132 Notes on a Late Celtic Hitbbish Heap, near Oare. 



part of the maker's stamp ; the first two letters AT are quite 

 clear, and it is perhaps that of ATIIIVS (ATEIVS), of whose 

 stamp there is an example in the British Museum (PI. VI. A). 1 

 Eight other small fragments of Arretine ware. 

 A single base of a characteristic Late-Celtic pedestal vase 

 (PI. V. F) was found, and it is possible that the cordoned frag- 

 ments (PI. V., C and E) may belong to a similar vessel. 

 The fragments of Arretine ware are of special interest, for not 

 only is it rare in Britain, 2 but they help to date the find with a 

 considerable degree of accuracy. This red painted ware takes its 

 name from the Italian town of Arezzo (Arretium), which was the 

 centre of its production in the first and second centuries B.C., and 

 the first years of the first century AD. At about this latter date 

 the art of making this ware was introduced into Gaul, and potteries 

 were established there. The earliest Gaulish factories were 

 probably started by potters from Italy, who at first made pottery 

 in imitation of, or similar to, that of Arezzo. 



If the name of the potter on the fragment of Arretine ware from 

 Oare is indeed that of Ateius, as Mr. Smith thinks probable, it is 

 particularly interesting. The name is well known, and seems to 

 have been that of a large and important manufacturer. His stamp 



1 This pottery was shortly described aod illustrated by three drawings in 

 a paper " On some Fragments of Arretine ware and other pottery, from a 

 Late-Celtic Rubbish Heap at Oare, Wilts," by M. E. Cunnington, in The 

 Reliquary, January, 1909, Vol. xv., pp. 57 — 61; also in a paper in Man, 

 February, 1909, " Notes on a Late-Celtic Rubbish Heap near Oare, Wiltshire," 

 pp. 18 — 21, six illustrations. 



2 Mr. H. B. Walters, of the British Museum, writing in the Proc. Cambridge 

 Antiq. Soe., No. XLVIIL, 1908, on "An Arretine Vase in the Cambridge 

 Archaeological Museum," says " The Cambridge Vase stands almost by itself 

 as an example of an Arretine ornamented Vase exported to Britain. But 

 fragmentary specimens are not unknown. There are some half-dozen in the 

 British Museum, all found in London. And another was recently found at 

 Bicester, in Oxfordshire, and exhibited by Professor Haverfield at the Society 

 of Antiquaries (1907). Proc. Soc. Ant., xxi., 462, jig. Plain Vases with j 

 Arretine stamps are also sometimes found. But all or nearly all of these 

 must belong to the period before the conquest by Claudius, and are only ' 

 accidental exportations." There is a vase in the Beading Museum by ATEIVS 

 from Silchester. The fragment from Alchester near Bicester, mentioned I 

 above is in the Ashmolean Museum. 



