Oare Reconsidered and the Origins of Savernake Ware in Wiltshire

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the significance of the so-called ‘Late Celtic rubbish heap’ near Oare (Nat. Grid Ref. SU 172643) in the parish of Wilcot, near Marlborough in central Wiltshire and to assess its implications for Savernake ware, a regional variety of grey culinary coarse pottery, known to have been produced in Savernake Forest, just south of Marlborough, Wiltshire. The site in question (FIG. I), 6–4 km south-west of the Roman walled town of Cunetio (Mildenhall) was dug into in 1907–8 by Benjamin and Maud Cunnington. Mr. and Mrs. Cunnington were attached to Devizes Museum from the late nineteenth until almost the mid twentieth century and became well known for their many excavations and publications, particularly on prehistoric sites in Wiltshire.

Landscape Plotted and Pieced : Landscape History and Local Archaeology in Fyfield and Overton, Wiltshire

“…Ancient forest, however, may also have lain to the west within the Fyfield/Overton area. The presence of forest is not in dispute, particularly locally with the presence of Roman pottery kilns in Savernake Forest (Annable 1962;Swan 1975Swan , 1984. What is important is the extent to which that forest covered the land during the latter half of the first millennium AD.…”

“…The precise chronology of this is not certain, due in part to the continuing debate over the date of the establishment of the Savernake pottery industry. Swan (1975) sees it as a post-Roman Conquest establishment whilst Timby and Hopkins (pers comm) prefer a pre-Conquest date. The outcome of this debate will be crucial to the dating of the start of this major phase of activity.…”