Summer Practical Course on

ROMAN POTTERY

BULGARIA2017

PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES

Terra Sigillata / SAMIA VASA

• samia vasa (Latin) - Pliny the Elder’s Historia Naturalis (XXXV 12 (46), 160) provides us with evidence of the wars which were considered fashionable around the middle of the first century A.D.

• verb samiare (Latin) – “to polish”• The wares made in the Gaulish factories

are often referred to by English-speaking archaeologists as samian ware.

SAMIA VASA

• terra sigillata – astringent clay from

Lemnos or Samos, formerly used as

a medicine.

• sigillum - embossed figure, relief.

• terra sigillata – clay bearing little

images.

TERRA SIGILLATA

Eastern Sigillata A

Arratine

Southern Gaulish

Eastern Sigillata B (early period)

Eastern Sigillata B (late period)

Eastern Sigillata C (Çandarli )

African Red Slip Ware – ARS A

Eastern Sigillata

EASTERN SIGILLATA - late hellenistic to early Roman red-slipped tableware

Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) – Northern Syria, Antioch, Samaria.

Eastern Sigillata B (ESB) - western Asia Minor (near Tralles)

Eastern Sigillata C (ESC) - Pergamon , Çandarli

Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) – about 150 BC – 100 AD.

Eastern Sigillata B (ESB) – 10 BC – 150 AD

Eastern Sigillata C (ESC) – 150 BC – 100 AD

First production of Red Gloss ware

Terra Sigillata Italica

Main production centers in Italy

Arezzo

Terra Sigillata Arretina

Plain Terra Sigillata Italica

Relief Terra Sigillata Italica

A decorated Arretine vase found at Neuss, GermanySource: Wikipedia

Relief Terra Sigillata Italica is made in moulds

Mould for an Arretine , manufactured in the workshop of P. CorneliusSource: Wikipedia

The Arretine potters regularly stamped their names on their products in self-advertisement – a practice previously only sporadically employed.

These are usually quadrangular in form, though other shapes are found, and are impressed in the midst of the design on the ornamented vases, or on plain wares on the bottom of the interior.

The number of potters’ names is very large

SOUTH GAULISH TERRA SIGILLATA

South Gaulish, late 1st century ADSource: Wikipedia

Main Production centers in Gaul

South Gaulish

Central Gaulish

East Gaulish

The main production center in Sout Gaulia is studied in La Graufesenque (nr Millau,

Aveyron/FR)

La Graufesenque

New varieties of relief ware

Appliqué decoration

Marbled decoration (Gloss which imitate marble)

EARLY ROMAN THIN-WALLED WARES

EARLY ROMAN THIN-WALLED WARES

• Extreme thinness of the walls

• Produced in Italy starting from the late

Republican period.

• Widely exported into the first century

AD.

“Roweling” decoration

Decorations à la barbotine

Pine cone flakes decoration

Sandblasting

Bladk slipp

"Human face" vessels

AFRICAN RED SLIP WARE (ARS)

Produced in North African Regions

Sigillata Africana A – ARS A80s of the 1st c. AD - first quarter of the 3rd c. AD

Sigillata Africana A/D- ARS A/DAntonine-Severan age

Sigillata Africana C – ARS C3rd -5th c. AD

Sigillata Africana D- ARS D4th-7th c. AD

Provincial Roman PotteryProvince of Moesia

MOESIA SUPERIORUpper Moesia

(Serbia, Bulgaria)

MOESIA INFFERIORLower Moesia

(Bulgaria)

Imitation of Relief Terra Sigillata

Imitations covered with black slip

Imitation of terra sigillata plates

Imitation of terra sigillata with decoration “à la barbotine”

Imitations of Thin walled pottery

Imitation of potters’ stamps

• No potters’ names.

• Mainly imitations of "planta pedis".

• Decorative functions.

Imitations of terra sigillata with Appliqué decoration

"Sandy" wares made in different colors

Lead-glazed Ware

Jug with spots of glaze. In the process of production the jug is been in touch with glazed wares.

Lead-glazed jug with zoomorphic form

Coarse ware

SHAPES / TYPOLOGICAL SCHEMES

POCULA - Cups

CATINI, CATILLI, MAGIDES, LANCES - Dishes

ACETABULA, PAROPSIDES - Bowls

OLLAE - Jars

URCEUS, URCEOLUS - Pitchers

OPERCULUM, OPERCULA - Lids

Hans Dragendorff. Terra sigillata. Ein Beitrag zur Gescl1icl1te der griechiscl1en und romiscl1en Keramik. Bonn, 1890.

Conspectus Formarum Terrae Sigillatae Italico Modo Confectae Materialien zur römisch-germanischen Keramik 10. Frankfurt am Main, 1990.

Sigfried Loeschke. Sigillata-Töpferein in Tschandarli. Athenische Mitteilungen 37, 1912.

John Hayes. Late Roman Pottery. Rome, 1972

ANALISIS OF

POTTERY

Stratigraphic position (in years)

Quantity according to stratigraphic

layers

Main types in different periods

Methodology

Carefully revealing pottery shards.

Documenting the context.

Methodology

Documenting the context.

1

23

4

Methodology

Cleaning and sorting pottery.

Cleaning and

sorting pottery.

Analytical techniques

Marking and describing the shards.

Marking and describing the shards.

Typology (Dating and

Classification)Technical drawing. Scientific illustration.

Typology

June 17– June 302017Vidin

BULGARIA

www.archaeology.archbg.net