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Pottery Manufacture in Roman Egypt: A New Papyrus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Helen Cockle
Helen Cockle
Affiliation:
University College London
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Extract

Our knowledge of the pottery industry in ancient Egypt has so far been derived from sculptured reliefs showing potters at work, from a few excavations of kilns and from chemical analyses of pottery wares. Documentary evidence has now come to light in the form of three pottery leases from Oxyrhynchus, all dated to the middle of the third century a.d.

They are so closely related in subject-matter, terminology, date and the names of the contracting parties that I publish in full only the earliest and most complete (which I shall refer to as A); but I include references to the more significant details of the other two (B and C). Their importance lies in the fact that they reveal a remarkably large scale industry, and also much concerning the techniques and terminology of the pottery industry, especially the names of the clays used and the sizes of the jars.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 71 , November 1981 , pp. 87 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Helen Cockle 1981. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 I am grateful to the Egypt Exploration Society for permission to publish A (inv. no. 36 4B. 99/J(6)) and to refer to B and C (inv. nos. 37 4B. 87/G(3)a and 38 3B. 85/A(3–5)c, dated respectively to 22 September, A.D. 260 and sometime before A.D. 269). A short discussion of them was presented at the XVI International Congress of Papyrology held in New York in July, 1980. All three texts will appear in a forthcoming volume of The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. I should also like to thank Professor F. G. B. Millar for the opportunity to present an earlier version of this paper at a seminar held at the Institute of Classical Studies, London and D. Hagedorn, J. Hengstl, C. Hope, K. Hopkins, H. G. T. Maehler, P. J. Parsons, J. R. Rea and many others who have expressed interest and offered helpful criticisms and comments on the texts. Dr. Hengstl will publish an article on their legal aspects in Studies for A. Biscardi. A list of the standard papyrological abbreviations used here is to be found in Turner, E. G., Greek Papyri (2nd ed., 1980)Google Scholar.

The term ‘lease’ is used in this article in the meaning that it has in English common law.

2 See the bibliography and lists in Montevecchi, O., Aegyptus 21 (1941), 287–90Google Scholar and La Papirologia (1973), 216 and 218.

3 Dr. K. Worp has kindly pointed out to me that among the Vienna papyri there is another pottery lease (inv. no. G 16723) from Hermopolis, dated probably to A.D. 316, which he hopes to publish shortly. It has already been referred to in P. Landlisten, pp. 17–18; BASP 16 (1979), 166 and ZPE 30 (1978), 242.

4 See Taubenschlag, Law2, 268–9, S. Waszynski, Die Bodenpacht (1905), 90–1 and Herrmann, ibid., 89–91.

5 See H. J. Wolff, Proc. XIV Int. Cong. Pap., Oxford (1074), 350–51, id., Das Recht der griechischen Papyri Agyptens (1978), 117–19, Comfort, H., Aegyptus 14 (1934), 286–7Google Scholar and Herrmann, ibid., 25–39.

6 See the list given by E. Constantinides in her publication of a letter from a creditor to a recalcitrant potter in CÉ 44 (1969), 101–5 (now = P. Oxy. XLI 2996). Her confidence that P. Teb. 342. 22–23 is evidence for temple potteries at Oxyrhynchus is misplaced because the vital word θεοῦ is doubtfully read. For a general discussion of the pottery industry in Egypt in the Graeco-Roman period see Reil, ibid., 37–46.

7 C is too damaged for the individual instalments to be deciphered. In each lease there is a stipulation that the potter shall make and coat with pitch additional jars in return for the necessary materials and payment in money or in kind (A 27–31); in B the special payments are for this purpose rather than for the original quantity.

8 Bowman, A. K., The Town Councils of Roman Egypt (1071), 135Google Scholar.

9 P. J. Sijpesteijn, Liste des Gymnasiarques (1967), no. 430 and P. Theon, Appendix A and Bowman, ibid., 143.

10 Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 4th. edition, ed. Harris, J. R. (1962), 368Google Scholar.

11 Lexikon der Agyptologie, ed. Helck, W. and Otto, E. (1972–)Google Scholar, s.v. Keramik, 394 ff.

12 K. W. Butzer, JNES 33 (1974), 377–82 and Hope, C., Jar Sealings and Amphorae of the 18th Dynasty: A Technological Study (1978), 72–74Google Scholar. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Hope for discussing these leases with me and guiding me through the bibliography on clay types.

13 ‘The XVIIIth Dynasty Pottery from Malkata’ will appear in An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Pottery to be published by the German Archaeo-Archaeological Institute in Cairo.

14 See Searle, A. B. and Grimshaw, R. W., The Chemistry and Physics of Clays and other Ceramic Materials (1959), 399Google Scholar.

15 La Coltura delta vite (1924), 55–6.

16 For a detailed discussion with figs, of the types of kilns and potter's wheels see Holthoer, R., New Kingdom Pharaonic Sites: the Pottery. The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia 5:1 (1977). 28–37Google Scholar and for the excavation of kilns of the Roman period e.g. Michalowski, K., Annales du service des antiquiés de l'Égypte 57 (1962), 49–57Google Scholar.

17 See Preisigke, Wörterbuch, s.v. καύcιμοc and καῦcιc.

18 Le monde grec, Hommages à Claire Préaux (1975), 609–10; now = P. Theon 12.

19 See Winlock, H. E. and Crum, W. E., The Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes I (1926), 79Google Scholar and Fouilles franco-polonaises, Tell Edfou 1 (1937), 124.

20 e.g. P. Oxy. XIV 1754; XVI 1913. 29–32; XXXI 2570 ii; XLI 2996. 33; BGU III 884; P. Cairo Zen. III 59481.

21 Studies in Ancient Technology I (1955), 26–7.

22 Wörterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen (1884), s.v.

23 Müller, FGH IV 153–4; see Pape-Benseler, s.v.

24 Cf. other adjectives from place names, e.g. Κνίδιον and 'Ρόδιον for shapes and sizes of jars; see Youtie, H. C., Scriptiunculae I (1973), 155Google Scholar.

25 For the bewildering variety of possible amphora shapes and styles see e.g. Méthodes classiques et méthodes formelles dam l'étude des amphores, Collection de l'école française de Rome 32 (1977), plates passim and for Graeco-Roman Egypt in particular Fouilles franco-polonaises, Tell Edfou I (1937), pl. 36; id., II (1938), pl. 27; id., III (1939), fig. 226 and pl. 37. The only published representation of an amphora from Oxyrhynchus is a small drawing in Petrie, W. F., Tombs of the Courtiers and Oxyrhynkhos (1925)Google Scholar, pl. XLVIII no. 17.

26 = BRL 18 (1934), no. 11, pp. 122–4.

27 ‘Standard Pottery Containers’, Hesperia, Suppl. 8 (1949), 175–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 The Penguin Book of Wines (2nd. revised ed. 1972), 245.

29 See E. G. Turner, JEA 38 (1952), 81.

30 Chiron 6 (1976), 253.

31 For the size of an artaba see Duncan-Jones, ibid., 257.

32 JRS 70 (1980), 118.