Search

This paper explores aspects of production and distribution of local Roman pottery from the Pontine region, Central Italy, based on ceramics recovered in surveys carried out within the ‘Minor Centres’ project. The aim of this project was to investigate the role of minor centres in local economies of Roman Central Italy. Ceramic fabrics from waster pottery, recovered from three such centres and one rural site, were studied in thin section, and com-pared with pottery from consumption sites in the area. This study was complemented by clay prospection, which was carried out with the aim to identify potential clay sources used for Roman pottery production. The resultsshow that the local pottery at each site is characterised by a unique compositional signature, and demonstrate that potters in the Pontine region exploited local raw materials. Furthermore, the results indicate that local prod-ucts were distributed within a radius of 25 km, and that the ‘Roman’ traditions of paste preparation, as identified in this study, appear to result from long-lived traditions of paste preparation techniques.

This paper presents the petrographic analysis of cooking vessels (ollae) from the Pontine region, Central Italy, dated between the 4th and the 1st centuries BC. Cooking vessels of three surveys in different parts of the Pontine Plain and around Norba, in the Lepine foothills, are considered. The considered time-span covers the period in which the Pontine region became integrated in the Roman state until the end of the Republic, and cooking vessels have much to tell us about the region's integration in production and distribution systems, and whether changes occurred therein.The petrographic study shows that the cooking pots were produced and distributed at regional and supra-regional scales. The production and distribution systems that are tentatively inferred show aspects of continuity and change during the time-span considered. Roman cooking vessels that circulated in the Pontine region between the 4th and the 3rd centuries BC had a supra-regional and regional provenance. During the 2nd and the 1st centuries BC, the region continued to have access to these products, as well as to other ones that were produced within and outside the region. Furthermore, the distribution of supra-regional products increased, whereas the importance of existing regional centres decreased in favour of others.