BLACK BURNISHED WARE
A piece of black burnished ware (potter) in The Armitt's collection
Riverside next to the field of the fort site
A piece of black burnished ware (potter) in The Armitt's collection
As you now stand facing the lake and the River Rothay, you might wonder – why did the Romans decide to build a fort in this beautiful spot? The answer to this question lies partly in artefacts like this one. This is a rim from a jar of hand-made Romano-British pottery called black-burnished ware. Made from a coarse black or grey clay containing abundant quartz, highly burnished on the exterior and often decorated with lattice patterns, these pots were widely distributed across Britain as containers for supplies for the army and to be used as kitchenware.
Black-burnished ware was made in large-scale production centres in south-east Dorset, so it must have been transported across the northern frontier zone of Britain to Ambleside. The nearby waterways made this movement of supplies and goods much easier, while also providing natural defences. Evidence for military contracts to supply Roman military units across the country with pottery such as this jar have been uncovered by archaeologists. An example of this is found in the tablets found at Vindolanda fort on Hadrian’s Wall. The presence of black-burnished ware at Ambleside shows us that, while it was in a remote area, the fort was not isolated, but part of a complex logistical system capable of moving goods across the empire.
The next section of the route explores the different parts of the Ambleside Roman Fort. You can use the signage around the fort to help you navigate. The first spot along the path closest to the river is the South Gatehouse. There should be a sign on the ground naming this.