Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautorum: Acta 48

Papers from the RCRF 2022 Athens conference explore Roman pottery manufacturing and trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond. Featuring 60 articles, it examines typologies, production, trade, and cultural transformations, offering new insights into ancient economies and societies from the Hellenistic to Late Antique periods.

We are pleased to present a new volume of the RCRF Acta, resulting from the conference held in Athens in September 2022. This event was organized by Platon Petridis and Charikleia Diamanti, with the collaboration of Chrysanti Sakellakou. The organization received institutional support from the Department of History and Archaeology of the School of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades of the Ministry of Culture of the Hellenic Republic, and the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens. The main theme was “Linking Pots: Manufacturing and selling Roman pottery in the Eastern Mediterranean,” but the presentations went far beyond this area and involved the vast regions that were an integral part of the Roman Empire. As usual, the focus of Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores, founded in 1957 by Howard Comfort and Elisabeth Ettlinger, is the advancement of understanding about trade and economy, society, and culture during Antiquity through the study of the diverse categories of Roman pottery. In this international learned society, members preserve the founding spirit of the association, recognizing the crucial role that ceramics studies play in understanding the societies and economies of the ancient Roman world across its various regions and provinces. The 60 articles gathered in this volume shed new light on traditional fields of Roman pottery studies such as typological series, chronology, local and regional production, and import trends (including fine ware, common ware, and amphorae), as well as manufacture processes. Additionally, methodological approaches and archaeometry were not neglected. Collectively, the volume presents a variety of perspectives where researchers are invited, through pottery, to discuss and analyse economic, social, and cultural transformations, thus contributing to the advancement of historical knowledge of the contexts in question, from the Hellenistic period to Late Antiquity.

Foreword

Greece and the Aegean

Pottery manufacture at Hellenistic to Late Roman Koroneia (Boeotia, Greece) - Philip Bes & Mark Van der Enden

The Late Roman settlement at Ysterni on the island of Paros and the Parian production of the “Aegean”
type lamps - Preliminary results – Charikleia Diamanti & Anastasios Lamprakis

The religious and administrative stamped amphorae of Late Antiquity – Charikleia Diamanti

Terra sigillata focese da Gortina: dati preliminari dallo scavo dell’Edificio Sud – Marzia Giuliodori

The Roman Agora at Athens revisited: pottery evidence for the monument’s construction and the function of the area in the post-Sullan era – Dimitris Grigoropoulos, Tania Panagou & Dimitris Sourlas

New research on the Leonidaion in Olympia. A group of pottery from a closed context as dating evidence for the Roman Imperial construction phase – Christa Schauer, Claudia Mächler & Stefan Distler

Dressel 24 similis amphorae of Roman Imperial period from Erythrai – Ebru Tamer

Dump 1004 of the Southern Building in the Byzantine Houses Quarter (Gortyn, Crete). Echoes of local production and regional networks in Gortyn between the 4th and the 8th century AD – Ludovica Xavier de Silva

Cooking and utilitarian wares from a water crypt in ancient Messene – Anastasia G. Yangaki

Off the grid: non-imported wares in Late Roman Philippi – Stavros Zachariadis

Eastern Mediterranean

The amphorae of Roman Ephesus. A new vision from new evidence and new ideas – Horacio González Cesteros

Late Roman table ware in Pergamon – Sarah Japp

New thoughts on ‘dual stamps’ on the LRA 2B-C (LRA 13) – Ülkü Kara

Lamp and Terracotta figurine production in the Roman Period at Tarsus-Gözlükule (Turkey) – Cristina Mondin & Paolo Maranzana

Catching the big fish – fish-sauce containers from the Republican era to Late Antiquity in Nea Paphos (Cyprus) – Jerzy M. Oleksiak

Coarse ware production in Seleukeia Sidera (Isparta, Turkey) in Roman and Late Roman periods – Burak Sönmez

Evaluation of the red-slipped ware of the Tholos Building in Knidos in terms of being locally produced or imported products – Songül Sözel, Ertekin M. Doksanaltı & Derviş Ozan Tozluca

Idyma Akyaka Castle Roman period imported and regional/local fine red slipped wares – Billur Tekkök-Karaöz, Deniz Tamer & Ebru Tamer

Local and Roman influences on the pottery of Judea after the destruction of the Second Temple: the case of Shu'fat near Jerusalem – Shulamit Viki Terem

Egypt

Imitation and integration. Changing objectscapes at Berenike (Egypt) – Roderick C. A. Geerts

Technology, typology, and evolution of Egyptian pottery at Kom al-Ahmer/Kom Wasit (near Alexandria) – Cristina Mondin

Linking waste and production. What a Roman waste pit from Syene/Upper Egypt reveals – Laura Rembart

Late Roman wares from Marea B at Alexandria (Egypt) – Amany Shabaan

The Roman necropolis of Kom Abu Billu (Egypt): an overview of ceramic material in funerary context – Aude Simony

Africa

Djilma – an important ARS production centre in central Tunisia. An assessment of Late Antique forms and stamped decoration, fabric and chemical analyses by WD-XRF – Michael Mackensen, Gerwulf Schneider & Małgorzata Daszkiewicz

Les ateliers de céramique de la Byzacène du Sud-Ouest, nouvelles découvertes – Mongi Nasr

Italia

African Red Slip Ware in Tarquinia and in the ager Tarquiniensis in Late Antiquity – Luca Arioli

Alle pendici del Monte Testaccio (Roma): il contesto di via Galvani 40 – Carlota Bassoli & Alessia Contino

Production technology and trade of 4th-1st centuries BC cooking jars from the Pontine region in Southern Lazio (Italy) – Barbara Borgers, Filmo Verhagen, Gijs Tol & Tymon de Haas

Eastern Sigillata vessels from the Roman cistern at Spoletino (Civitella D'Agliano, Viterbo, Italy) – Emanuela Borgia

Vasellame comune da fuoco dalle cucine dei cesari sul Palatino, V secolo d.C.: funzioni, manifatture e mercati preferenziali – Fulvio Coletti & Viviana Cardarelli

Le indagini dell’Università di Firenze a Cosa. Dati ceramici preliminari: la ceramica a vernice nera, la terra sigillata e le anfore dall’incrocio tra le Strade 5 e P – Martina Rodinò, Alessia Contino, Lucilla D'Alessandro & Dario Panariti

Elementi di contatto fra l’attuale Canton Ticino e le diverse regioni del mondo romano – Christiane De Micheli Schulthess

Aegean trade in the Roman world: the view from North Adriatic – Diana Dobreva

La ceramica da cucina africana dalla cisterna romana di Spoletino (Civitella d’Agliano - VT) – Mara Elefante

Disastri a confronto. Nuovi dati sulla cultura materiale e i traffici commerciali di Roma e Pompei tra la tarda età neroniana e l’età flavia – Antonio F. Ferrandes & Alessandra Pegurri

Contesti funerari della Puglia centrale nell’età della romanizzazione: consistenza e semantica della ceramica nel ‘caso studio’ di Butuntum – Custode Silvio Fioriello

Importazione e distribuzione delle anfore San Lorenzo 7 nella Cisalpina occidentale – Anna Lorenzatto, Elena Quiri & Alessia Monticone

I marchi di fabbrica sulla ceramica a vernice nera padana tra la tarda repubblica e la prima età imperiale – Valentina Mantovani

Hellenistic Relief Ware at Pompeii. The evidence of the Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia – Archer Martin

La terra sigillata padana di media età imperiale: status quaestionis e problemi aperti – Roby Stuani & Valentina Mantovani

Importazioni di ceramiche fini orientali ad Aquileia. Nuovi dati dalle collezioni storiche del Museo Archeologico Nazionale. II: la ceramica e le lucerne plastiche di produzione cnidia e altre produzioni microasiatiche – Paola Ventura & Paola Maggi

Fra Mediterraneo orientale e occidentale: la ceramica con figure grottesche – Federico Biondani

The northern Balkans and the Danube region

Where East meets West. Mediterranean and northwestern imports in Aguntum, Noricum – Christiane Angerer, Martin Auer & Julia Rabitsch

Late Roman pottery with stamped decoration from Serdica (Sofia, Bulgaria) – Iliana Borisova-Katsarova

Echoes of an East-West network through the study of pottery imports and local productions from Hadrianopolis (Albania). From Eastern Sigillata to plain and cooking wares – Ludovica Xavier de Silva & Claudia Sediari

From the Rhone to the Danube: the ceramic production centre at Butovo and its connections with Gaul in light of a rediscovered medallion mould – Alexander K. Harizanov

Painted pottery from the Krtine necropolis in Kaštel Sućurac, Croatia – Ivanka Kamenjarin & Anamarija Bralić

Byzantine amphoras from the Roman fort of Apsaros (modern Gonio, Georgia) – Paulina Komar, Andria Rogava & Tatuli Motskobili

Terra sigillata from Žuta Lokva (Dalmatia, Croatia) – Ivana Ožanić Roguljić & Valentina Mantovani

Quantifying large scale analysis and typology of coarse ware from Flavia Solva, Noricum – Gudrun Praher-Malderle & Johanna Kraschitzer

Observations on pottery finds from the Eastern Mediterranean in Viminacium (Serbia): the Camulodunum 189 amphorae – Angelina Raičković Savić & Ana Mitić

Hispanic amphorae along Illyria and Epirus. Preliminary report – Albert Ribera & Carlo Dimitri

Eastern Mediterranean relief pottery in Istria – Alka Starac

Hispania

El proyecto Corpus Vasorum Hispanorum: principales resultados – Macarena Bustamante-Álvarez

New data from the Cartuja kiln complex (Granada, Spain), kiln Beiro 7 – Macarena Bustamante-Álvarez & Elena H. Sánchez López

The Chronology of the Southeast Sector of Baelo Forum, Tarifa, Spain: a methodological approach – Xavier Deru

Lusitana 3 amphorae in Lusitania. Resampling the commerce and consumption of Lusitanian wine production – Victor Filipe & Rui Roberto de Almeida

The Roman villa of Cardílio (Torres Novas, Portugal) in the Mediterranean trade: the import of commodities in amphorae – Victor Filipe, Catarina Viegas, Carlos Fabião, Rui Roberto de Almeida & Romão Ramos

Ceramic contexts of the occidental necropolis in Troia (Portugal) – Inês Vaz Pinto, Ana Patrícia Magalhães, Filipa Araújo dos Santos, Margarida Figueiredo & Andreia Miranda

• Edited by Catarina Viegas