Production technology and trade of 4th–1st centuries BC cooking jars from the Pontine Region in southern Lazio (Italy)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32028/rcrf-acta-48-pp.283-288%20Keywords:
Cooking jars , Production Technology , Trade , Thin Section Petrography , Pontine region (southern Lazio)Abstract
Previous research conducted as part of the Pontine Region Project in southern Lazio has indicated that 4th–1st centuries BC cooking jars from the low-lying central part of this region were obtained through regional and supra-regional trade networks. Building upon this, the present paper examined cooking jars from three micro-regions within the Pontine region, i.e., the coastal area, the central plain and the foothills of the Lepini Mountains respectively, to reconstruct their production technology and trade networks.
The results indicate that the cooking jars from the three micro-regions occur in six compositions; four seem to have been imported from production areas either from the north (e.g., Rome and Tiber Valley) or from the south (e.g., Bay of Naples), while two compositions might have been produced in the Pontine region. Possible changes in the relative supply of cooking jars are traced and different trade routes to and within the three micro-regions are proposed.
References
Attema, P. A. J., De Haas, T. C. A. and Tol, G. W. 2011. Between Satricum and Antium, Settlement Dynamics in a Coastal Landscape in Latium Vetus (Bulletin Antieke Beschaving Supplements 18). Leuven, Peeters.
Attema, P. A. J., Beijer, M., Kleibrink, M., Nijboer, A. J. and Van Oortmerssen, G. J. M. 2003. Pottery Classifications: Ceramics from Satricum and Lazio, Italy, 900 to 300 BC. Palaeohistoria 43/44, 321-396.
Bertoldi, T. 2011. Ceramiche comuni dal suburbio di Roma (Studi di Archeologia 1). Roma, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”.
Borgers, B. 2022. Ceramic Thin Section Characterisation of Mid-Republican cooking jars from a rural site at Ciampino, Rome. In A. L. Fischetti, Dalle rotte alle strade. Infrastutture e insediamenti nei Colli Albani dalle origini all’età romana (Groningen Archaeological Studies 43): 223-230. Leuven, Peeters.
Borgers, B., Tol, G. W., De Haas, T. C. A. 2017. Roman cooking vessels (ollae): a preliminary study of the material from the Pontine region, Central Italy. Science and Technology of Archaeological Research. 41st International Symposium on Archaeometry Conference Proceedings 3(2), 314-325.
Borgers, B., Tol, G. W. and De Haas, T. C. A. 2018. Reconstructing Production Technology and Consumption Patterns, Using Thin Section Petrography: A Pilot Study of Roman Pottery Production in the Pontine region, Central Italy. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 21, 1064-1072.
Borgers, B., Ionescu, C., Gal, A., De Haas, T. C. A. and Barbu-Tudoran, L. 2023. Republican coarse ware from Norba, southern Lazio (Italy): a multi-analytical study of production technology and trade. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (AAS) 15, 180.
Capelli, C. 2016. I gruppi mineralogici. In G. Olcese and C. Coletti (eds.), Ceramiche da contesti repubblicani del territorio di Ostia (Immensa Aequora 4): 196-198. Roma, Edizioni Quasar.
Cuomo di Caprio, N. 2017. Ceramics in Archaeology. From Prehistoric to Medieval times in Europe and the Mediterranean: Ancient Craftsmanship and Modern Laboratory Techniques. Roma, L'Erma di Bretschneider.
De Haas, T. C. A. 2017a. Managing the marshes: An integrated study of the centuriated landscape of the Pontine plain. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 15, 470-81.
De Haas, T. C. A. 2017b. The Geography of Roman Italy and its Implications for the Development of Rural Economies. In T. C. A. De Haas and G. W. Tol (eds.), The Economic Integration of Roman Italy, 51-84. Leiden, Brill.
De Haas, T. C. A., Attema, P. A. J. and Tol, G. W. 2012. Polygonal masonry platform sites in the Lepine Mountains (Pontine region, Lazio, Italy). Palaeohistoria 53/54, 195-282.
Long, L., Volpe, G. and Turchiano, M. 2003. Il relitto tardorepubblicano La Ciotat 3. Dati preliminari sulla campagna di scavo 2001. In Atti del II Convegno Nazionale di Archeologia Subacquea (Castiglioncello, 7-9 settembre 2001), 275-293. Bari, Edipuglia.
Olcese, G. 1996. Ceramiche comuni di origine tirrenica centro-meridionale tra il II secolo a.C. e il I d.C.: problemi aperti. L’evidenza dei reperti di Albintimilium. In M. Bats (ed.), Les céramiques communes de Campanie et de Narbonnaise (Ie s. av. J.-C. – IIe s. ap. J.C.). La vaisselle de cuisine et de table, 421-445. Naples, Publications du Centre Jean Bérard.
Olcese, G. 2003. Ceramiche comuni a Roma e in area romana: produzione, circolazione e tecnologia (tarda età repubblicana – prima età imperiale) (Documenti de Archeologia 28). Mantova, Società Archeologica Padana.
Orton, C., Tyers, P. and Vince, A. 1993. Pottery in Archaeology. London, Cambridge University Press.
Peña, J. T. 1992. Raw material use among nucleated industry potters: The case of Vasanello, Italy. Archeomaterials 6(2), 93-122.
Quinn, P. S. 2013. Ceramic Petrography: the interpretation of archaeological pottery and related artefacts in thin section. Oxford, Archaeopress.
Thierrin-Michael, G. 2003. Petrographische Charakterisierung und Differentiation der römischen Produktion. In G. Olcese (ed.), Ceramiche Comuni a Roma e in area romana: produzione, circolazione e tecnologia (tarda età repubblicana – prima età imperiale) (Documenti de Archeologia 28): 55-59. Mantova, Società Archeologica Padana.
Tol, G. W. 2012. A fragmented history. A methodological and artefactual approach to the study of ancient settlement in the territories of Satricum and Antium. Groningen, Barkhuis & Groningen University Library.
Tol, G. W. and Borgers, B. 2016. An integrated approach to the study of local production and exchange in the lower Pontine plain. Journal of Roman Archaeology 29, 349-370.
Tol, G. W. and De Haas, T. C. A. 2017. The role of minor centres in local economies: new insights from recent archaeological fieldwork in the lower Pontine plain. The Amphora Issue 44-2, 33-61.
Tol, G. W., De Haas, T. C. A., Sevink, J., Schepers, M., Ullrich, B. and De Neef, W. 2021. “There’s more than meets the eye”: Developing an integrated archaeological approach to reconstruct human-environment dynamics in the Pontine marshes (Lazio, Central Italy). Geoarchaeology 36(1), 109-29.
Tol, G. W., De Haas, T. C. A. and Attema, P. A. J. 2021. Terra sigillata in southern Latium: the evidence from the Pontine Region Project, 1987-2014. Palaeohistoria 61/62, 203-272.
Verhagen, F. (in prep.). ‘A ceramic perspective on daily life in the Roman Republican countryside’. PhD research, Uppsala Universitet.
