Quae pro dote parat mortem quicumque fugaci
Velox in cursu cessasset virgine visa.[[3536]]
Reference has already been made to a paper by M. Blanchet, in which he gives a list of the sites in Gaul on which pottery appears to have been made (see p. [443]). But in the majority of these cases plain wares must have been the only output. Moulded wares, as Déchelette points out, required skill and resource to produce.[[3537]] In any case, very few types are found on moulded wares which cannot be also associated with Graufesenque or Lezoux, and any made on other sites must have followed the same methods of decoration.[[3538]] The places given in Blanchet’s list cover practically the whole extent of France, though the principal centres of activity were always the Aveyron and Allier districts and the Rhone valley. In the neighbourhood of Lezoux, for instance, vases were made at Clermont-Ferrand, Lubié, St.-Bonnet, and Thiers. At Nouâtre, Indre-et-Loire, was an important pottery, not yet fully investigated; and others were at Rozier (Lozère), Auch (Gers), Montauban, Luxueil (Haute-Saône), St.-Nicholas near Nancy, and Aoste (Isère), where vases of characteristic originality were made.[[3539]] But it is not likely that any future investigations will displace Graufesenque and Lezoux as the chief centres for Gaulish terra sigillata.
3. The Fabrics of Germany
In Germany the oldest and one of the most important sites for pottery is Andernach,[[3540]] between Bonn and Coblenz, where however, it must be borne in mind, there was no local manufacture; its importance is mainly as a site yielding valuable chronological evidence. The finds extend from the beginning of the first century down to about A.D. 250, the earlier objects finding parallels in cemeteries at Trier and Regensburg which can be similarly dated. Generally speaking, it has been observed that Roman remains begin on the left bank of the Rhine a century earlier than those in the border forts on the Limes, which cover the period from A.D. 100 to 250.
Terra sigillata with reliefs is comparatively rare, though, as we have seen, it was at an early period exported from Gaul, and the pottery consists chiefly of ordinary wares, red, grey, and black, usually of good and careful execution, with thin walls. Much of this common pottery may be assumed to be of local manufacture. The characteristic types of the first century are simple jugs of plain ware without slip for funerary or domestic use; vases with white slip (also found at Regensburg); black ware bowls and dishes, sometimes with potters’ stamps; black and grey cinerary urns. These forms include small urns and the usual cups and bowls with straight or sloping sides, replaced after A.D. 100 by spherical-bodied jars with narrow necks. The decoration comprises all the varieties we have included in the foregoing survey: barbotine, incised linear patterns, impressed patterns made with the thumb, and raised ornaments such as plain knobs or leaves worked with the hand. In the third century painted decoration is introduced, as in the black ware drinking-vessels with inscriptions described below (p. [537]).
At Xanten (Castra Vetera), lower down the Rhine, large quantities of terra sigillata have been found, which can be dated by means of coin-finds from the beginning of the first century down to the third. During this period a steady degeneration in the pottery may be observed, although glass fabrics correspondingly improve; in the time of the Antonines the clay is coarse and often artificially coloured with red lead or other ingredients, producing what was formerly known as “false Samian” ware.[[3541]]
An exceptionally interesting centre, and in some respects the most important in Germany, is that at Westerndorf on the Inn, between Augsburg and Salzburg, where the coins range from about A.D. 160 to 330. It was first explored in 1807 and as long ago as 1862 the results were carefully investigated and summarised by Von Hefner in a still valuable treatise.[[3542]] The pottery includes terra sigillata of the later types, and plain red, yellow, and grey wares, sometimes covered with a non-lustrous grey or reddish slip, or with black varnish, the latter have very thin walls and are baked very hard. The decoration of the terra sigillata comprises all the usual types,[[3543]] the forms being also those prevalent elsewhere, with the addition of a covered jar or pyxis, but the figures are confined to the cylindrical or hemispherical bowls (Nos. 30 and 37).[[3544]] The plain wares include cinerary urns, deep bowls or jars, with simple ornament, open bowls with impressed patterns, and mortaria.
Of some peculiarities of the potters’ stamps we have already spoken (p. [510]); they are found in the form of oblongs or human feet, and more rarely in circles, half-moons, or spirals, the letters being both in relief and incised. Trade marks were sometimes used, the potter Sentis, for instance, using a thorn-twig by way of a play on his name. Names are both in the nominative and genitive, with some abbreviated form in the one case of FECIT, in the other of MANVS or OFFICINA.[[3545]] Local names are clearly to be seen in those of Belatullus, Iassus, and Vologesus.
Another important centre of fabric in Germany is Rheinzabern (Tabernae Rhenanae) near Speier, which probably shared with Westerndorf a monopoly of the moulded wares.[[3546]] The pottery found here is mostly in the Speier Museum; it is almost all of form 37, with its typical decoration, and the fabric does not seem to have been established before the second century. The chief potters’ names are Belsus, Cerialis, Cobnertus, Comitialis, Julius, Juvenis, Mammillianus, Primitivus, and Reginus. The British Museum possesses moulds for large bowls with free friezes of animals, one with the stamp of Cerialis[[3547]]; there was little export to Gaul, but a considerable amount to Britain. M. Déchelette notes the similarity of the types to those of Lezoux, and suggests that Rheinzabern is an offshoot from the latter pottery. This site has also produced barbotine wares,[[3548]] which bear a remarkable superficial resemblance to that of Castor (see below, p. [544]), and have been wrongly identified therewith[[3549]]; but they are not found at Castor, and in point of fact differ widely in artistic merit, being far superior to the British fabric, as has been pointed out by Mr. Haverfield.[[3550]] The ornamentation is a formal and conventional imitation of classical models, whereas the Castor ware is only classical in its elements, and is otherwise barbaric yet unconventional.