Gaulish Pottery of First Century after Christ (Graufesenque Fabric)
(British Museum).
diagonal or cruciform pattern often occupying alternate panels (cf. Plate LXVII. fig. 2)[[3502]]; (γ) large medallions, often combined with inverted semicircles (chiefly found at Lezoux: cf. Plate LXVIII. fig. 3); (δ) arcading (rare at Graufesenque); (ε) arcading and semicircles combined; (ζ) large foliage-patterns or vine-leaves, often interspersed with animals; (η) friezes of “free” figures (not found at Graufesenque: cf. Plate[LXVIII]. fig. 1).
In regard to the figure subjects, mythological types are rare, and generally there is not so much variety as at Lezoux. Déchelette reckons 177 different types in all, of which 112 are peculiar to the fabric, whereas no less than 793 are peculiar to Lezoux.[[3503]] Hence, he points out, the origin of any Gaulish vase may be determined from the nature of the types alone. In artistic execution they are unequal, some being copies of popular themes, others of a naïve and unsophisticated character. Gaulish elements are conspicuously absent. Although the difference from the Arretine style is strongly marked, there is yet the same tendency to display the influence of toreutic prototypes, and even of the “new Attic” reliefs and the genre types of the Hellenistic period.[[3504]] But others are original and non-classical in style, and there is no homogeneity. Each pottery doubtless had its favourite subjects—a point which may prove of use in determining the separate fabrics. In any case, figure-subjects only prevailed for a short period at Condatomagus, whereas at Lezoux and in Germany they extend over a considerable period. For Gaul did not become Romanised before the reign of Titus; hence the previous absence of mythological themes. The potter Libertus (see below, p. 527), who worked at Lezoux about A.D. 100, stands out as the foremost potter and modeller in Gaul, who, brought up on classical traditions, influenced the whole pottery of the country.
The question of the chronology of these Rutenian fabrics depends more upon the results of comparison with other sites than on the internal evidence of the finds. None of this pottery, for instance, is found at Bibracte, which was deserted about the beginning of our era; but at Andernach vases with Rutenian potters’ stamps are found with coins ranging from Augustus to Nero. They are also abundant at Xanten, Neuss, and Vechten in Holland. Evidence may also be obtained from the German Limes, where form 29 disappears about A.D. 30. The exportation of Rutenian wares, therefore, began about the reign of Tiberius. Their wide distribution may be traced by a study of the inscriptions in the thirteenth and other volumes of the Latin Corpus.[[3505]] In Britain they are found in London[[3506]] and at Silchester. Out of thirty-four ornamented vases from the latter site in the Reading Museum, M. Déchelette attributes exactly half to Condatomagus, representing the first century, and the other half to Lezoux, representing the second.[[3507]] In Italy this ware is found at Rome and Pompeii, and of the typical Rutenian subjects some twenty have been noted among the terra sigillata in Roman museums. The potters Bassus, Jucundus, Mommo, and others of Rutenian origin are found at Rome, whereas the only one from the Auvergne district there is Albucius[[3508]]; and the same names occur at Pompeii, especially that of Mommo, whose stamps are characteristic.[[3509]] The latter group of vases, moreover, supply, as in other cases, important evidence for dating the Rutenian vases; they show, not only that Mommo and the others were in full activity before A.D. 79, but that mythological subjects—not found on the Pompeian examples—were only introduced towards the end of the pottery’s activity.
Another well-known potter who appears to have worked at Condatomagus is Vitalis, whose signature in full or in the form OF · VITA is well known there. He is also found as far afield as Carthage and on the east coast of Spain.[[3510]] This is additional testimony to the extent and quantity of exportations from this centre, and to its position as the most flourishing manufacture in the Roman empire at the time. This popularity it could never have acquired if the fabrics of Arretium, Mutina, and Puteoli had not now reached their decadence; nor, if those of Auvergne, such as Lezoux, or of the Rhenish provinces had been already in full activity, would the Rutenian wares have penetrated into Central Gaul and Germany. M. Déchelette notes as an interesting fact that in some collections of Roman pottery debased wares with Arretine stamps are to be seen, apparently not later than A.D. 80, and evidently imitations of Rutenian ware[[3511]]; these bear the names of L. Rasinius Pisanus and Sex. M. F., of whom mention was made in the last chapter (p. [485]). There is no evidence that this pottery was in existence after A.D. 100, and its rapid disappearance is certainly due to the rise of Lezoux, where, as noted below, Rutenian potters’ stamps are not uncommon in the first century.
Déchelette has collected forty-three names of Rutenian potters, which are distributed over two hundred and thirty-two vases or fragments known to him.[[3512]] On form 29 the stamps are only found in the interior of the vases, and hence are not found on the moulds, but both were probably made by the same potters. Vases of the other two forms are often unsigned. Of individuals Mommo occurs sixty-three times, Germanus thirty-eight. The same writer points out that the evidence from Graufesenque would overthrow any theory of itinerant potters, if on no other grounds, from the fact that the moulds of a particular potter are only found on the one spot.
A group of vases which must be mentioned here, though a very small one and not strictly belonging to the terra sigillata, is that of the yellow ware with red marbling.[[3513]] It consists of a small group of bowls and dishes with a dull yellow slip covered with veins of a red colour, producing a variegated effect. Eight of these were found at Trier, one with the stamp of Primus, and there are a few others in German museums. In Southern Gaul, as at Arles, they are more common, and others have been found at Lyons and Vichy. The British Museum possesses one from Bordighera and three from Arles, and they are also known in Sardinia and Southern Italy; there are two at Naples from Pompeii with the stamp of Primus.[[3514]] The latter fact gives a terminus ante quem for their date, and it is probable that some place in Southern Gaul was the centre of the fabric. Dragendorff suggested Arles, where stamped examples have been found; but Déchelette points out that all the potters’ names are Rutenian, and this is conclusive evidence in favour of Graufesenque; in any case we have here an instance of exportation from Gaul into Italy. It is not certain in what manner the marbling has been produced; it is probably an imitation of glass.