A Late Iron Age and early Roman pottery assemblage from Leybourne Grange, West Malling, Kent

Some 3500 sherds of pottery were recovered from excavations by Oxford Archaeology at Leybourne Grange, near West \nMalling in Kent. The assemblage spanned the Late Iron Age to early Roman period and was indicative of a basic-level \nrural settlement, although small amounts of imported amphorae, Gallo-Belgic wares and samian wares also recorded \nsuggest that the settlement was situated within wider trading networks. A notable aspect of the assemblage was the \npresence of pottery tempered with rock fragments identifi ed by petrographic analysis as sandstone. The pottery, hitherto \nnot recognised in the region, is likely to have been locally made, the sandstone having derived from the Hythe Formation, \nwhich forms part of the geology of the site. Despite the availability of the stone, sandstone-tempered pottery appears to \nhave been a short-lived phenomenon, perhaps relating to a period of experimentation during a time of fl ux in ceramic \ntraditions. This paper describes and discusses the sandstone-tempered pottery in its ceramic and regional context, and \nexamines themes of pottery supply, deposition and settlement status.