Senium

Speaking of imports from China, I come across the strangest stuff sometimes, and usually while researching towards something else. Here is a story that I do not attempt to validate. I am only presenting it as found... http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/caah/landscap...down_man_l.html And so, we take note that there are actually two Chinese vessels noted here in the link info that seem to have been found in Kent from Roman times. One of the objects had its authenticity questioned but not dismissed. But the other apparently was not questioned as to its authenticity. I just thought I would share this with you.

I would take issue with part of your point regarding the production (and by implication distribution) of Roman pottery in Britain. While granted that the Gaulish (and other continental) centres of production did have some influence on Britain, as can be seen from the individual pottery distribution maps available at this link to Potsherd website, Roman style 'Fineware' pottery production seems in a few instances to have continued in Britain until around the mid 5th century - long after direct continental imports had ceased. Unfortunately what the maps cannot show is the extent to which pottery production continued although as you implied it probably was a shrinking market as Roman influenced financing and consequently infrastructure supporting it declined. And demographics played a part in it as well. The collapse of Roman Britain also seems to have apparently happened in a time of depopulation. It seems like everything was hitting them all at once...invasions by barbarians, collapse of the monetary systems, plagues, internal strife and political instability, ruralization of the surviving populace, interruptions in the economy and food supply...and on it goes. The more we dig the worse it gets. No wonder the pottery industry took a hit. And again, the funerary practices had been changing since Christianization, so less need for funerary pieces like burial urns, etc as fewer cremations were taking place. One thing I have seen here is talk about the semi-fine porcelin mentioned here and there, as being something almost like China. Was it China? Europe didnt have the good Kaolin clay to make China with, but later Europeans could make severe glaze ceramics. So, is there a school of thought that ceramics of the highest order might have been imported from Asia along the silk road?

Well pottery making didnt completely dry up after the Romans left, but the stuff that the Saxons made was rough, inferior, and few and far between. And we must remember that a great deal of the Roman era pottery was actually made in Roman Gaul. The collapse of the cross channel trade led greatly to the end of high quality pottery in Britain, along with a general collapse of British made quality pottery as well. We might look to the funerary practices of the different cultures to see this. Christianity didnt completely go away after the withdrawl of Rome. But the few surviving Christian Churches were led more and more by Irish monks, this being what is commonly called the "Celtic Church". St Augustine did try to bring these independent Churches into the Catholic fold, but without success. The Celtic style Churches were independently organized and small affairs of local significance. And so, St Augustine didnt reintroduce Christianity into Britain in 597 AD, he re-introduced organized Christianity. It was still a fearful time, and road travel was dangerous. And so, communications were hampered greatly because of the brigands that dotted the landscape. Dark Ages indeed.

I had heard that Tsar Nicholas refused permission for searchers to look for the library as late as the 20th century. So the story is an old one.

Hello all. I am Senium, an American novice historian. I think I will like it here.

Hello all. Im new here and pleased to be in such August company. My querries about Roman Canterbury are two fold. Here goes... Was there an ancient pilgrimage or otherwise important religious site that the Romanized Celts used in Durovernum Cantiacorum, more than just what would be normal for a Roman-Celtic time. But something really important? Was it a religious center of some sorts up until the late fourth century? And my second question...Did the Christianization of Kent (and Roman Britain in general) lead Durovernum Cantiacorum to begin a decline and depopulation even sooner than th rest of Roman Britain? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.