Introduction: "Roman Pottery in the Near East: Where, Whence, Whither?" Second Round Table, Amman, 2014. In memoriam S. Thomas Parker (1950–2021)

Abstract

The initial idea for this kind of workshop on “Roman Pottery in the Near East” went back to the conference on Archaeology and Archaeometry in Parma and Pisa in 2008. We became very enthusiastic about the idea to initialise our own series of pottery workshops in which we would strive to connect scholars and researchers currently working on pottery from the Roman period in the Near East, mainly Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel, hoping to establish an academic network that would provide a platform for discussions for researchers of all levels that might transcend political differences. The 2014 round table in Amman focused on the large number of ceramic research projects from Transjordan and the Nabataean/Roman pottery studies from Middle and Southern Transjordan. The hottest discussion concerns established typo-chronology of Nabataean fine ware in the Petra region, an issue which is crucial for future pottery research in the Nabataean territories. The chronology is questioned by Tali-Erickson, to which Wenner provides a response. The presentation of eight papers from the round-table is dedicated to S. Thomas Parker, who supported the vision wholeheartedly and was an active participant and discussant in the workshops.