'"°""'^ '-^^^' 



bore illegible inscriptions. The 

 name ' Castus ' has not been found 

 on mortaria before, but there was 

 a potter of that name at La Grau- 

 fesenque in Gaul (and maker of 

 form 29), and this name also occurs 

 at Rheinzabern. But many mor- 

 taria have been found stamped 

 ' Albinus,' and some showing there 

 was a Lyons potter of that name. 

 It is also said to have been found 

 on La Graufesenque plain saucers 

 and on some from Rheinzabern. It 

 is evident that the potter to whom 



the kiln belonged was called Castus. 



Perhaps the ' Albinus ' mortarium 



had been imported from Gaul to 



be used as a model. [Account by 



Mr. Page the excavator in St. Allans 



and Herts. Arch, and Archit. Soc. 



Trans. (New Ser. 1 899-1900), i, 



176-84, with plans, hence Journ. 



of Arch. Inst. Iviii, 95, and Proc. 



Soc. Antiq. xvii, 261]. For the 



potters see Walters, Cat. of Roman 



Pottery in the Brit. Mus. (1908), 



no. M. 124, 609, 978 (Castus) pp. 



liv, 428 ; Cat. of Guildhall Mus.[^ 



(1903), 103, 104 (Albinus) ; Deche- 



lette, Les vases c'eramiques orn'es 



(1904), i, 81-2 ; Ludowici, Romischer 



Topfer, SUmpel-Namen, and Stem- 



pel-Bilder in Rheinzabern (1901-8). 



See also the last volume, pp. 151- 



64, Artis, Durobrivae (1828), Proc. 



Soc. Antiq. xvi, 42, for ovens. 

 RoYSTON. — Stukeley mentions Roman 



coins from here and states in one 



place that ' this very year (1724) 



they found Roman coins near there,' 



and describes one of brass plated 



over silver of Agrippina and Nero 



(a.d. 54-9), Cohen no. 7, but this 



does not seem sufficient evidence for 



V 



O 



Scale of Feet 

 2 3 4 



e 



Plan and Section of a Potter's Kiln found at 

 Radlett (No. i) 



the site of a Roman town, as he supposed, at the crossing ^V^^^^^^^J"^^^^^^^ 

 which iust here has a Roman appearance -^^ ^%'^'^ 'ZiatlTi^ 2; hence 



shire [Stukeley, Itin. Curios. (1724), i, 76; and {'^^^^Sr^^^^^^^rfi^Jl'tn bronze 3 in. high, 

 Reynolds, Itii. Antonini (1799), 460, &c.]. The bust of a ^°^-^^^J^ f^S xvii, 270] 

 with hair' dressed in the style of the 3rd century, --/^'J'i^f^fXrd ip fn ^ at 



Two brass coins of Pius (a.b. 138-61) and Verus (a^d ^^/^jre turned "^07), 126 ; Daily 



