The Production, Use and Disposal of Romano-British Tin and Tin and Lead Alloy Tableware
There remains a wide variety of evidence for the production and co~sumption of tin and lead alloy tableware in Roman Britain. In this thesis it is the categorisation of RomanoBritish tin and lead alloy tableware, as well as vessel production moulds, manufacturing debris and compositional data for pewter vessels that forms the study's foundation. Yet it is the main purpose of this thesis to place this data in a wider social, economic' and chronological context. In particular two powerful theoretical perspectives - that social identities could be constructed through the consumption of 'objects', and that such identities can be recorded in an object's depositional context - have informed this research. The main result of this study is that pewter tableware, although a 'Romanized' material, could create and maintain a range of different social identities. Functionally different vessels, for example, can be taken as indicators of different 'lifestyle' choices, the comparative values of which shifted over time. However, these identities could also be renegotiated over time to suit a number of 'atypical' personal choices, such as the reuse of high status vessels in ritual or low status roles. Another key result is
Lee, Richard
The Production, Use and Disposal of Romano-British Tin and Tin and Lead Alloy Tableware. There remains a wide variety of evidence for the production and co~sumption of tin and lead alloy tableware in Roman Britain. In this thesis it is the categorisation of RomanoBritish tin and lead alloy tableware, as well as vessel production moulds, manufacturing debris and compositional data for pewter vessels that forms the study's foundation. Yet it is the main purpose of this thesis to place this data in a wider social, economic' and chronological context. In particular two powerful theoretical perspectives - that social identities could be constructed through the consumption of 'objects', and that such identities can be recorded in an object's depositional context - have informed this research. The main result of this study is that pewter tableware, although a 'Romanized' material, could create and maintain a range of different social identities. Functionally different vessels, for example, can be taken as indicators of different 'lifestyle' choices, the comparative values of which shifted over time. However, these identities could also be renegotiated over time to suit a number of 'atypical' personal choices, such as the reuse of high status vessels in ritual or low status roles. Another key result is
production_use disposal romano_british tin tin lead alloy tableware remains wide_variety evidence production tin lead alloy tableware roman_britain categorisation tin lead alloy tableware well vessel production mould manufacture debris compositional data vessel form study foundation yet main_purpose place data wider_social economic chronological_context particular powerful theoretical_perspective social_identity could construct consumption objects identity record object depositional_context inform research main study tableware although material could create_maintain range_different social_identity functionally different vessel example take indicator different lifestyle choice comparative value shift time however identity could also renegotiate time suit number atypical personal choice reuse high_status vessel ritual low_status role another key