Late Roman Pottery

In 1963, Frank Brown carried out an excavation in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. He never published it, and it has remained little known. This article presents the evidence of the excavation that it has been possible to find. Selected ceramic fragments, apparently kept at the American Academy in Rome since 1963, constitute the major element now available. They were stored without any contextual information and thus cannot be associated securely with the stratigraphic layers that were observed according to testimony that evidently goes back to Brown and his team. Most of the finds preserved date to the late antique and to some extent the early mediaeval period and may well come largely from the upper three meters of the excavation. Two lower layers were reported, and there are some earlier pieces. Besides shedding light on Brown’s excavation, the material offers a range of finds that may prove useful as comparanda for other contexts and includes examples of wares and types that are still little known or unattested at Rome. ***An addendum to this article, which contains color photographs, fabric images and an erata corrige, can be found on the blog of the Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores*** https://blog.fautores.org/

An imposing amount of studies and researches in the second half of the twentieth century has focused on the productivity in Roman Africa of a variety of consumer products, along with the analysis of regions, cities and their economies. The success of  African goods during the Caesarian-Augustan age and up to the late antiquity, recorded in the written tradition and confirmed by the stratigraphy of many sites in the Mediterranean, has been the subject of a substantial amount of contributions that have accompanied for more than sixty years the study of material culture of the Roman imperial age. This session, which can not consider every product of the Maghreb, will focus mainly on the ceramic, not only on account of its large diffusion, the fossil marker for dating contexts all around the Mediterranean and well inside Europe for several centuries, but also because the evidence is more consistent than that found for other types of sources, and reflects the ability of African regions to develop a high yield agriculture, and manufacturing activities related to fisheries, as shown by transport amphorae (carrying oil, olives, wine, fish sauces), as well as crafts tied to the production of more or less valuable objects, aimed - at various levels - at regional, inter-regional and inter-provincial markets.
If during a  more or less recent past most studies were mainly focused on data collected at the sites of consumption (and thus on the indestructible ceramic), centered on the type and histories of each production (fine table ware, lamps,  kitchenware and coarse ware), recent studies have been, on one hand, directed towards a review of the known types and towards a more thoughtful analysis of the contexts of discovery, perfecting the production framework and anchoring to a trustworthy time frame certain types and classes in circulation; on the other hand they have focused on the production centers in order to get a better geographic characterization of those same types and classes, applying a wealth of suitable methodologies, surveys of large tracts of land, surveys and excavations of old and new workshops, laboratory analysis. The results draw a scenery in which a great variety of productive facies and distribution models reflect the complexity of the cultural, social and economic contexts, both micro- and macro-regional, both at the provincial and inter-provincial levels. This session aims to describe these lines of research, focusing on the organization of production and commerce in the region, their similarities and differences, and on a list of questions still unsolved, the solution of which will call for a further revision of published data, and for brand new information.

In the years 2008-2010 rescue excavations were conducted
on site 20 in Górzyca, Słubice county. During these works
they discovered, among others, a biritual cemetery of Roman
period. Among 85 graves one of the most interesting
was a young woman’s grave, marked as No. 9. In this text
its incredibly rich equipment was presented. Among the
artefacts the most interesting one is terra sigillata pot. The
other elements of grave complex equipment confirm the
opulence of this tomb. The following element are worth
mentioning: two ceramic pots, a necklace made of glass
and bone beads, a pendant begirded with a tape, a golden
spherical pendant, decorated stone and clay spindle
whorls, two keys, casket elements, bodkins made of bone
and metal, the fossil of Jurassic mollusk Pholadomya, or
the presence of animal bones. The riches of this grave complex
makes us call the woman buried here “a princess” of
Górzyca. Additionally to that, for the description of grave
No. 9’s sake, there were conducted the following technical
analyses: 1) jeweler’s (Stefański, Appendix No. 3); 2)
texture remains (Sikorski, Appendix No. 2); 3) numismatic
(Sikora, Appendix No. 3); 4) fossils (Jakubowski, Kurzawska,
Appendix No. 4); 5) petrographical (Szydłowski, Appenidx
No. 5); 6) anthropological (Wrzesińska, Appendix No. 6);
7) zooarchaeological (Osypińska, Appendix No. 7). On the
other hand, in the form of a separate article, the analysis
of terra sigllata bowl was presented (see L. Tyszler, in the
same volume).

In the summer of 2014, fifteen years will have passed since archaeological excavations began on the island of Cabrera, the fifth smallest of the Balearic Islands, located a few kilometers off the southern tip of Mallorca. These excavations served as the starting point for the Project for the Recovery, Consolidation and Museological Interpretation of Cabrera's Byzantine Monastery. This project has been coordinated at all times by Palma City Council's Urban Planning Department and co-directed by the authors of this foreword, a management team joined more recently by Maria Jose Rivas, Josep Maria Puche, and Julio Miguel Roman.' Between 1999 and 2012, archaeological work on Cabrera was funded by Palma City Council. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, the Spanish Ministry of the Environment also contributed financially to restoration and museological activities.2 In 2013, funding was provided by the Balearic Ministry for Education, Culture and Universities' Directorate General for Universities, Research and Knowledge Transfers for land clearance in areas that were to be excavated. The main aim of the Project for the Recovery, Consolidation and Museological Interpretation of Cabrera's Byzantine Monastery has always been to discover and show what the monastery that Pope Gregory the Great mentions in his Epistle XIII, 47, was like. The pope's letter was written in the year 603 AD and it clearly demonstrates the existence of a monastery on the island of Cabrera.

The project is based on conclusions reached in a university degree thesis by one of the authors, Mateu Riera Rullan, entitled Cabrera Monastery in the Late Antiquity, supervised by Professor Miquel Barcelo Perello of Barcelona's Autonoma University, to whom we express ourgratitude. In the thesis, delivered in 2002, data from the small islands of Cabrera, Conillera and 11 lot dels Frares was compared with written sources describing Christian monastic life in the 4th to 8th centuries AD and with archaeological discoveries made at monasteries of the period located on small islands in the western Mediterranean or Atlantic. The thesis concluded that Cabrera was a "holy island" where two types of monastic settlements seem to have coexisted: a main monastery and several hermitages.

Right from the outset, it was proposed that the study of Cabrera's monastic community should be aimed at finding out how the community functioned internally, what use the monks made of the area and its resources, and what modifications they made to the local environment. It was decided that attempts should be made to determine the characteristics of the buildings, to work out how they were used, and to compare them with those cited in written sources. Priority was also given to comparing the archaeological remains on Cabrera with the archaeological remains of examples of 5th to 8th century AD monasteries excavated elsewhere. These are the main criteria on which our work has been based these last few years, leading to the publication of this catalogue.

Thus the aim of this publication is to offer a summary of the archaeological work that has been undertaken in the subarchipelago of Cabrera, contextualizing it within the framework of the 5th to 8th century AD Christian monastic world, a period in which the Balearic Islands formed part of the Vandal kingdom and then the Byzantine Empire.

El verano de 2014 se cumplen quince años desde el inicio de las excavaciones arqueológicas en la isla de Cabrera, unos trabajos que sirvieron como punto de partida para el Proyecto de recuperación, consolidación y musealización del monasterio bizantino de Cabrera. Dicho proyecto siempre ha estado coordinado desde la Concejalía de Urbanismo del Ayuntamiento de Palma, y codirigido por los autores de este prefacio, un equipo de dirección al que, en los últimos años, se han sumado María José Rivas, Josep Maria Puche y Julio Miguel Román1. Los trabajos arqueológicos realizados en Cabrera han sido financiados por el Ayuntamiento de Palma entre los años 1999 y 2012. Los años 2005, 2006 y 2007 el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente también colaboró económicamente en temas de restauración y musealización, mientras que en 2013 se pudo emprender una campaña de limpieza de las áreas excavadas gracias a la financiación económica de la Dirección General de Universidades, Investigación y Transferencia del Conocimiento de la Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Universidades del Gobierno de las liles Balears.

El objetivo principal del Proyecto de recuperación, consolidación y musealización del monasterio bizantino de Cabrera ha sido siempre el de intentar conocer y mostrar como fue el monasterio del que habla la Epístola XIII, 47, del papa Gregorio Magno, una carta escrita el año 603 d. C que demuestra, sin duda alguna, la existencia de un
monasterio en la isla balear de Cabrera.

Todos los trabajos hasta ahora realizados partían de una base teórica planteada en la tesis de licenciatura titulada El monestir de Cabrero a l'antiguitat tardona, dirigida por el doctor y catedrático de la Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona Miquel Barceló Perelló, a quien no nos cansaremos de mostrar nuestro reconocimiento y nuestra gratitud. En aquella tesis, defendida el año 2002, se empezaron a cruzar los datos obtenidos en Cabrera, Conillera y el Illot dels Frares con
lo que se decía en las fuentes escritas sobre el monacato cristiano de los siglos IV a VIII d. C. y con los descubrimientos arqueológicos de algunos otros ejemplos de monasterios localizados en islotes del Mediterráneo occidental y del Atlántico. Todo este trabajo permitió proponer que Cabrera fue una isla santa donde parecía que habrían coexistido dos tipos de asentamientos monásticos correspondientes a un cenobio y a diversos eremitorios. Ya entonces se argumentó que el estudio de la comunidad monacal de Cabrera debía tener por objeto la naturaleza de su funcionamiento interno, qué uso hacían los monjes del espacio y sus recursos, y qué modificaciones causaron en su entorno. Había que intentar conocer las características de sus construcciones para poder identificar sus usos y poder compararlo con lo que dicen las fuentes escritas. También se consideró muy importante poder confrontar lo encontrado en Cabrera con los restos arqueológicos de los pocos ejemplos de monasterios de los siglos V a VIII d. C. que se han podido excavar. Éstas son algunas de las directrices que han ¡do marcando nuestro trabajo estos últimos años, cuyo resultado es este catálogo.

En definitiva, en este volumen se pretende mostrar una síntesis de los trabajos arqueológicos realizados en el subarchipiélago de Cabrera, contextualizándolos en el mundo del monacato cristiano de los siglos V a VIII d. C, un tiempo en que las islas Baleares formaron parte, primero, del territorio del Reino Vándalo, y, a continuación, del Imperio bizantino.

The ruins of the ancient village of Chhim, located in the mountains near Sidon, constitute an exceptional case of a well-preserved rural archaeological site in Lebanon. Chhim has been researched in depth thanks to recent excavations. The sanctuary from the Roman period, the Christian basilica, residential buildings, and numerous oil presses provide an account of a settlement whose livelihood was based on agriculture and animal husbandry—all while remaining in close contact with other coastal Mediterranean settlements. The relatively high and stable level of prosperity of Chhim’s inhabitants contrasted with technological stagnation and the retention of traditional building techniques—both characteristic of the mountainous regions of ancient Phoenicia.

A part of the history and archaeology of the roman city of Claterna (Ozzano dell’Emilia – Bologna) was reconstructed through the analysis of the so-called Domus of the Blacksmith. The excavations undertaken on this site in 2005 and still in progress, led to the discovery of a house whose history stretched from the 1st century BC to the 6th century AD, when it started being dismantled. In the first part of the paper we report the stratigraphic sequence of the eastern half of the domus, focusing on the Late Antique period; the two following sections are dedicated to the study of the material culture of the site (pottery and coins); the final part of the study analyses the results by comparing them with the general knowledge of the city and by conducting a diachronic review of the comparisons coming from the neighboring regions. The link between the stratigraphy of the Domus of the Blacksmith and the urban landscape of Claterna is the crisis that hit the ancient municipium during the 3rd century AD which caused its transformation into a vicus. Hence, throughout Late Antiqiuity Claterna lost its rank of civitas but retained the itinerary function and central place role that had encouraged its birth and growth. In fact, the crisis of the vicus at the beginning of the Early Middle Ages started precisely with the loss of that centrality, which had meanwhile been inherited by other settlements in this territory.

Neste trabalho pretendemos dar a conhecer os novos dados sobre a TSHT proveniente das unidades estratigráficas seladas das termas medicinais romanas de Chaves (Aquae Flaviae), O estudo apresentado faz parte do projecto de estudo e valorização do património arqueológico do largo do Arrabalde, que inclui outros estudos parcelares. Todos os materiais aqui apresentados provêm de unidades estratigráficas seladas e as cronologias são corroboradas pelas dos restantes materiais, em fase de estudo e publicação.
Pretende-se contribuir para a afinação cronológica da produção e difusão de TSHT, bem como datar os contextos de onde o espólio é proveniente, contribuindo assim também para o estudo da evolução urbanística da cidade, e para um conhecimento mais aprofundado da economia e comércio da cidade de Aquae Flaviae durante o Baixo Império.