On the Excavations at 'Rotherley, Woodcuts, and Bokerly Dyke. 303 



found associated with an inferior quality of ware, was nearly absent 

 in Woody ates, the proportion being no more than 0'03 per cent., as 

 against %' 16 per cent, at Woodcuts, and 1-50 at Rotherley. The 

 number of large handles for pitchers and small handles for saucers 

 was exactly in the same proportion as at Woodcuts, viz., 0*32 per 

 cent. A class of pottery, of soft cream-coloured texture in the 

 interior of the substance and painted on the outside, was abundant 

 at Woodyates, but rarely found in the other villages, the proportion 

 being, in Woodyates, as much as 3*7 per cent., and in Woodcuts 

 only O'l per cent., whilst in Rotherley one fragment only was 

 found. This must be regarded as a superior class of pottery, and 

 somewhat allied to the New Forest Ware in form. 1 New Forest 

 Ware, hard and well-baked, was, in Woodyates, 3*9 per cent., 

 against 0*78 per cent, in Woodcuts, and G'9 per cent, in Rotherley, 

 Samian pottery of the best quality was less abundant, being 09 in 

 Woodyates, as against 2*1 in Woodcuts, and 2*3 in Rotherley. 

 British imitation of Samian amounted to 0*6 per cent, in Woodyates, 

 but was scarcely a recognizable quality in Woodcuts and Rotherley. 

 Upon the whole, notwithstanding the small proportion of the best 

 class of Samian, the ordinary pottery was of a superior quality in 

 Woodyates to the other villages. 



The greater part of the fragments of pottery and iron nails were 

 found to the westward of the settlement, in, about, and to the rear 

 of the Fore Dyke, leading to the inference that this was the part 

 chiefly inhabited, and that the ditches to the north and east must 

 in all probability have been the boundary drains of fields rather 

 than of inhabited areas ; and this circumstance, together with the 

 information derived from the workmen as to the former discoveries 

 of Roman relics in the fields, on the surface, leads me to believe 

 that the part hitherto excavated, probably consists of the outskirts 

 of the settlement, and that the main body of it will eventually be 

 found to run on to the south, in the direction of the present village 

 of Woodyates. 



1 This quality of pottery is found in the Roman kilns at Crockle, in the New 

 Forest. 



