FIG. 221. GAULISH BOWL (FORM NO. 29); FIRST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST.
FIG. 222. GAULISH BOWL (FORM NO. 30);
FIRST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST.
As a general rule these early provincial forms were unornamented, but the two types of bowl or cup which Dragendorff numbers 29 and 30, and which are reproduced in Figs. [221], [222], become the normal form for the provincial relief-wares of the first century. These are not found in the Arretine ware, but occur all through that century, not only in Gaul, but also, for instance, in the castra on the frontier of Germany.[[3431]] The only Arretine form which seems to have prevailed to any extent in the provinces is the krater (Dragendorff’s No. 11 = Fig. [219]).[[3432]] Other kinds of deep cups with expanding sides (Dragendorff’s Nos. 22-27) are found occasionally in Italy and on various sites in Germany, and can be traced from their first appearance in the first century for about a hundred years.[[3433]] Nos. 24 and 25 are found at Xanten (Castra Vetera) with coins of Julius Caesar and Nero, others in the cemetery of Bibracte near Autun, which is known not to be later than the time of Augustus.[[3434]] The general conclusion seems to be that these wares represent a sort of transitional stage between those of Arretium and the indubitably provincial terra sigillata. Towards the end of the first century they are supplanted, notably at Lezoux and in Germany, by the hemispherical bowl (Dragendorff’s No. 37 = Fig. [223]), which subsequently becomes the only form employed for the moulded wares.
FIG. 223. GAULISH BOWL (FORM NO. 37); A.D. 70-260.
In pursuing his investigation of the provincial fabrics of the first century,[[3435]] Dragendorff begins by discussing various groups of vases found in Germany which seem to represent a period of transition between the Italian Roman (and the local native) pottery and the provincial terra sigillata proper, which is not usually found before the middle of the century. First we have a kind of light-red ware, formerly known as “false Samian,” which lacks the strong lustrous sheen of the genuine terra sigillata; the tone Hettner considered to be the result of mere polishing, without any glaze or slip.[[3436]] The forms are heavier and coarser, and are not confined, as in the genuine fabric, to deep cups or shallow bowls, but include a sort of beaker or tumbler-shaped cup,[[3437]] and a slim jar with characteristic incised ornament. They are found in the oldest Roman tombs at Andernach, about A.D. 60.[[3438]] Contemporary with this (from Augustus to Vespasian) was a kind of black ware with incised linear ornament, resembling that described under a subsequent heading (p. [515]); it bears the same potters’ stamps as the light-red ware, and is interesting for its close relation to the older La Tène pottery, showing its origin to be Celtic or Gaulish, not Roman. The centre of fabric for these wares, which are limited in their distribution to the Rhenish provinces, Normandy and Southern Gaul, seems to have been Trier, which place is as nearly as possible the centre of all the sites on which they have been found; it is further evident that both the red and the black were made in the same pottery. Dragendorff styles these fabrics “Belgic,” on the ground that they are mostly found in the province of Gallia Belgica. It is conceivable that, as that province became organised in the first century, potters from Southern Gaul settled at Trier. A pottery of that epoch has been found there, with remains of black, grey, and light-red ware, and a piece found at Andernach with the stamp DVRO
CVAVO shows evidence of having been made at the former place.[[3439]] The potters’ stamps include both Roman and non-Roman names. These wares are very rarely found in Britain.[[3440]]
We now come to the terra sigillata fabrics proper, which extend from about A.D. 30 or even earlier to 250, and exhibit a great difference from the earlier fabrics.[[3441]] There is no longer any question of Italian manufacture or of unsuccessful provincial imitations of Italian ware, but of a provincial fabric of excellent technique and real artistic individuality. The material for our purpose is supplied by the Gaulish cemeteries and pottery-sites of the Rhone and Allier valleys, the Cevennes, Normandy, and Belgium, by those of the Rhine valley and Southern Germany, and those of Britain. In Northern Gaul this pottery is found with coins ranging from Caligula to Commodus, and in the forts on the German Limes, such as those on the Taunus range and along the Main, the coins extend from Vespasian to Gallienus (A.D. 260), in whose time occupation ceased on the right bank of the Rhine.
In considering the probable centres of fabric we find a remarkable correspondence in the potters’ stamps in the most widely-separated localities, indicating a limited number of centres which had a great reputation. Thus, for instance, in comparing lists of stamps found in London with those from Douai in France Roach-Smith noted that no less than three-fourths of the names occurred in both places.[[3442]] The same investigator, now many years ago, was acute enough to deduce the conclusion from this and other similar evidence that in Britain there was no local manufacture of terra sigillata[[3443]]; and he has been justified by more recent researches, based on a much more extensive command of material. The two chief authorities on this subject at the present day, Dr. Dragendorff and M. Déchelette, are agreed in their main conclusions that the centre of this fabric must be sought in Gaul, and since the appearance of the latter’s treatise on the Gaulish potteries, there seems little doubt that it was in the first century at Graufesenque near Rodez in the Cevennes (Condatomagus), in the succeeding period at Lezoux in Auvergne, where extensive remains of potteries have come to light. Dr. Dragendorff based his arguments on the following facts:
(1) The potters’ names are largely Gaulish.