| Summary: | The understanding of material culture is a central component of the study of archaeology. This issue brings together papers that illustrate and advance both the process of artefact study and the interpretation of material culture. The e-Monograph by Steven Willis represents the culmination of many years of work undertaken with the support of English Heritage. The objective of the study was to examine the chronology of samian in Britain and to investigate its occurrence. This paper is the second phase of the project and brings together Willis' synthesis and analysis of the data that he has collected. Willis gives us an examination of samian dating and chronology in detail but he also gives us much more: A discussion of samian supply to Roman Britain, the role of samian as a social indicator of status, samian in use and samian as part of burial ritual. Other approaches to artefact study are taken here too, an analysis of the spatial distribution, the role of samian on religous sites and of course the place of samian in broader artefact assemblages.
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