The archaeological excavations of the ‘Faleză Est’ sector have extended over twenty years. Their result was the discovery of a large quantity of ceramic fragments from the Hellenistic and Roman eras. This article analyzes the tableware from the late Roman period, imported from North Africa, Cyprus, the Aegean basin and the Pontic region. Most of the imported tableware comes from North African workshops. The ceramic fragments discovered in the ‘Faleză Est’ sector are dated in the 5th–6th centuries.
tableware
Considerations on Tableware Pottery of (L)Ibida III. X Research Area
From the analyses of the table pottery sample found in the X research area on the archaeological site Slava Rusă, it result that the pottery centre with the most vessels (23 fragments of pottery) is represented by the Phocaean workshops from western Asia Minor. This situation is not surprising, being encountered on the other research areas in Ibida but also in other Roman-Byzantine sites in Dobrudja. Noteworthy in the X research area is that all the Phocaean pottery can be framed in a time interval not exceeding a century (second half of the 5th century and first half of the 6th century). The identified forms are only two: Hayes Form 3 with some of the versions and Hayes Form 8. We can notice that the first forms of Phocaean workshops are absent (Hayes Form 1, 2 and the A version of the 3rd Hayes Form); that would be covered the second half of the 4th century and the first half of the 5th century. The Phocaean bowls (Hayes 10 Form); specific to the second half of the 6th and the beginning of the next century are absent, too. The African workshops are certified by the presence of five pieces, each belonging to a different form. Beside the forms already attested in Dobrudja (Hayes 82, 87, 91 and 104), this research area offered another two forms: Hayes 70 and 71, for which there are no analogies in the West-Pontic area. These forms date from the late 4th century and the first half of the 6th century (Hayes 104 Form, version C). In terms of quantity, North-African tableware ranges within the limits already known for the contemporary sites within the region. As for the pottery produced in the Black Sea basin—identified by four ceramic fragments—it also ranges within the limits known at Ibida from the analyses of the Extra Muros Vest III research area. The identified forms have analogies in settlements in both the North Black Sea basin and the North of modern Turkey. Unidentified pottery, probably belonging to other subsequent ages (like the medieval ceramic fragment), may mean that the existing archaeological situation was disrupted by other subsequent interventions after the abandonment of the fortification system at Slava Rusă. Besides the modern intervention, a medieval settlement may have also existed, also certified in the Curtina G research area. Further analysis of other material categories from the X research Area, plus comparing data with those obtained by studying the table ware sample, will provide more complete information about the chronology and functionality of the archaeological complex identified in the mentioned research area from (L) Ibida.
Notes on the “African Red Slip Ware” ceramics in Scythia Minor
Studia Antiqua et Archaeologica 18(1): 319-340 Marian Mocanu, Institute of Eco-Museal Researches, Tulcea, ABSTRACT In the following, we shall focus on the tableware ceramic produced in the workshops located within the contemporary Tunisia and which was traded up to Danube. This article aims to show the results of archaeological research undertaken in the last decades in the Roman sites from Dobrogea, Romania. In our work to make the inventory of the forms of the “African Red Slip Ware” tableware, discovered in Scythia Minor, we identified 20 forms, some of which, especially those from the 5th and the 6th century, were found in many variants. The earliest one is the Hayes form 27 from the second half of the 2nd century, and the latest one is the Hayes form 105, dated in the first half of the 7th century. Following the discoveries of tableware imported from the North Africa to Scythia(…)