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A Graffito from La Graufesenque and ‘samia vasa’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Anthony King
Anthony King
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, London.
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Extract

The recent excavations at La Graufesenque have uncovered a number of new graffiti. One of these (A25b) is considered here for the light it sheds on the Latin name for samian ware or terra sigillata.

The potteries that produced samian ware at La Graufesenque have long been known for the graffiti, now numbering about a hundred, which were scratched onto the plates made in the kilns there. The graffiti have been used to elucidate the organization and the possible methods of production at the potteries, although the cryptic and fragmentary nature of most of them has made detailed discussion difficult. The common formula of the texts consists of a list of potters, each coupled with a name of a particular vessel and a number representing the amount of that pottery produced within a time-span that is not now ascertainable. A25b, and a small portion of a similar text, A26b, stand out from amongst these, however, as they appear to give a monthly tally of tasks carried out by various slaves. The names of these slaves also appear on other graffiti of the more usual sort and it can be reasonably assumed that A25b is also connected with the pottery industry. In fact, certain words in it bear this out, as the text and translation which follow demonstrate.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 11 , November 1980 , pp. 139 - 143
Copyright
Copyright © Anthony King 1980. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 Number A25b in Marichal, R., Revue des Études Anciennes lxxvi (1970), 266–92Google Scholar, where a photograph is published. It is also in ibid., Comptes Rend, de l'Acad. des lnscr. (1971), 188–212. It was brought to my attention by Paul Middleton during a seminar at the Institute of Archaeology, London in May 1978.

2 The grammar of the phrase ad samiandum is faulty. See Marichal, CRAI op. cit. (note 1), 198, for a discussion of this point.

3 From the verb comes the noun samiator mentioned in Diocletian's price-edict (7, 33–7) and in the Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum 2, 117, 22; 2, 178, 8; 2, 223, 12 and 3, 25, 57.

4 Tertullian advers. Marcionem 3, 5, 3 uses samias in the phrase…(non tamen) ut de glebis credas te umquam placentas et samias coacturum… Facciolati and Forcellini in their Lexicon under samia suggest that it is a type of cake, similar to the meaning of placentas, but considering the more general meaning of samias in connection with pottery, it would seem more sensible to ascribe it the latter meaning here also. Plautus (Menaechmi 179) has a transferred use of samiae in connection with a fragile door.

5 Pliny, NH 28, 194Google Scholar; 31, 117; 35, 191; and 36, 152. Galen Methodus Medendi 4; de Simplic. Medic. Temp, ac Facult. 9; de Succedaneis s.v. Samia (Kühn, C. G. (ed.), Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia x (Hildesheim, 1965), 298–9Google Scholar; 12, 178 ff. and 19, 727). Isidorus Etym. 20, 4, 6 mentions that the cretam for samian pottery possibly came from near Rome. This may be a confused reference to a quarry for samian earth. Other relevant references are Isidorus Etym. 16, 1, 7 and 16, 4, 13, Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum 5, 330, 39; 5, 391, 48 and 5, 610, 17, Dioscorides 5, 153–4, Oribasius 13 s.v. Γῆ, Aetius 1, 2, 6, Marcellus Empiricus 8, 5, Paulus Aeg. 7, 3 s.v. Γῆ, and Turnebus Advers. 27, 21 (on CIL VI, 10242 or VI, 25857, cf. also VI, 25856). The nomen samiarius on these inscriptions may be occupational in origin, for in the Corpus Glossariorum (2, 223, 12) and in Joh. Lydus (de magistr. 1, 46) this word is given an occupational meaning.

6 Bailey, K. C., The Elder Pliny's Chapters on Chemical Subjects (London, 1932), part 2, 240–1 and 264Google Scholar. Kaolinite is used today to give the shine on glossy paper. Kaolin deposits on Samos are referred to in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopädie s.v. Samos cols. 2183–4.

7 Bestwick, J. D. and Smith, T. A., ‘The surface finish of samian ware’, Science and Arch, xii (1974), 21–31Google Scholar; Winter, A., ‘Terra Sigillata und andere Glanztontechniken’, Keramische Zeitschrift viii, No. 3 (1956), 110–3Google Scholar; ibid., ‘Terra Sigillata und “Firms”,’ Saalburg-Jahrbuch xiv (1955), 74–9Google Scholar; ibid., Die Antike Glanztonkeramik. Praktische Versuche (Mainz, 1978).Google Scholar Marichal (in REA op. cit., note 1) cites evidence from the Banassac potteries that the slip was brushed, possibly to polish it, but the position of the brush-marks in the bottom of the bowls makes it more likely that the marks are a result of mopping up excess slip. Brush-marks would be much more frequent on the vessels found as kiln waste if this was the only way of producing a polished appearance.

8 Oxé, A. and Comfort, H., Corpus Vasorum Arretinorum (Bonn, 1968), refs. 1967–74Google Scholar and commentary for L. Tettius Samia, and refs. 476 and 1441 for the slave names. It must be pointed out that in Hartley, B., ‘Some wandering potters’, p. 252 and note 9 in Dore, J. and Greene, K. (eds.), Roman Pottery Studies in Britain and Beyond (Oxford, 1977)Google Scholar, evidence is noted from stamps of potters at La Graufesenque and Lezoux that early workers at those centres thought of themselves as making (vasa) aretina. It is probable, however, that they are simply copying similar stamps from the original workshops (cited in Oxé and Comfort op. cit. this note) in an attempt to pass the pots off as Arretine products. Arretine vessels seem to have been sufficiently distinctive to have been noticed separately by several literary sources (Hilgers, W., Lateinische Gefässnamen (Dusseldorf, 1969), 22Google Scholar, note 70) and, presumably, by the populace in general. Arretinus or an abbreviation stamped on the pottery would probably have been a good selling point.

9 Waagé, F. O., ‘Vasa Samia’, Antiquity xi (1937), 46–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar His case for reserving ‘Samian ware’ (with a capital letter) for pottery from Samos is quite reasonable. However, he also dismisses ‘samian ware’ as a general term without sufficient justification. Cf. also Pitt-Rivers, A. H., ‘The Roman red-glazed pottery’ in Excavations in Bokerly Dyke and Wansdyke (London, 1892), 294–6.Google Scholar

10 In fact terra sigillata refers to the practice of stamping tablets of medicinal earth which was prevalent in the Middle Ages (Brunsting, H., ‘Terra Sigillata’, Westerheem, xxi (1972), 252–68Google Scholar; Mellor, J. W., ‘Terra Sigillata not Samian ware’, Trans. Ceramic Soc. xxiii (1924), 176–7)Google Scholar, and derives ultimately from the tablets of Lemnian earth stamped with the figure of Artemis or her symbol, a goat (Galen, de Simplic. Medic. Temp, ac Facult. 9, chap. 2. Fredrich, C., ‘Lemnos’, Mitt, des deutschen archaöl. Instituts: Athen. Abteilung xxxi (1906), 72–4Google Scholar. Launay, L. de, ‘Notes sur Lemnos’, Revue Archeologique ser. 3, xxvii (1895), 318–23).Google Scholar Early antiquaries probably thought that pieces of decorated samian ware were these tablets of terra sigillata and, accordingly, the term was transferred to the pottery. Cf. also W. Hilgers op. cit. (note 8), 22 and 26. Brunsting's article, cited above, contains a full consideration of the use of the term terra sigillata as applied to samian pottery by nineteenth century archaeologists.