Reading a book that claims that Britain after the Roman Occupation became aceramic for centuries, that the populace were reduced to scavenging for funerary urns to cook in.

This may be common knowledge amongst those of a archaeological bent yet I was astonished. To claim that even in ancient(ish) times the link between the populace as a whole and those with knowledge of a relatively straightforward technology was vast, similar to me being told to get down to my local nuclear power station and get it going.

I was wondering if I had (yet again) fallen for a seductive yet flawed interpretation of our past? Has the claim validity? Since it concerns the post Roman world the evidence could only be archaeological. And if the populace were "scavenging" for pottery where would they look other than yet more ancient tombs and burial chambers, those dating to before the Roman invasion that seems to have infantilised British society? Is there proof of such desperate and sad vandalism?

(The book is good btw... The Real Lives Of Roman Britain by Guy de la Bedoyere).