Roman fine pottery from a cellar under Oil-press E.I at Chhim (Lebanon)

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The paper considers a set of surprisingly well preserved Eastern Sigillata A and Late Roman C/Phocean Red Slip Ware and D/“Cypriot” Red Sip Ware vessels from the late 1st-early 2nd century AD, found in the bedding fill of a cellar floor of an oil pres building located in the mountain village of Chhim in Lebanon. The set included plates (EAS Forms 35, 37B, 53), a jug (ESA Form 108) and dishes (LRC Form 1?, LRD Form 1). Local plain pottery was represented by Chhim Ware jugs and table amphorae. The deposit was dated contextually to the mid 1st-century AD and linked to the earliest village occupation in the area. It demonstrated that the residents of the village in the early Roman age, most probably involved in the profitable olive-oil industry of the times, had means enough to curry to a fashion for owning some of the best tableware available on the Levantine coastal market.