Exponential Decline in the Dispersal of Stone Artefacts in R oman B ritain: Further Expressions of Trade

Several industries that exploited stone are known to have sprung up in I ron A ge– R oman and R oman B ritain. They include the fashioning of rotary querns from the U pper O ld R ed S andstone of the F orest of D ean and the L ower C retaceous H ythe B eds ( L odsworth rock) of W est S ussex, the production of whetstones from sandstones in the W eald C lay F ormation of the north‐west W eald, and the manufacture of a wide range of products from the U pper J urassic P urbeck M arble of south‐east D orset. The dispersal of goods from these sources is found to exhibit a similar exponential decline with distance to that previously demonstrated for prehistoric stone artefacts and R omano‐ B ritish ceramics. Evidently, interactions at settlements led to the retention of a roughly constant proportion of the goods brought there.