Meaningful sherds: sigillata from pre-consumption deposits

Due to its potential for the dating of sites and find assemblages and its wide distribution in the Roman Empire, Terra Sigillata, a red, glossy tableware, belongs to the most exhaustively investigated groups of findings in Roman Archaeology. However, many important assemblages have not been documented, analysed and published in a scientific up-to-date way so far. This deficit also applies to the material of numerous pottery shops and store- rooms in the provinces of the Roman Empire, assignable to the category of pre-consumption deposits. This term describes ceramic assemblages which got buried before they could have been used and comprises finds of all steps of the trade chain, from wasters disposed of at the kiln sites over sunken cargos up to pottery shops at the destinations. The latter deposits usually did not come up for sale because they had been destroyed by a fire incident. The project aims to process and publish two Terra Sigillata deposits from Brigantium/Bregenz (Austria), excavated more than one hundred years ago (Römerkeller 1878 and Depotfund 1911), and to contribute to the methodological and theoretical research on pre-consumption deposits, a field only explored rudimentarily so far. From pre-consumption deposits information on morphological aspects of the vessels (e. g. development of form and size, standardisation of the production) as well as to the functional composition of ceramic consignments (e. g. ratio of form groups and relevance of the represented potters for the specific type distribution) can be deduced. The focus lies on deposits at the destinations. Because of the fact that material from pottery shops and store-rooms represents a part of originally much larger assemblages (kiln loads), promising results can be expected from their analysis. These include for instance knowledge on the selection processes leading from kiln loads of about 30.000 vessels to a few hundred objects in a pottery shop, and on networks of potters (Which potters worked at the same time and delivered their products to the same destinations?). Methodologically, apart from the traditional archaeological documentation of the assemblages from Bregenz in form of a catalogue and associated illustrations, statistical procedures are employed for the scientific examination. Moreover, microscopical and chemical analyses of selected ceramic sherds are conducted to determine their provenance and enquiries in the Samian research database of the Römisch-Germanische Zentralmuseum Mainz play an important role. In order to make the numerous potters stamps of the two deposits from Bregenz available for the scientific community as far as possible, they will be added to this open access database which has simplified the designation of stamps and decoration on Terra Sigillata considerably and offers exciting new options for scientific analyses.

In the research project "Meaningful Sherds: sigillata from pre-Consumption deposits", two significant assemblages from Roman Bregenz (Brigantium) were analysed. The study also aimed to conduct comparative research on pre-consumption deposits. The examined pottery primarily consists of terra sigillata, a red-coated tableware commonly used in the Roman period. The analysis of the two Bregenz ensembles focused on their classification. Given the large quantity and apparent uniformity of the pottery, the question arose whether these finds could represent so-called pre-consumption deposits - pottery that ended up buried before being sold and thus unused. The older find complex, well known among terra sigillata scholars, is the so-called cellar find 1878, consisting of approximately 120 fragmented but mostly complete sigillata vessels. As part of the project, stylistic and scientific methods were applied to determine their date (late 1st to early 2nd century AD) and origin (southern Gaul). While the 1878 cellar find was previously interpreted as material of a terra sigillata merchant, comparisons with the inventory of Roman gastronomic establishments suggest that the cellar likely functioned as a storage space for tableware and food used in such a setting. The second find complex, known as the Sammelfund 1911, was initially described by the excavator as a merchant's depot - a classification confirmed during the evaluation. A total of 419 vessels were identified. The highly uniform pottery consists mainly of dishes, cups, and bowls, the latter predominantly featuring relief decoration. The terra sigillata dates to the mid-2nd century AD and was primarily produced in two manufacturing centres in present-day France (Roman Gaul). These findings were achieved through a combination of stamp analyses, vessel typologies, and microscopic and chemical examinations. The study of such pre-consumption deposits provides valuable insights into ancient trade and distribution systems. Typical for these is a limited repertoire of types, with a few types present in very large numbers. In addition, they often contain complete vessels and many stamps from only a few potters. Traces of use and ownership markings, which are typical of regularly used pottery, are largely absent. The Sammelfund 1911 reflects these characteristics, supporting its interpretation as a merchant's depot. Research indicates that these depots were part of a kiln load, highlighting a direct connection between production and distribution. It is clear that certain vessel types from specific production centres were preferred, suggesting either regional market preferences or contracts between individual potters and traders. The high level of standardisation , which was also demonstrated by statistical calculations in the 1911 collection, also played a decisive role, not only in facilitating the stacking of vessels in the kiln but also in easing transport and storage. These findings verify the well-organised distribution system of terra sigillata, based on a supra-regional trading network.