Chapter XXIII: ROMAN POTTERY (continued); PROVINCIAL FABRICS (2)

The pottery of =Lezoux=, in Auvergne, was first carefully studied by the late M. Plicque,[3518] who excavated there on a large scale in 1879 and succeeding years, and obtained as a result of his researches no less than three thousand different potters’ names, as well as the substructures of about a hundred and sixty furnaces, forty of which were in good preservation, comprising sixty-six distinct manufactories. About twenty-three more manufactories were traced along the principal roads and the banks of the Dore and Allier. He also found numerous remains of tools, potters’ wheels, and other apparatus. In addition, he excavated some two hundred tombs containing quantities of pottery, which seemed to imply a general use of it in funeral ceremonies. The potteries here seem to have been already in full working order in the time of Vespasian, and lasted down to about A.D. 260. The earliest date to be obtained from the evidence of coins is about A.D. 70, but the earliest fabrics seem to go back to the time of Claudius; the date of destruction of the site is indicated by coins of Gallienus and Saloninus found among the burnt ruins.

A large proportion of the vases have potters’ stamps, but there is no rule about the signatures.[3519] In the vases of form 29 the names are in the interior, denoting the masters of the potteries; in the later forms they are on the exterior, having been placed on the inside of the mould before baking, usually among the ornament. The ordinary formula is OF, M, or F, with the name in the genitive. As to the distribution of Lezoux vases, there was, as noted below, little exportation before A.D. 100, but after that time they prevail over Britain and Germany. Déchelette gives ninety-two examples with potters’ stamps in Britain, including twenty-one names. A few specimens have been found in North Italy; Paternus occurs at Turin, Albucius at Rome.

------------------------------------------------------

PLATE LXVIII

GAULISH POTTERY FOUND IN BRITAIN; LEZOUX
FABRIC; A.D. 70-250 (BRIT. MUS.).
]

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Of the moulded or _terra sigillata_ wares twelve different forms are found, of which as elsewhere three prevail to the exclusion of the others.[3520] The krater type (Dragendorff’s No. 11) is only found in the earliest period, about A.D. 40-50, and as already noted (p. 520) forms 29 and 30 are not so common as at Graufesenque, while form 37, which practically took the place of 29, occurs in great quantities. Déchelette distinguishes three chronological epochs of development, covering respectively the periods A.D. 40-75, 75-100, and 110-260.[3521] In the first period the decoration of form 29 develops in the same manner as at Graufesenque, but with this important variation, that the running scroll is replaced by a _straight_ pattern of vine or oak leaves, or bands of rosettes or circles. The colour of the glaze is lighter than at Graufesenque, the reliefs more delicately modelled. The potters of this period, all of whom use form 29, are Atepomarus, Cobnertus, Danomarus, Iliomarus, and Petrecus. It will be noted that these are all Gaulish names, whereas those at Graufesenque are all Latin.

To the second period (A.D. 75-110) belong the bowls of form 37 with transitional or metope decoration, or in the “free” style, which is employed by Libertus, an important potter of Trajan’s reign. Exportations now first begin, and examples are found on the Limes, but generally speaking they are few in number, and while the Rutenian potteries existed the output must have been limited. After the reign of Trajan, however, large numbers were exported to Britain and Germany. The cruciform ornamentation (p. 521) is found on the forms 30 and 37, and a peculiar type of egg- or astragalus-pattern (borrowed from Arretium) is used by Butrio and Libertus. Figure subjects, introduced by Libertus, now become general, especially animals and hunting-scenes (see for an example Plate LXVIII. fig. 1). The typical potters of the period are Butrio, Libertus, Carantinus, Divixtus (Plate LXVIII. fig. 2), Juliccus, Laxtucissa, and Putrius.

The third period (110-260) is represented almost exclusively by the form 37 with decoration in “free” style or large medallions and wreaths; a few examples of form 30 and the _olla_ (Déchelette’s No. 68: cf. p. 529) are found. The chief potters’ names are Advocatus, Banuus, Catussa, Cinnamus (Plate LXVIII. fig. 3), Doeccus, Lastuca, Paternus, and Servus. Of these, Paternus belongs to the period of the Antonines, and he and Cinnamus, says M. Déchelette, represent the apogee of the prosperity of Lezoux, and of its export commerce. The period of degeneration is marked by the appearance of barbotine decoration and imitations of metal (see below). It is difficult to say exactly when the potteries came to an end, but there is no evidence that _terra sigillata_ was manufactured after the third century, and Plicque is probably right in attributing their destruction to the German invaders in the reign of Gallienus.

The wares characteristic of the earlier period include _dolia_ of coarse clay and other plain fabrics, as well as the various types of _terra sigillata_. Among the latter are examples of importations from the Graufesenque and Banassac potteries and other places in the Aveyron district, but the majority are of local manufacture. These include, besides the moulded red wares with figured decoration and potters’ stamps, orange-red wares, yellow polished wares (often micaceous), and black ware with barbotine ornamentation, on which potters’ stamps are not found. Lezoux was also a centre for the enamelled glazed wares which have been described in Chapter III. In the later period the red wares are ornamented with figures from moulds, or with barbotine, or have lion’s-head spouts (see below). The marbled vases (p. 523) are also found, and in the third century the vases with _appliqué_ reliefs, with incised or hollowed-out ornamentation, or bronzed in imitation of metal, are the prevailing types.[3522]

The salient points of difference between the earlier and later fabrics, says Plicque, are these. The clay of the earlier is only baked to a small degree of heat and is not vitreous, but is exceedingly porous. It is also frequently full of micaceous particles. Subsequently it becomes more vitreous but less porous; it is more compact and sonorous, free from mica, and more brilliant and lustrous. In the earlier, the forms are artistic and symmetrical, the ornament sober and elegant, remarkable for its taste and simplicity. The figures are enclosed in medallions, and the ornaments consist of rays or rounded leaves, rows of beads, and guilloche-patterns. In the later, the art degenerates, the ornamentation becoming heavy and overcrowded, and the figures are broken up and badly arranged; the forms of the vases, too, become heavier. The principal decorative pattern is the egg-and-tongue round the rim. In the potters’ stamps of the two first periods the letters have frequent ligatures and abbreviations; the names are often in the nominative or with OFFICINA _preceding_ the name. Later, the letters are coarser and ligatures are rare; the names are usually in the genitive, _followed_ by M (_manu_) or OF(_ficina_). The characteristic 15[12]U for V found in the middle of the second century should be noted.

Among the subsidiary fabrics of Lezoux the most remarkable is that of the vases with _appliqué_ reliefs.[3523] They are formed entirely on the wheel, and the decoration is made separately from moulds (p. 440), and attached with barbotine, either in the form of a medallion or with an irregular outline, varying with the figure. Barbotine in many cases is also employed for foliage patterns filling in the background. The usual form is that of a spherical or ovoid vase (Plate LXIX. fig. 2), which may perhaps be termed an _olla_,[3524] with short neck and no handles. It may be noted in passing that such shapes could not conveniently be moulded, hence the variation of form when we pass from _terra sigillata_ to other methods of decoration. In the third century this combined process largely supplanted the moulded wares at Lezoux. The paste and glaze, however, are identical with the _terra sigillata_. No potters’ signatures have been found on these vases, but they occur all over Gaul, including Belgium and Switzerland, and also in Britain. In the British Museum (Romano-British Room) there are two very fine specimens found at Felixstowe in Suffolk, one of which is that given on Plate LXIX. Roach-Smith mentions others from London, York, and Richborough,[3525] and they are also known at Évreux in France. A good but imperfect example from Gaul is in the Morel Collection, now in the British Museum, and has figures of Herakles and Maenads. The modelling in some cases is admirable, especially in the Felixstowe vases, and in the London specimens published by Roach-Smith, with masks and figures of Cupid. These vases represent the latest stage of the ceramic industry of Lezoux.

Another class of vases made at this centre which may be mentioned here includes a series of _paterae_, _oinochoae_, and _trullae_ (p. 470) with ornamented handles, all obviously made in imitation of metal.[3526] Of the _paterae_ there is a good example in the British Museum from the Towneley Collection, ornamented with athletic contests and cock-fights round the edge. M. Déchelette (ii. p. 319) thinks some of the oinochoae made at Vichy may be imitations of the bronze jugs which are found at Pompeii, but many seem to be of a later date.

During the period A.D. 100-400, and especially in the third century, a class of red wares appears at Lezoux in the form of large bowls with spouts in the shape of lions’ heads.[3527] These were wrongly identified by Plicque with the _acratophorus_ (p. 464), but they are clearly mortars (_pelves_, _mortaria_), in which food was ground or cooked, the spout serving the purpose of straining off liquid. The lions’ heads are made from moulds and attached with barbotine. Some of these have potters’ names. As a class they must be distinguished from the plain _mortaria_ of grey or yellow ware described below (p. 551).

* * * * *

With the South of France it is necessary to connect a series of medallions with reliefs, intended for attachment to vases of _terra sigillata_ ware.[3528] In one or two cases the vases themselves have been preserved, but usually the medallions alone remain; there are also examples of the moulds in which they were made.[3529] Nearly all of these have been found in the valley of the Rhone, at Orange or Vienne,[3530] the rest in other parts of France, such as Lezoux, along the Rhine, or at Rome (two examples). They were probably made at Vienne; but there was also a fabric in Germany, examples of which occur at Cologne, Trier, and Xanten. The subjects of the reliefs are very varied, ranging from figures of deities to gladiators or even animals; they frequently bear inscriptions, and their date is the third century after Christ.

As long ago as 1873 Froehner published a series from Orange,[3531] with such subjects as Apollo, Venus Victrix, Mars and Ilia, a figure of Lugdunum personified, the freeing of Prometheus and the death of Herakles, Dionysos and Ariadne, a bust of Hermes, a gladiator, a cock and hens, and a bust of the Emperor Geta, the last-named serving as an indication of date for the whole series. Several were inscribed, that with Venus Victrix having CERA FELICIS, which probably refers to the wax in which the figures were first modelled, though some have thought that it represents the Greek κερα(μέως). Another trio from Orange[3532] represent respectively:—(1) a chariot race in the circus, with the inscriptions FELICITER, LOGISMUS (a horse’s name), and PRASIN(_a_) F(_actio_), “the green party”; (2) Fig. 227, a scene from a play, probably the _Cycnus_, in which Herakles is saying to Ares, the would-be avenger of his son, “(Invicta) virtus nusquam terreri potest,” the god proclaiming “Adesse ultorem nati me credas mei”; in the background, on a raised stage or θεολογεῖον, are deities; (3) an actor in female costume. There are also three in the Hermitage Museum at Petersburg, of which two represent Poseidon, the third Hermes.[3533] Caylus also gives a representation of a vase with three such medallions, with busts of Pluto and Persephone, Mars and Ilia, and two gladiators.[3534] Where gladiators with names appear it may be assumed that they are portraits of real people, and Déchelette argues from this that the vases were made specially in connection with gladiatorial (or theatrical) performances.

From _Gaz. Arch._
FIG. 228. MEDALLION FROM VASE OF SOUTHERN GAUL: ATALANTA AND
HIPPOMEDON.
]

An interesting group found at Vienne and Vichy[3535] have subjects taken from the Thirteenth Iliad, such as Deiphobos and the Locrian Ajax, or Hector fighting the Achaeans. Among the remaining examples known the most interesting are three from Orange, one of which represents a festival in honour of Isis, the other two, the victory of Hippomedon over Atalanta (Fig. 228), with an inscription of three lines:

Respicit ad malum pernicibus ignea plantis,
Quae pro dote parat mortem quicumque fugaci
Velox in cursu cessasset virgine visa.[3536]

Reference has already been made to a paper by M. Blanchet, in which he gives a list of the sites in Gaul on which pottery appears to have been made (see p. 443). But in the majority of these cases plain wares must have been the only output. Moulded wares, as Déchelette points out, required skill and resource to produce.[3537] In any case, very few types are found on moulded wares which cannot be also associated with Graufesenque or Lezoux, and any made on other sites must have followed the same methods of decoration.[3538] The places given in Blanchet’s list cover practically the whole extent of France, though the principal centres of activity were always the Aveyron and Allier districts and the Rhone valley. In the neighbourhood of Lezoux, for instance, vases were made at Clermont-Ferrand, Lubié, St.-Bonnet, and Thiers. At Nouâtre, Indre-et-Loire, was an important pottery, not yet fully investigated; and others were at Rozier (Lozère), Auch (Gers), Montauban, Luxueil (Haute-Saône), St.-Nicholas near Nancy, and Aoste (Isère), where vases of characteristic originality were made.[3539] But it is not likely that any future investigations will displace Graufesenque and Lezoux as the chief centres for Gaulish _terra sigillata_.

3. THE FABRICS OF GERMANY

In Germany the oldest and one of the most important sites for pottery is Andernach,[3540] between Bonn and Coblenz, where however, it must be borne in mind, there was no local manufacture; its importance is mainly as a site yielding valuable chronological evidence. The finds extend from the beginning of the first century down to about A.D. 250, the earlier objects finding parallels in cemeteries at Trier and Regensburg which can be similarly dated. Generally speaking, it has been observed that Roman remains begin on the left bank of the Rhine a century earlier than those in the border forts on the Limes, which cover the period from A.D. 100 to 250.

_Terra sigillata_ with reliefs is comparatively rare, though, as we have seen, it was at an early period exported from Gaul, and the pottery consists chiefly of ordinary wares, red, grey, and black, usually of good and careful execution, with thin walls. Much of this common pottery may be assumed to be of local manufacture. The characteristic types of the first century are simple jugs of plain ware without slip for funerary or domestic use; vases with white slip (also found at Regensburg); black ware bowls and dishes, sometimes with potters’ stamps; black and grey cinerary urns. These forms include small urns and the usual cups and bowls with straight or sloping sides, replaced after A.D. 100 by spherical-bodied jars with narrow necks. The decoration comprises all the varieties we have included in the foregoing survey: barbotine, incised linear patterns, impressed patterns made with the thumb, and raised ornaments such as plain knobs or leaves worked with the hand. In the third century painted decoration is introduced, as in the black ware drinking-vessels with inscriptions described below (p. 537).

At Xanten (Castra Vetera), lower down the Rhine, large quantities of _terra sigillata_ have been found, which can be dated by means of coin-finds from the beginning of the first century down to the third. During this period a steady degeneration in the pottery may be observed, although glass fabrics correspondingly improve; in the time of the Antonines the clay is coarse and often artificially coloured with red lead or other ingredients, producing what was formerly known as “false Samian” ware.[3541]

An exceptionally interesting centre, and in some respects the most important in Germany, is that at =Westerndorf= on the Inn, between Augsburg and Salzburg, where the coins range from about A.D. 160 to 330. It was first explored in 1807 and as long ago as 1862 the results were carefully investigated and summarised by Von Hefner in a still valuable treatise.[3542] The pottery includes _terra sigillata_ of the later types, and plain red, yellow, and grey wares, sometimes covered with a non-lustrous grey or reddish slip, or with black varnish, the latter have very thin walls and are baked very hard. The decoration of the _terra sigillata_ comprises all the usual types,[3543] the forms being also those prevalent elsewhere, with the addition of a covered jar or _pyxis_, but the figures are confined to the cylindrical or hemispherical bowls (Nos. 30 and 37).[3544] The plain wares include cinerary urns, deep bowls or jars, with simple ornament, open bowls with impressed patterns, and _mortaria_.

Of some peculiarities of the potters’ stamps we have already spoken (p. 510); they are found in the form of oblongs or human feet, and more rarely in circles, half-moons, or spirals, the letters being both in relief and incised. Trade marks were sometimes used, the potter Sentis, for instance, using a thorn-twig by way of a play on his name. Names are both in the nominative and genitive, with some abbreviated form in the one case of FECIT, in the other of MANVS or OFFICINA.[3545] Local names are clearly to be seen in those of Belatullus, Iassus, and Vologesus.

Another important centre of fabric in Germany is =Rheinzabern= (Tabernae Rhenanae) near Speier, which probably shared with Westerndorf a monopoly of the moulded wares.[3546] The pottery found here is mostly in the Speier Museum; it is almost all of form 37, with its typical decoration, and the fabric does not seem to have been established before the second century. The chief potters’ names are Belsus, Cerialis, Cobnertus, Comitialis, Julius, Juvenis, Mammillianus, Primitivus, and Reginus. The British Museum possesses moulds for large bowls with free friezes of animals, one with the stamp of Cerialis[3547]; there was little export to Gaul, but a considerable amount to Britain. M. Déchelette notes the similarity of the types to those of Lezoux, and suggests that Rheinzabern is an offshoot from the latter pottery. This site has also produced barbotine wares,[3548] which bear a remarkable superficial resemblance to that of Castor (see below, p. 544), and have been wrongly identified therewith[3549]; but they are not found at Castor, and in point of fact differ widely in artistic merit, being far superior to the British fabric, as has been pointed out by Mr. Haverfield.[3550] The ornamentation is a formal and conventional imitation of classical models, whereas the Castor ware is only classical in its elements, and is otherwise barbaric yet unconventional.

It is possible that Trier, and in fact all places mentioned in a preceding chapter (p. 453) as sites of kilns may be regarded as centres of manufacture, though in only a few cases was anything made beyond the ordinary plain wares. Of the latter a useful summary has been made by Koenen,[3551] chiefly from the technical point of view, which it may be worth while to recapitulate. He divides the pottery of the Rhine district (which may be taken as typical) into three main classes: the first transitional from the La Tène period[3552] to Roman times; the second, native half-baked cinerary urns; the third, Roman pottery, ousting the other two. The first two classes cover the local hand-made wares of grey, brown, or black clay, which are clearly of native make, and like the similar wares of Britain and Gaul hardly come under the heading of Roman pottery, though subsequently they felt its influence. The Roman pottery proper (which can be well studied in the museums of Bonn, Trier, and elsewhere on the Rhine) is divided by Koenen into three periods: Early, Middle, and Late Empire. Roman wares first appear with coins of Augustus, and at this period exercise much influence on the La Tène types, producing a sort of mixed style, usually of greyish or black clay with impressed or incised ornament, subsequently replaced by barbotine. The _terra sigillata_ is either of the superior deep red variety with sharp outlines and details, which we have seen to emanate from Gaul, or else plain ware of a light red hue (“false Samian”), without ornament.[3553] But as Hölder has pointed out,[3554] the settlement of the chronology of German pottery (apart from the _sigillata_) is particularly difficult, because we are dealing with a purely utilitarian fabric, which consequently preserved its forms unaltered through a considerable period; moreover, there must have been many local fabrics and little exportation, which makes comparison difficult.

To the German fabrics belong a group of vases with painted inscriptions found on the Lower Rhine, and less frequently in North and East France.[3555] They occur in the second century at the Saalburg, and last down to the fourth; large numbers have also been found at Trier, and other examples at Mesnil and Étaples (Gessoriacum) in France.[3556] The usual form is that of a round-bellied cup or jar (Fig. 229), with a more or less high stem and plain moulded mouth. Their ornamentation is confined to berries, vine-tendrils, and scrolls, at first naturalistic, afterwards becoming conventionalised; but their chief interest lies in the inscriptions, which, like those of the Banassac type described above (p. 524), are of a convivial character. They are painted in bold well-formed capitals, in the same white pigment which is used for the ornamentation; the following examples will serve as specimens:

AMAS ME, AMO, AMO TE CONDITE.[3557]
AVE, AVE COPO, AVETE.[3558]
BELLVS SVA(_deo?_).[3559]
BIBE, BIBATIS, BIBAMVS PIE, BIBE VIVAS, BIBE VIVAS
MVLTIS ANNIS.[3560]
DA BIBERE, DA MERVM, DA MI, DA VINVM.[3561]
DE ET DO, DOS (= δός).[3562]
EME.[3563]
FAVENTIBVS.[3564]
FELIX.[3565]
FE(r)O VINVM TIBI DVLCIS.[3566]
GAVDIO.[3567]
IMPLE.[3568]
LVDE.[3569]
MISCE, MISCE MI, MISCE VIVAS.[3570]
MITTE MERVM.[3571]
PETE.[3572]
REPLE, REPLE ME COPO MERI.[3573]
SESES = ZESES = ζήσαις.[3574]
SITIO, SITIS.[3575]
VALE, VALIAMVS.[3576]
VINVM, VINVM TIBI DVLCIS.[3577]
VITA.[3578]
VIVE, VIVAS, VIVAMVS, VIVAS FELIX, VIVE BIBE MVLTIS.[3579]

To this list must be added a remarkable vase of the same class found at Mainz in 1888,[3580] with the inscription ACCIPE M(_esi_)TIE(_n_)S ET TRADE SODALI, “Take me when you are thirsty and pass me on to your comrade.” Above the inscription are seven busts of deities, Sol, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, representing the seven days of the week; both the design and the inscription, however, are incised, not painted.

4. ROMAN POTTERY IN THE NETHERLANDS, SPAIN, AND BRITAIN

In =Holland and Belgium= finds of _terra sigillata_ and potters’ stamps are recorded from various sites, such as Arentsburg, Rossem, Rousse, near Oudenarde, Voorburg, between Utrecht and Leyden, and Wyk-by-Durstede, and also at Utrecht.[3581] At Vechten near Utrecht, the ancient Fictio on the road from Lugdunum (Leiden) to Noviomagus (Nimeguen) finds were made in 1868 which confirm the activity of the Rutenian potters in the first century.[3582] These discoveries included coins extending from the Republican period down to Trajan, and _terra sigillata_ of the Graufesenque type, with many names of potters belonging to that region.

In =Spain= finds have been made on various sites, and there are numerous examples in the museum at Tarragona[3583]; at Murviedro, the site of the ancient Saguntum, which, as we have seen, is mentioned by Pliny and Martial as an important centre, various kinds of Roman ware have come to light, some with potters’ stamps, but no evidence remains of potteries or of any local manufacture.

* * * * *

In =Britain=—at least in England—finds of Roman pottery have been so plentiful and so universal that it is difficult to select typical centres for discussion. It must also be borne in mind that, with the exception of the plain wares and a few other fabrics, such as the Castor ware, we have not to deal with local manufactures. A certain quantity of _terra sigillata_ may have been imported from Germany (_e.g._ from Westerndorf),[3584] but by far the greater proportion is from Gaul, as is shown by the potters’ names.

We propose in the first place to review briefly the types of _terra sigillata_ which occur in Britain.[3585] The bowls of forms 29 and 30, which are found in Germany in the first century, do not occur on the Roman Wall, and we have already seen that they are not later than Hadrian’s time; but they are common in the South of Britain, as at London and Colchester. Roach-Smith[3586] and other earlier writers have published specimens of these older forms decorated with figures which have been found in London, Bath, York, Caerleon,[3587] and elsewhere. The earliest dateable examples of form 37 have been found with coins of Nerva at Churchover in Warwickshire[3588]; this type is indeed common all over Britain, and is one of the few varieties of _terra sigillata_ occurring in the North. It is found at South Shields, along the Roman Wall, and in Scotland at Birrens in Dumfriesshire.[3589] Pottery of the second century is represented by a variety of the same form, with a moulded ridge breaking the outline in the middle[3590]; this would seem to be a type which also occurs in Germany during the second and third centuries. Mr. Haverfield states that this form is found at South Shields and in Yorkshire, and is imitated at Silchester. Of the principal subjects on these we have already given some description (p. 508). Finally, there is the wide shallow type, approximating to the mortar or _pelvis_, the upper part of which forms externally a flat, vertical band, projecting beyond and forming a tangent with the general curve of the bowl; this is usually ornamented with lions’ heads in relief. This variety is not earlier than the second century, and is also found in the third; we have already seen that it was made at Lezoux.[3591]

It is important to note that all the places mentioned as yielding bowls of forms 29 and 30 were occupied at least as early as A.D. 85, perhaps as early as A.D. 50. But the style of these bowls may have lasted longer; at all events, the varieties are so numerous as to show a development for which some time is required. There is also a distinct development in the plain band round the upper edge of the bowl, which, at first a mere beading, becomes broader and more vertical by degrees. It may, however, be assumed that, as none are found north of York, it disappeared from Britain, as from Gaul and Germany, before A.D. 100.

The ware formerly known as “false Samian” (Dragendorff’s _hellroth_)[3592] appears in several varieties. The light red or orange colour is produced by a kind of slip of pounded pottery laid over the surface. Vases of this type, glazed within and without with a thin reddish-brown and somewhat lustrous glaze, occur in London, and a good specimen was found many years ago at Oundle in Northants, but has since disappeared.[3593] It was a fine vase, of light-red clay with red-brown glaze, resembling the Gaulish _terra sigillata_, and had some claim to artistic merit. The subject was Pan holding up a mask, and three draped figures, and it bore the stamp of the Gaulish potter Libertus (OF · LIBERTI), who, as we have seen, worked at Lezoux.[3594] This ware is often coarse, and ornamented externally with rude white scrolls painted in opaque colour,[3595] and there is a variety found at Castor, of red glazed ware with a metalloid lustre, the clay itself varying from white to yellowish-brown or orange.[3596] Both shapes and ornaments resemble those of the Castor black ware (see below), and it seems likely that this is actually a local fabric, the difference in colouring being due to the degree of heat employed in the firing.

The number of potters’ names found on these wares in Britain is very large, those in the seventh volume of the Latin _Corpus_ amounting to about 1,500.[3597] This list, published in 1873, of course superseded all those previously drawn up by the Hon. R. C. Neville, by Roach-Smith, and by Thomas Wright.[3598] Roach-Smith, however, performed a useful service in tabulating the list of names found in London along with those from Douai and other sites in France,[3599] which went far to prove the Gaulish origin of the British _terra sigillata_. It is not, therefore, necessary to discuss the potters’ names found in Britain in further detail.[3600] Besides the potters’ stamps, incised inscriptions sometimes occur on the pottery, giving the owner’s name or other items of information (see above, p. 512).

To give a detailed account of all the sites in Britain on which Roman pottery has been found would be a task entailing more labour and occupying more space than the results would justify. Not only do the sites cover almost the whole of the country from the Roman Wall to the Isle of Wight, and from Exeter to Norfolk, but the disinterring of the material from miscellaneous and often unscientific records, or from scattered and uncatalogued collections, would be a truly gigantic achievement. It should, however, be achieved; but this will only be by co-operation, each county performing its share of the work, as has been done in a few cases. The Society of Antiquaries has issued archaeological surveys of certain counties,[3601] which without entering into details tabulate the sites of Roman remains; and it is to be hoped that forthcoming volumes of the _Victoria County History_ will do for other counties what those already published have done for Hampshire, Norfolk, Northants, etc. The most representative collections are those of the British Museum and the Guildhall in London, and of the provincial museums at Colchester, Reading, York, and elsewhere.

We now turn to the consideration of the local products of Romano-British potters. Exclusive of the plain unornamented wares which were made in many places, as the numerous remains of kilns show (cf. p. 454), there are only three distinct fabrics to be mentioned. In all of these the ware is black, with or without a glaze, but the style of ornamentation varies.

By far the most important centre, not only for the quantity of pottery it has yielded and the extent of its furnaces, but also for the artistic merit of its products, is that of =Castor=, in Northamptonshire. Of the numerous traces of furnaces and workshops discovered here, in the neighbouring villages of Wansford, Sibson, Chesterton, and in the Bedford Purlieus, we have already spoken in a previous chapter (p. 444 ff.); it now only remains to discuss the technical and artistic aspects of the pottery.

Artis has recorded that the pieces of pottery found in or near the kilns show great variety of form and style, including the red imitations of _terra sigillata_, pieces ornamented with “machine-turned” patterns,[3602] and dark-coloured ware with reliefs or ornament in white paint. But the characteristic and commonest Castor ware has a white paste coloured by means of a slip with a dark slate-coloured surface; the usual form is that of a small jar on a stem with plain cylindrical mouth. Some are merely marked with indentations made by the potter’s thumb,[3603] or with rude patterns laid on the intervening ridges; but others have designs laid on _en barbotine_ in a slip of the same colour as the vase, and others of rarer occurrence are decorated in white paint with conventional foliated patterns,[3604] somewhat resembling the Rhenish wares described on p. 537. Haverfield reproduces a fragment of a vase on which are painted in white and yellow a man’s head in peaked cap, and an arm holding an axe.[3605] The barbotine variety is the most typical, and is by no means confined to this site. It is often found in Central and Eastern England, and even in the Netherlands. One of the finest specimens was found at Colchester in 1853,[3606] containing calcined bones, and ornamented with figures over which inscriptions are incised. The subjects, arranged in friezes, include two stags, a hare, and a dog, interspersed with foliations; two men training a dancing-bear, one of whom holds a whip and is protected by armour; and a combat of two gladiators (_murmillo_ and _Thrax_) of a type familiar to us from Roman lamps (see p. 416). Over the heads of the men with the bear is inscribed, SECVNDVS MARIO; over the gladiators, MEMN(_o_)N SAC · VIIII and VALENTINV · LEGIONIS · XXX, respectively. The meaning of the inscriptions is not quite clear, but the last one certainly seems to allude to games taking place at the post of the thirtieth legion—_i.e._ the Lower Rhine. For this and other reasons Mr. Haverfield is of opinion that the vase may have been made in that district and not at Castor, and it is not, of course, impossible that such ware was not confined to Britain.[3607] This would, at any rate, explain its presence in the Netherlands. Mr. Arthur Evans has noted the presence of an unfinished piece of Castor ware in a kiln at Littlemore, near Oxford.[3608]

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PLATE LXIX

TYPES OF ROMANO-BRITISH POTTERY: CASTOR WARE, ETC.

THE VASE WITH INCISED PATTERNS IS FROM GAUL (BRITISH MUSEUM).
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Hunting-scenes are also very popular, especially a huntsman spearing a boar, or a hare or deer chased by stags, as on a fine vase found at Water Newton, Hunts, in 1827.[3609] A specimen in the British Museum with a race of four-horse chariots is illustrated on Plate LXIX. Roach-Smith gives a remarkable specimen with a mythological subject, that of Herakles and Hesione[3610]; the subject is curiously treated, Hesione being chained down with heavy weights. Another interesting but fragmentary vase from Chesterford in Essex has figures of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Venus, and it may be assumed that the complete subject was that of the seven deities represented by the days of the week.[3611] Otherwise the potter is content with animals, such as dolphins or fishes, or mere foliations, ivy-wreaths, engrailed lines, and other ornamental patterns.[3612]

In regard to the technique of these wares, Artis notes that the indented patterns were made while the vase was “as pliable as it could be taken from the lathe”; for the barbotine the thumb or a rounded instrument was employed. Figures of animals were executed with a kind of skewer on which the slip was placed, a thicker variety being used for certain parts to heighten the relief, and a more delicate instrument for features and other details. No subsequent retouching was possible. The vases were glazed subsequently to the application of the barbotine; on the other hand, the decoration in white paint was made after glazing. The glaze was, as we have seen in Chapter XXI., p. 448, produced by a deposit of carbon, by the process known as “smothering”; it varies in quality, being either dark without any metallic lustre, or with a metalloid polish resembling that produced with black-lead.

The date of the Castor ware is difficult to ascertain, but it must begin fairly early in the Roman period, on account of its affinities with late Celtic pottery. Déchelette (ii. p. 310) would date the ware towards the end of the third century. As has already been pointed out (p. 536), it is only the elements of the decoration that are classical; they are treated in a rude, debased manner, with the free unconventional handling characteristic of barbaric art. “They are not an imitation, but a recasting” according to the traditions of late Celtic or Gaulish art,[3613] such as is displayed, for instance, in the ancient British and Gallic coinage. The fantastic animals, the treatment of the scrolls, and the dividing ornaments of beading, etc., between the subjects are essentially unclassical. Potters’ stamps on this ware are exceedingly rare, an almost isolated instance being CAMARO · F on a vase found at Lincoln.[3614]

Two other local varieties of black ware peculiar to Britain are those known respectively as Upchurch and New Forest ware. Although no remains of kilns have been found in the former district, the pottery is obviously local, and its manufacture appears to have extended along the banks of the Medway from Rainham to Iwade, over what are now marshes, but was then firm ground. The remains consist of a thin finely-moulded bluish-black fabric, with graceful and varied forms, ornamented with groups of small knobs in bands, squares, circles, wavy, intersecting, or zigzag lines, or a characteristic pattern of concentric semi-circles resting on bands of parallel vertical lines (Plate LXIX. fig. 6). This ware has also been found on the Continent, and may either have been exported or else made in other places besides Upchurch; it is probably of quite late date.[3615]

The clay is soft and easily scratched, and is covered with a polish or lustre produced by friction; the composition is fine, and the walls thin and well turned. It varies in tone from greyish, like that of London clay, to a dull black. The vases are mostly small (cups, bottles, jugs, small jars, and occasional _mortaria_), and some have ribbed sides; the ornamentation is always either in the form of impressed lines or raised patterns made by applying pieces of clay before the vase was baked. No potters’ stamps have come to light, nor is this ware found with coins or other Roman remains. Rough earthenware was also made in the Medway district, of a red, yellow, or stone colour.

The New Forest ware is found in the north-west part of the Forest, between Fordingbridge and Bramshaw.[3616] It is sometimes spoken of as “Crockhill ware,” from the local name of the site of the furnaces, of which traces were found in 1852. The pottery consists of two varieties, one of thin, hard, slate-coloured ware, with patterns of leaves or grass painted in white (Plate LXIX. fig. 5); these are small jars, averaging six inches in height, sometimes moulded by the potter’s thumb into an undulating circumference. There are points of resemblance with the Castor ware. The other variety consists of a thicker ware, with a dull white-yellowish ground and coarse foliated patterns painted in red or brown, usually platters or dishes. It is a rude and inartistic fabric, of obviously native origin and resembling Celtic rather than any Roman or Italian pottery. It is found on other sites in Hampshire, such as Bitterne (Clausentum), and even as far north as Oxford.[3617] The date is probably the third century of our era. With the kilns there were found heaps of potsherds which had been spoiled in the baking and rejected; they were vitrified so as to resemble stoneware, and when again submitted to the action of fire, cracked and split. The glaze with which the local blue clay had been covered was of a dark-red colour and alkaline nature, but had probably been affected by imperfect firing.

5. PLAIN ROMAN WARES

The plain unornamented and unglazed Roman pottery which answered to the modern earthenware has usually been considered by writers on the subject in a different category from the glazed and ornamented wares. Although from the very simplicity of its character it defies scientific classification, yet it must be remembered that this common ware was not likely to have been exported very far from the place of its origin, and therefore where any differences can be observed in the nature or appearance of the clay, in peculiarities of form or of technique, it is not impossible to establish the existence of a local fabric. But up to the present little has been done except in isolated instances. Certain local wares have been recognised in Britain, as will be noted below, besides the Castor, Upchurch, and New Forest wares, some of which almost come under this heading; and others, again, in Gaul. Similarly in Germany, attempts have been made by Koenen and other writers to classify the plain pottery whether according to form or on other principles (see above, p. 536).

Many years ago a rough but in some respects convenient classification was made by Brongniart[3618] on the basis of the colour of the clay employed, which he distinguished under four heads: (1) pale yellow or white wares; (2) red wares, varying to reddish-brown; (3) grey or ash-coloured wares; (4) black wares. In the first division he included the large, often coarse, vases, such as the _dolia_ and _amphorae_; under the second head Roman ware of the first century, and under the third that of subsequent date; while the fourth class comprised Gallo-Roman and other provincial wares. A somewhat similar system, in some respects even less chronological, was attempted by Buckman,[3619] who distinguished brown ware as a separate fabric. The obvious defect of these systems is that they are neither chronological nor according to fabrics, and that their basis is in many respects a purely accidental one; but at the same time they have proved convenient for discussing plain ware which does not admit of much consideration apart from its forms and the general appearance of its composition. And at all events they enable us to discuss examples of certain shapes under one head, inasmuch as the _amphorae_ and _dolia_ are nearly all of the first class, the _mortaria_ or _pelves_ of the third, cups, dishes, and flasks of the second and fourth, and so on.

The yellow ware[3620] is distinguished by its coarse clay, of a greyish-white or yellow colour, varying to dirty white, grey, or red. It is to this division that all the larger vases belong, such as those used for storing wine and other commodities or for funerary purposes, and the innumerable fragments of _dolia_ and _amphorae_ which compose the Monte Testaccio at Rome.[3621] Some of these vases were made on the wheel, but others were modelled by hand and turned from within. Those used in burial were usually of a globular form, or even _dolia_ with the necks and handles broken off, and contained cinerary urns and glass vessels. We also find _lagenae_, _trullae_ (saucepans), and _mortaria_ made in this ware. Another remarkable variety may be described as a kind of _olla_; its peculiarity is that it is modelled in the form of a human head, much in the same style as the primitive vases of Troy (Vol. I. p. 258). A vase of this type found at Bootham, near Lincoln, had painted on the foot D(_e_)O MIIRCVRIO, “To the god Mercury,“ in brown letters.[3622] The clay is light yellow, with a slip of the same colour.

A finer variety of this clay, often of a rosy tint, or white and micaceous, was used for making the smaller vases, which are thin and light, and all turned on the wheel.[3623] They are sometimes ornamented with bands, lines, hatching, or leaves, slightly indicated in dull ochre, laid on and fired with the vase. Some specimens are covered with a flat white slip, of a more uniform character than that employed on the Athenian vases. In others the clay is largely mixed with grains of quartz. In Britain little jars of a very white clay have sometimes been found, as well as small bottles and dishes, painted inside with patterns in a dull red or brown. They seem to have formed a kind of finer ware for ornamental purposes, as well as for the table.

The second class, that of the red wares, forms by far the largest division of Roman plain pottery, and comprises most of the kinds used for domestic purposes; it is found in all forms and sizes, all over Europe, often covered with a coating or slip, white, black, or red. This class may be considered to include all varieties of red and reddish-brown ware, but as a rule the clay varies in colour from pale rose to deep coral, and in quality from a coarse gritty composition to a fine compact and homogeneous paste. It is usually without a glaze, and sometimes the clay is largely micaceous. To enumerate all the shapes which illustrate this ware is unnecessary, but the Romano-British and Morel Collections in the British Museum—and in fact any representative collection of Roman pottery—exhibit all the principal varieties, from the cinerary urn to the so-called “tear-bottle” or unguent vase. The principal shapes are also illustrated in the treatises of Hölder and Koenen.

Among sepulchral vases of this ware were the _ollae_ in which the ashes of slaves were placed in the _columbaria_ at Rome, tall jars with moulded rims and flat saucer-shaped covers.[3624] In Roman tombs in Gaul and Britain these _ollae_ are usually placed inside large _dolia_ or amphorae, to protect them from the weight of the superincumbent earth.[3625] In Britain they have been found at Lincoln, on the sites of Roman settlements along the Dover Road, at Colchester, and in other places, and as many as twenty thousand are recorded as having been found at Bordeaux.[3626] After the introduction of Christianity this practice seems to have been abandoned, but vases of smaller size continued to be placed round the bones of the dead.

The grey wares were usually made of fine clay, of which there were two varieties: a sandy loam like that of which bricks are made on the borders of the chalk formations in England, and a heavy stone-coloured paste, sonorous when struck, which has been compared to the clay of modern Staffordshire ware. The colour of the first-named is light and its texture brittle, and it was chiefly used for _mortaria_, or for cooking-vessels which were exposed to the heat of the fire. The _mortaria_ resemble modern milk-pans, being flat, with overlapping edges and a grooved spout opening in front. They appear to have been used both for cooking, many bearing traces of the action of fire, and for grinding food or other commodities, the latter purpose probably explaining the presence, in the interior of many examples, of small pebbles, or a hard coating of pounded tile, to counteract the effects of trituration. They are usually of a hard coarse texture, but compact and heavy, and their colour varies from pale red to bright yellow or creamy white.

They are frequently stamped with the name of the potter, placed in a square or rectangular panel on the rim and often arranged in two lines. The names are either single, denoting the work of slaves, as Albinus, Brixsa, Catulus, Sollus, and Marinus, or double and occasionally even triple, for the work of freedmen, as Q. Valerius, Sex. Valerius, Q. Averus Veranius, and so on.[3627] The example given in Fig. 230 is from Ribchester in Lancashire, and bears the stamp BORIED(_us_) F(_ecit_). A _mortarium_ recently dug up in Bow Lane, London, now in the Guildhall Museum, has the name of Averus Veranius with O · GARR · FAC in smaller type between the words, apparently referring to the place of manufacture.[3628] One of the commonest names is that of Ripanus Tiberinus, who gives the name of the place where he worked: RIPANVS · TIBER · F · | LVGVDV FACT, _Ripanus Tiber(inus) f(ecit); Lugudu(ni) fact(um)_.[3629] The potters’ names are usually accompanied by the letters OF or F. The mortaria vary from seven to twenty-three inches in diameter, and are found in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Of the second or heavier variety a curious vase in the form of a human head was found at Castor[3630]; much of the New Forest ware also comes under the same heading,[3631] including the small cups with pinched-in sides, some being covered with a slip of micaceous consistency.

Of black ware many varieties have been found in Gaul and Britain, besides the special local wares which have already been described. Some were employed as funerary urns, but the majority are of small size, and in quality they vary from the extremest coarseness to a fine polished clay, producing an effect almost equal to the Greek or Etruscan black wares. The finest specimens of plain black ware are to be seen in the vases with a highly polished surface, presenting a metallic appearance and an olive hue which almost approximates to that of bronze. Examples of this ware are found in Gaul at Lezoux, in Britain at Castor, and elsewhere.[3632]

In the first century after Christ a superior kind of black ware seems to have been made in Northern Gaul and Germany, described by Dragendorff as “Belgic black ware.”[3633] The clay is bluish-grey, with black polished surface produced like that of the bucchero ware by smoke, not like the black glaze of later Roman ware. A similar variety of grey ware exists, but without glaze or polish. The forms of the vases vary very much from the Roman, including a typical high, slim urn and other more squat forms, closely imitating metal; they bear some relation to those of the La Tène period, and are Celtic or Gaulish rather than German.[3634] Such ornamentation as they bear is exclusively linear, and never in relief. There is, however, a Roman form of plate which often occurs, and, generally speaking, the fabric may be described as a continuation of pre-Roman pottery influenced by Italy. It is well represented at Xanten and Andernach, but is not found on the Limes, and is rare in Britain; it does not seem to have been made after the beginning of the Flavian epoch, when it was largely superseded by the ordinary Roman black glazed wares.

A special kind of black ware seems to have been made in the valley of the Rhone, consisting of pots of a coarse, gritty paste with micaceous particles, breaking with a coarse fracture of a dark red colour. They have been mostly found at Vienne, where they seem to have been made. The bottom of the vase is usually impressed with a circular stamp with the potter’s name in late letters, as L · CASSI · O, F(_ir_)MINVS · F, SEVVO · F, SIMILIS · F (from Aix).[3635] The well-known name of Fortis has also been found on black ware from Aix.

In Britain black ware is, as elsewhere, exceedingly common, and a typical group of the smaller varieties is afforded by a series of five found in a sarcophagus at Binsted in Hampshire, now in the British Museum,[3636] consisting of two _calices_, a jar (_olla_), an _acetabulum_, and a kind of candlestick. The Upchurch ware largely belongs to this category, and much of the same kind has been found at Weymouth.

Brown ware of a very coarse style is often found with other Roman remains, consisting of amphorae and other vessels for domestic use. Examples of amphorae and jugs with female heads modelled on the necks have been found at Richborough and elsewhere.[3637]

At Wroxeter the excavations yielded two new classes of pottery, one consisting of narrow-necked jugs and _mortaria_,[3638] very beautifully made from a white local clay, which has been identified with that found at Broseley in the neighbourhood, nowadays supplying material for the manufacture of tobacco-pipes. The surface is decorated with red and yellow stripes. The other kind is a variety of red ware which has been styled “Romano-Salopian,” made from clay obtained in the Severn valley, and differing from the common Roman ware.[3639] It is, however, exceedingly doubtful whether these types should be classed under the heading Roman.

In conclusion, it may be noted that although all provincial museums contain more or less complete collections of the ordinary plain fabrics, they are for the most part of strictly local origin, and not in themselves sufficient for general study. But since the acquisition of the Morel Collection by the British Museum the student has ample facilities for investigating there not only the fabrics of Britain, but also those of Gaul, of which an exhaustive series is now incorporated in our national collection.

* * * * *

With this review of the ceramic industries of the Roman Empire, we conclude our survey of the pottery of the classical world. We have followed its rise from the rough, almost shapeless products of the Neolithic and earliest Bronze Age, when the potter’s wheel was as yet unknown (on classical soil), and decoration was not attempted, or was confined to the rudest kinds of incised patterns. We have traced the development of painted decoration from monochrome to polychrome, from simple patterns to elaborate pictorial compositions, and so to its gradual decay and disappearance under the luxurious and artificial tendencies of the Hellenistic Age, when men were ever seeking for new artistic departures, and a new system of technique arose which finally substituted various forms of decoration in relief for painting. And lastly, we have seen how this new system established itself firmly in the domain of Roman art, until with the gradual decay of artistic taste and under the encroachments of barbarism, it sank into neglect and oblivion. We observe, too, with a melancholy interest, that while other arts, such as architecture, painting, and metal-work, have left some sort of heritage to the later European civilisations, and like the runners in the Greek torch-race

vitai lampada tradunt,

this is not so in the case of pottery. This art had, it would seem, completely worn itself out, and had, in fact, returned to the level of its earliest beginnings. The decorative element disappears, and pottery becomes, as in its earliest days, a mere utilitarian industry, the secrets of its former technical achievements irrevocably lost, its ornamentation reduced to the simplest and roughest kinds of decoration, and its status among the products of human industry once more limited to the mere supplying of one of the humblest of men’s needs.