Looking West: Imported Pottery from Italy in Macedonia (100 B.C.E. - 100 C.E.) (20 min)

Presenters

Apostolos Garyfallopoulos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Abstract

The presence of Italian-made pottery—imported and circulated in the Roman province of Macedonia during late republican and early imperial times—is usually connected with Italians moving to the Greek East, but their influence in the region and this presence has not yet attracted much scholarly attention. Only the ceramic evidence of Italian origin from Stobi (North Macedonia, second and first centuries B.C.E.) has been thoroughly examined and published, suggesting a significant Italian influence early on. I will argue, however, that this view should be extended to the greater part of Roman Macedonia.

This paper aspires to address this research gap by discussing the diffusion and circulation of pottery originating from Italy during the years 100 B.C.E. to 100 C.E. in Macedonia. Ceramic evidence is being considered from multiple sites in the region, most of which has been unpublished. For the period before Augustus, the ceramic evidence consists of black gloss wares (Campana B and C wares), thin-walled wares, and transport amphorae all originating from across the Adriatic. In the time of Augustus and afterward, Italian sigillata reach the region and, along with other western table wares, draw the picture of a region looking west.

Hence, through the examination of this pottery it is argued that the presence and diffusion of Italian-made pottery reflects the inclusion of Macedonia in a western international trade system during the Late Republican and Early Roman period, and points to the presence of a visible Roman population interacting with the locals in the region. Moreover, through the comparison with already published data from neighboring regions this paper attempts to address the way in which western pottery reached Macedonia and tackle the region’s connectivity with the rest of Roman Greece.

  AIA-1H