Myles McCallum
For most of the past 250 years the study of pottery at Pompeii has taken a secondary place in investigation at the site. During the last 30 years, however, there has been a shift from examination of ruins dating to AD 79 to excavation of pre-AD 79 strata, resulting in more systematic examination of archaeological ceramics. Excavation directors have collected, processed, and, in certain cases, even published pottery from their projects (e. g., Bonghi Jovino 1984). Such a shift in focus has allowed for a more profound understanding of the nature of pottery production at the site, local and regional patterns of pottery production and exchange, the longdistance movement of Pompeian and Campanian pottery out of the Bay of Naples region, and the importation of pottery from production facilities located elsewhere in Italy and the Mediterranean (De Sena and Ikaheimo 2003).
To be clear, ‘local’ refers to Pompeii’s economic territory that likely included much of the administrative unit referred to as the ager Pompeianus and possibly also lands within the territories of neighboring centers such as Nuceria and Herculaneum. ‘Regional’ refers to sites bordering the Bay of Naples from Minturnae in the north to Surrentum in the south and including territories inland as far as Teanum, Capua, Nola, and Nuceria. ‘Extra-regional’ refers to all other areas of the Roman world.
There has, however, been little attempt to synthesize the published data or to study it in light of the architectural evidence for pottery production facilities. Moreover, there has been no attempt to integrate the study of Pompeian pottery into the study of the ancient landscape by identifying clay and fuel sources for the production of these ceramics and thereby better understand the production of pottery as a system integrating elements of the natural environment with the town’s human actors.
What follows is an attempt to redress some of these issues. The evidence examined includes the architectural remains of pottery production facilities in the town’s urban core and immediate suburban environs (i. e., where pottery was produced), the location of these facilities with respect to the town’s urban fabric and available resources, epigraphic evidence for the organization of pottery workshops within the town (i. e., groups of potters active at production facilities), and the various forms of pottery produced and consumed at Pompeii during the first century AD. The focus throughout is on production and distribution.
World History
