Eastern Sigillata Research Articles

From Hellenistic slipped tableware to Roman Imperial Sagalassos Red Slip Ware: A petrographic and geochemical study

This paper offers new insights from the petrographic and geochemical characterisation of 92 pottery samples from the archaeological site of Sagalassos in SW Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). The sampled table wares form part of the Hellenistic to Roman Imperial local pottery production lines. The aim of this study is to reconstruct in more detail the tableware production at the site and examine Sagalassos Red Slip Ware (SRSW) in comparison with the pre-existing Hellenistic tradition in slipped pottery. The results suggest that Hellenistic Colour Coated Ware (CCW) and Gray Ware with Black Slip (GWBS) were locally produced at the site using the same raw materials as the ones used for the subsequent mass-produced Sagalassos Red Slip Ware (SRSW), namely clays from the nearby NW parts of the valley of Çanaklı. SRSW appears thus as a continuation of the Hellenistic tradition in slipped pottery at Sagalassos, at least as far as some choices for clay raw materials are concerned. At the same time, this study provides for the first time evidence of regional production of a type of eastern sigillata that appears macroscopically similar to SRSW, while the number of identified imported wares to the polis of Sagalassos contributes new evidence to the discussion on the production of GWBS in the wider region of Anatolia and the origin of Eastern Sigillata A (ESA). Using the site of Sagalassos as a case-study, this research aims to demonstrate the importance of the analytical examination of pottery in a longue durée perspective in order to reconstruct ceramic traditions and better understand the local and regional sociocultural mechanisms behind them.

Adrasan “Eastern Sigillata A” Plate Shipwreck

Adrasan “Eastern Sigillata A” Plate Shipwreck

The Artaxiad capital of ceramic: Exploring the changing local pottery production and exchange at Artaxata (Armenia) from the 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE

This paper offers an insight into the characteristics of local pottery production and exchange at Artaxata, modern Armenia, from the 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE, drawing from stratigraphic, typological and technological evidence. The pottery assemblage under study derives from the Armenian-German Artaxata Project, a collaboration between the Armenian Academy of Sciences and University of Münster since 2018. The excavation of various structures of Hill XIII and its adjacent plain, with a particular focus on Complexes A and B, reveals a change in the ceramic repertoire. A large proportion of fine ware, notably red-slipped ware of the Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) style and other tableware types, was recovered in the early phase (2nd to 1st century BCE). While these fine ware types continue to be found in the later phase (1st century BCE to 1st century CE), a greater quantity of coarse ware of utilitarian purpose such as storage jars and cooking vessels also appears. A few turquoise glazed vessels that are similar to the Parthian or Mesopotamian style were also recovered, but it is challenging to establish their date as they were mostly found in the topsoil. Such patterning can be explained by the shift in the function of Complexes A and B from serving as public buildings, possibly a sanctuary, during the early phase to domestic houses in the later phase.Despite these changes in the ceramic consumption patterns, this diverse range of ware types was mostly produced locally at Artaxata, based on the results of our technological study of 53 samples using thin-section petrography and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS). Although they were made locally, different types of fine, coarse and turquoise glazed ware were made in different workshops, each workshop having their own recipes and technologies. In particular, the ESA-styled red-slipped ware was exclusively made in a single workshop over an extended period of time, suggesting a high level of specialisation existed in local pottery production. Such characterisation reflects the status of Artaxata as the capital of the Artaxiad Kingdom, highlighting its ability to control of the production of certain products, especially the ones that are considered to be of high quality and cosmopolitan.

Unguentaria in pre-Roman Dacia. Finds from Cetăţeni

Various products from Asia Minor and Pontus reached the Geto-Dacian settlements north of the Lower Danube mainly from the 2nd century BC until the very beginning of the 2nd century AD. They are reflected in the archaeological discoveries especially through pottery (West Slope, Hadra/Lagynoi wares, Megarian Bowls, Appliqué wares, Lead Glazed ware, grey ware, Pergamene Sigillata, Eastern Sigillata B and Pontic Sigillata); amphorae from Rhodes, Thasos, Cnidus, Kos, Sinope, Heraclea Pontica, or Chersonesus; Pergamenian and Ephesian lamps and glass vessels made by various techniques (core made, mould or free blown, sagging, cut-faceted or splashed made). Following the excavations conducted between 2002-2004 in the Late Iron Age settlement at Cetăţeni (Argeș County, Romania), a pit containing autochthonous handmade and wheel thrown pottery, fragments of amphorae, a cylindrical glass bead and also an unguentarium fragment were discovered. From the chronological point of view of this sealed archaeological context is of great relevance for the settlement. The discovery allows us to make some observations concerning import and use of perfumes and aromatic oils north of the Lower Danube, in the Barbaricum, before the making of the new Roman province of Dacia.

Test of the Nabataean Painted Fine Ware typology in Aila’s Area K

Although Nabataean Painted Fine Ware (NPFW) has been examined in light of Stephan Schmid’s chronological typology since the late 1990s, few stratified contexts with NPFW from outside Petra have been published, and none derived from contexts occupied continuously from the Nabataean through Byzantine periods. Questions remain about the dating of later dekorphases (3–4) due to a lack of contexts. This paucity is remedied, however, by Area K at Roman Aqaba/Aila, Jordan. Area K was a domestic complex, just inside the later Byzantine city wall, excavated from 1994 through 2002. Using associated numismatic evidence and imported fine wares (primarily Eastern Sigillata A and African Red Slip), this paper argues that NPFW Dekorphase 3b appeared at Aila in the second half of the 1st century CE, and Dekorphase 3c appeared shortly afterwards, around the time of the Roman annexation in the beginning of the 2nd century.

EL COMERCIO DE TERRA SIGILLATA EN MESAS DO CASTELINHO (ALMODÔVAR-PORTUGAL): DATOS CONTEXTUALES Y PATRONES DE IMPORTACIÓN EN LA LUSITANIA MERIDIONAL

Mesas do Castelinho (Almodovar) is located in southern Portugal, an area traditionally recognized as a natural path connecting coastal region in the Algarve and the inland Alentejo region. Occuppied since 5th century BC, the site is still relevant during the Roman Republican phase. After the Augustan reforms it progressively loses importance to be abandoned at the end of the 1st century AD. Terra sigillata , recovered in the project directed by C. Fabiao and A. Guerra is abundant and forms a set of 322 pieces. Main categories are Eastern sigillata A, Italian-type, South Gaulish, Hispanic (from Andujar and Tritium ) and Penaflor type sigillata (“ sigillata de imitacion tipo Penaflor ”), ARS A and Phocean red slip ware. Following the economic dynamics of the site, the major phase of imports took place in Augustan-Tiberian period with progressive decrease until the end of the urban settlement in late 1st century AD. Episodic presence in the end of the 5th century AD is testified by one fragment of Phocaean red slip ware. The strategic position of Mesas do Castelinho determined its role during the Islamic period with fortress and settlement from the 9th-10th until the12th century, affecting and disturbing previous Early Roman phases.

Late Roman Potter

The Roman theatre in Nicaea is the most famous and well preserved monument from the Roman Imperial Period which was built under the supervision of the Bithynia governor, Plinius, during the rule of Trajan.1 The examined Late Roman pottery was found in a rubbish dump which covered the theatre. Following the stratigraphy and dating of the dump it is estimated to be from between 368 A.D. and 557 A.D. There is a renovation of the colonnaded gallery probably after the earthquake of 368 A.D. which is mentioned in the records.2 Many coins of the fourth century A.D. which were found during excavations might also be related with this renovation. But further earthquakes resulted in the theatre being gradually destroyed and abandoned. It seems that the theatre was used as a rubbish dump after the late fourth century A.D. until the earthquake of 557 A.D. A great number of African Red Slip ware has been found in this fill of the theatre. The main ceramic types are plates and bowls –Hayes Forms 53, 61 and 67– which have recently been classified as Africana D by S. Tortorella. A small group of Phocean Red Slip Ware “Late Roman C”, mainly bowls, dated to early in the 4th century until its disappearance in the third quarter of the sixth century A.D. have also been attested in the theatre of Nicaea. There is some “Eastern Sigillata C”, mainly in Hayes 3, also discovered in this dump. We have discovered some Light Colored Ware fragments in the Nicaea theatre which appear to be quite similar to the ones found in Parion. Recently E. Ergürer has published a group of Light Colored Ware dated between the fifth early sixth centuries A.D. from Parion.3 The production center of this ware is not securely determined so far but it is interesting to note that this ware is quite common both in Bithynia, Propontis and the Troad. As a result the aforementioned wares, which are treated for the first time in Nicaea, were found in the same rubbish dump over the theatre and are dated between the late fourth century and third quarter of the sixth century A.D.

Eastern Sigillata at Sardis: Evidence for a Local Industry

Eastern Sigillata B was an important ceramic ware of the Early Roman East, characterized by a shiny red gloss, micaceous clay body, and, in its first phase, epigraphic stamps on the vessel floor. Production was established in the Great Meander Valley in western Asia Minor as an offshoot of the Italian sigillata industry and flourished primarily in the 1st and 2nd centuries c.e. Vessels excavated at Sardis, some 75 km to the northeast, share the micaceous clay and red gloss of Eastern Sigillata B and are visually almost identical to products of the main production center, but some bear name stamps unique to the site, suggesting that a local production center existed at Sardis. It is now possible to test this proposal through wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis and, on this basis, to identify a group of local products. This article describes that process, sketches a portrait of local production, and explores the mechanism and timing of its establishment at Sardis.

Olba daki Urne Mezar da Bulunan Ölü Yemeğine Ait Terra Sigillata Seramikleri

Several types of tombs, some previously unknown in Eastern Rough Cilicia have been recorded after the excavations carried out in the necropoli at Olba. The recent discoveries not only enriched the tomb-typology of the region but also provided many small finds and ritual objects. Especially, the coins and pottery found in the burial grounds of Olba are important as they provide data for dating. During the excavations of the Urn-Tomb unearthed at the section called Niched Area I, within the burial pit and ritual section various types of kitchenware were discovered, generally belonging to the Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) group. A precise date can be given for these sherds by means of coins and other archaeological objects found in the same context. The pottery belongs to the AD early first century and reveals that the ritual meals were eaten and commemorative ceremonies were held within the burial area.

Distinguishing Between Rouletting and Chattering on Ancient Mediterranean Pottery

Although the various techniques used in ceramic production are obvious to those who work with clay professionally, they are not always recognized by archaeologists. A surface decoration commonly found on Greek and Roman fine wares, including Attic and Campanian Black Gloss, Thin-Walled Ware, Eastern Sigillata, Italian Sigillata, African Red Slip Ware, and Vesuvian Sigillata, is usually called rouletting, but I argue that in most cases the pattern is achieved by another technique known as chattering. Although some archaeologists are aware of the difference between the two procedures, there is ongoing confusion in the identification and use of these terms. This note discusses both decorative methods in an attempt to identify the diagnostic features that may help archaeologists differentiate between the two.

Experiments with Diachronic Data Distribution Methods Applied to Eastern Sigillata a in the Eastern Mediterranean

Experiments with Diachronic Data Distribution Methods Applied to Eastern Sigillata a in the Eastern Mediterranean

KARATAŞ BURNU YÜZEY ARAŞTIRMASINDA BULUNAN HELLENİSTİK VE ROMA DÖNEMİ KERAMİKLERİ

The present article deals with the Hellenistic and Roman pottery collected during the Karatas-Survey in 2007 at the site of the orthogonal settlement. Since the discovery of ruins in 1811 by F. Beaufort at Cape Karatas (Adana Provin­ce, Eastern Cilicia), scholars have discussed whether they belonged to Mallos or to its port and sanctuary Magarsos. Today it is usually agreed that the settlement encircled with fortifications on Cape Karatas belong to Magarsos. The earliest examples of Hellenistic fine ceramics from Karatas are the black-glazed pottery dating to the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century BC. The sherds, which can be compared with material from the deposits of Syrio-Palestinian sites (3rd-1st centuries BC), comprises mainly Hellenistic Colour-Coated pottery. Hellenistic and Roman Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) forms are also documented. The latest examples of Roman Period are Eastern Sigillata B (ESB) dating to the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. The coarse pottery assemblage comprises mainly storage, transport and kitchen vessels with light coloured fabric and displays a variety of forms including craters, mortaria, amphorae, and cooking vessels. The earliest examples can be compared with the ceramics of the 3rd century BC from different deposits in Syrio-Palestinian and Cypriot sites. A cooking pot (lopas), is the latest datable sherd among the coarse wares. Typological analogies with the findings from Tarsus and Knossos allow us to classify this type to Middle Ro­man Period.

A Latin Graffito on a Recently Discovered Eastern Sigillata A Sherd from Dalbaz Höyük, Bay of ?skenderun, Turkey

A Latin Graffito on a Recently Discovered Eastern Sigillata A Sherd from Dalbaz Höyük, Bay of ?skenderun, Turkey

Eastern Sigillata A in Italy

This paper takes a fresh look at the distribution of eastern sigillata A in Italy. The attested pattern is explained against the contemporary political, socio-economic and cultural background of the growing impact of Rome in the eastern Mediterranean. Especially in its early stages, the trade in eastern sigillata A formed part of wider patterns of dialectic exchange. In this way, the paper illustrates how the consumption of household artefacts could reflect and interact with wider processes, elevating eastern sigillata A to the status of desirable surrogate. Finally, a possible association with Rhosica vasa is suggested.*

A Nabataean and Roman Domestic Area at the Red Sea Port of Aila

This report summarizes in preliminary form the results from the first four seasons of excavation at a Nabataean and Roman domestic area in Aila (Aqaba). The first houses were mudbrick and were built in the Late Nabataean period. After a brief phase of abandonment in the early second century A.D., the area was rebuilt with mudbrick and stone domestic buildings, in use through to the late third century A.D. The area was used as a cemetery in the Early Byzantine period, following the final abandonment of the domestic dwellings. Aila is considered here in two cultural contexts: as a Red Sea port, with comparanda in Egypt, and as a Nabataean settlement. Few domestic areas spanning the Nabataean and Roman periods, and very few mudbrick structures, have been excavated in Nabataea. Quantities of ceramic slag and kiln wasters, as well as local ceramic forms, point to a pottery industry here. Imports including glass and ceramics from Egypt and Gaza, fine wares from Petra, Eastern Sigillata, and various transport amphorae inform on Aila's economic role.

The sigillata manufactories of Pergamon and Sagalassos

The Late Hellenistic period saw the intensification of pottery mass-production processes, of which Eastern Sigillata may be considered the pearl in the crown. Reddish tableware had a long tradition in the Levant and its evolution culminated around 150 B.C., in the region between Tarsos and Laodikeia, with the production of Eastern Sigillata A (ESA). More or less simultaneously, but independently, the manufacturing of Eastern Sigillata C (ESC) was initiated at Pergamon. Within a couple of decades the new range of tableware would establish itself in both regions of production, and other pottery production centres picked up the trend with, for instance, the production of Eastern Sigillata D (ESD) in SW Cyprus and the Late Hellenistic predecessor of Sagalassos red slip ware (SRSW) at Pisidian Sagalassos. No doubt, many more regional centres followed suit.The new tableware only gradually made its way, starting to replace other common Late Hellenistic types of fine ware. Only by the end of the Hellenistic period did sigillata become common on most Eastern tables. ESA was clearly in a league of its own, predominating through out the E Mediterranean and beyond. ESD was mainly restricted to Cyprus and the Levant, whereas ESC and Late Hellenistic SRSW remained of regional importance. More research is needed to evaluate the supra-regional demand for ESA in a social context, how this demand may have formed part of wider-ranging commercial activities of Levantine merchants in the E Mediterranean, how the geo-political shifts orchestrated by Rome may have influenced the exchange patterns, and how the other types of Eastern Sigillata and Late Hellenistic tablewares fit into this pattern and relate to prototypes in precious metal, For instance, the island emporion of Delos, handed over to Athens in 167 B.C. and especially favoured by the Romans after the destruction of Corinth in 146 B.C., may have been of crucial importance in establishing the distribution pattern of early ESA. Delos catered to the needs of Italy, which had grown powerful and rich in the 2nd c. B.C., by funnelling large numbers of slaves and a wide variety of luxury products, mainly from the Near East, to Rome. Levantine merchants contributed greatly to the success of Delos by controlling the supply mechanisms. As a result, ESA may have grown into a desirable surrogate for Eastern precious metal plate and thus acquired an esteemed position in the tableware market (cf. Cic, ad Att. 115 [VI.1] 13, dated 50 B.C., on vasa Rhosica).

Compositional Analysis of Eastern Sigillata A and Related Wares from Tel Anafa (Israel)

This study concerns three pottery wares from Tel Anafa in Israel. A previous study employing NAA data and univariate statistical techniques indicated that two of the wares formed a single chemical group perhaps originating in Cyprus and that the third group was separate. Intercalibration of NAA data produced at different laboratories allowed us to re-evaluate the evidence for a Cypriot source. Using principal components analysis and Mahalanobis distance calculations we show that all three groups originate from a single source. Greater chemical homogeneity arising from increasing standardization of clay preparation recipes is all that distinguishes a ware with pan-Mediterranean distribution (Eastern Sigillata A) from an earlier local ware. Isolation and removal of the chemical effects of the temper which characterizes a small group of coarse sherds from the Phoenician coast allows all the material to form a single broad group and supports the Levantine origin of all three wares.

Presigillata from Morgantina

is the generic name given to the Italian red-gloss pottery of the first century B.C. which predates the beginning of Arretine pottery (ca. 30-20 B.C.). Until recently only small quantities of presigillata had been found at Italian sites. Morgantina in Sicily has now produced approximately 200 catalogued examples of presigillata. Over a third of the presigillata from Morgantina comes from deposits closed in the third quarter of the first century B.C., and thus aids greatly in clarifying the chronology of this style of pottery. Morgantina's presigillata also comprises a full range of the different categories of vessels in use in the first century B.C., allowing the presentation of a typology of shapes. This typology should aid in the evaluation of future finds of presigillata. is the name which has been given to the Itali n red-gloss pottery of the period preceding ca. 30-20 B.C., the time when the factories of Arretium emerged as the center for fine wares in the western Mediterranean.1 As has been pointed out by others,2 presigillata properly used denotes a period rather than a fabric or a limited number of fabrics. It seems clear that pre igillata developed directly out of the western traditions of black-gloss pottery, but Italian potters must also have been influenced by the red-gloss ware of high quality known as Eastern Sigillata A which was pr duced in the Levant after the middle of the second century B.C.3 'The following abbreviations have been used in this paper: Crawford M.H. Crawford, The Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge 1974). Goudineau C. Goudineau, La ceramique aretine lisse: Fouilles de l'Ecole Franqaise de Rome a' Bolsena (Poggio Moscini) (MelRome, Suppl. 6, Paris 1968). HCC I A.S. Robertson, Roman Imperial Coins in the Hunter Coin Cabinet I (Oxford 1962). Haltern S. Loeschcke, Keramische Funde in Haltern, Mitteilungen der Altertumskommission fiir Westfalen 5 (1909) 101-322. Lamboglia N. Lamboglia, Per una classificazione preliminare della ceramica campana, in Atti del 1. Congresso internazionale di Studi Liguri, Bordighera 1950 (Bordighera 1952) 139-206. Lamboglia, N. Lamboglia, presigillata a Presigillata Ventimiglia, a Minorca e in Sicilia, ArchEspArq 24 (1951) 35-41. Lipara L. Bernab6 Brea and M. Cavalier, Meligunis-Lipara II: La necropoli greca e romana nella Contrada Diana (Palermo 1965). Morel J.-P. Morel, Ciramique campanienne: Lesformes (BEFAR 244, Paris 1981). O-C A. Oxe and H. Comfort, Corpus Vasorum Arretinorum (Antiquitas 4, Bonn 1968). Samaria K. Kenyon, B.M. Crowfoot and J.W. Crowfoot, Samaria-Sebaste 3: The Objects from Samaria (London 1957). Stone S.C. Stone, Roman Pottery from Morgantina in Sicily (Diss. Princeton University 1981). Stone, SPOS S.C. Stone, Sextus Pompey, Octavian and Sicily, AJA 87 (1983) 11-22. Tsakirgis B. Tsakirgis, The Domestic Architecture of Morgantina in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Diss. Princeton University 1984). For a general introduction to red-gloss pottery: EAA Suppl. (1970 [1973]) 803-35, s.v. Terra Sigillata (H. Comfort). On presigillata: Lamboglia, Presigillata 35-41; Goudineau 58, 318-22. On the rise of the factories of Arretine: Goudineau 336-59. On Arretine, see, most recently: E. Ettlinger, Novaesium IX: Die italische Sigillata von Novaesium (Limesforschungen 21, Berlin 1983). I am greatly indebted to Professors Malcolm Bell and Barbara Tsakirgis for critical discussion of many points in this paper. The conclusions and any errors remain my own. 2 See Lamboglia, Presigillata 41; Goudineau 318; M.T.M. Moevs, The Roman Thin-Walled Pottery from Cosa (MAAR 32, 1973) 120-22; M. Beltran Lloris, Ceramica romana: tipologia y clasificacion (Zaragoza n.d.) 67-68. 3 On the derivation of presigillata from the western blackgloss tradition: Goudineau 334, 347; J.-P. Morel, Ceramiques d'Italie et ceramiques hellenistiques, in P. Zanker ed., Hellenismus in Mittelitalien (G6ttingen 1976) 494-95. For Eastern Sigillata in Sicily: Stone, SPOS 12 n. 16, 16-17. On the possible influence of Eastern Sigillata A on presigillata: Goudineau 321-22. Eastern Sigillata A has now been found at Anafa in Israel in a context dated before 120 B.C.: S. Weinberg, Tel Anafa, IEJ 21 (1971) 101-102; IEJ 23 (1973) 113-17; S. Herbert, Tel Anafa, IEJ 28 (1978) 271-74. This evidence renders invalid Kenyon's suggestion (Samaria 284-88) that Eastern Sigillata A first appeared in the first century B.C. A definitive study of Eastern Terra Sigillata by Dr. J.W. Hayes is forthcoming in a supplement to EAA: Atlante delleforme ceramiche II.

A New Serenus Stamping from Sardis and the Origins of the Eastern Sigillata B Ware

A New Serenus Stamping from Sardis and the Origins of the Eastern Sigillata B Ware

Sidi Khrebish 1971–2: The Pottery

The pottery so far examined is of great interest, and a full publication of the many sealed groups will undoubtedly form a valuable addition to our knowledge of the Hellenistic and Roman wares of the whole Mediterranean basin. Though little material classifiable as fine wares has yet been recovered belonging to the fourth century A.D. and later, in all other periods the most marked characteristic of the fine wares is their tremendous variety, and the fact that both eastern and western products are represented in comparable quantities. In the Hellenistic period, both Italian and Greek black-glazed wares are found, the latter slightly predominating, as well as a flourishing local industry producing similar shapes in a rather coarser fabric; Megarian bowls are present in limited quantity, principally in an orange micaceous fabric with a glossy slip of varying colour, but at least four other fabrics have been identified, one of them Athenian. The Eastern Sigillata wares A and B both occur in equal quantity, and Çandarli ware is also found; Arretine and its related Italian wares were imported in great quantities, and a certain amount of south and central Gaulish samian regularly occurs, but it is never common. Another red-gloss ware that is notable for its regular presence on this site and for the variety of its forms is that tentatively identified by Dr J. W. Hayes as Cypriot Sigillata: the type series for this ware at Sidi Khrebish will extend considerably that published by Hayes (Report of the Dept. of Antiquities of Cyprus, 1967), and will add many forms that are common to the repertoire of the early Roman Sigillata wares as a whole.