H 
ROMAN POTTERY FOUND IN BRITAIN. 
below, and bends sharply upwards and in a semi-circle outwards 
to the high shoulder. The lower half of the body curves inwards 
to a cut-off base without moulding or foot-ring. 
Post-Antonine Period, A.D. 192—250. 
Before the middle of the III. Century, when they begin to be 
displaced in the inhumation, or Christian graves, by little jug-like 
flagons with spouts, less than six inches high, the tall white flagons, 
like the bulbous goblets referred to in Table III., part 3, have 
become elongated to an inordinate degree. The mouth-piece is 
reduced to a flat ring, or to an outcurved continuation of the neck 
without any off-set, but only a shallow groove defining it. The 
round-bent, two-ribbed handle is no longer attached to the neck, 
on which there is no room, but to the under-side of the lip. The 
lower half of the body is markedly concave or tapers rapidly to a 
small-ended stump, too narrow for elegance or stability, so that 
the vessel appears top-heavy. 
The body proportions as shown in Table VI. have diminished 
20 per cent., equal to a decrease in the diameters of bulge and 
base of one quarter and one half respectively, in the course of 
two-and-a-half centuries. 
Late Period, A.D. 250—400. 
The rarity of the larger type of flagons during the later period 
appears as much due to the preferential use of glass, sigillata-ware 
decorated with white paint or en barbotine, colour-coated and other 
‘ fancy wares ’ for domestic purposes, as to the discontinuance of 
their deposit in the graves. 
Small flagons, less than 6 inches in height and one third or one 
quarter the content of the ordinary ones already described, made 
their appearance quite as early and underwent the same gradual 
deterioration as the others, and when they begin to prevail in the 
middle of the III. Century, they display the rough workmanship, 
coarse material, and other deficiencies of their contemparies. The 
body has markedly concave or unduly contracted upper and under 
profiles and ends in a small cut-off base. The lip is mostly plain, 
and, to provide a spout, is bent down slightly on the side opposite 
to or at right angles to the handle. They are thick sided and of 
hard pasty clay of a light shade,—dirty white, pale buff and drab 
or Portland cement colour predominating. 
