Organization and technology of production

Abstract

There are many studies on the problems treating the organization and technology of ceramic production during the Roman era, but the majority of them consider only the West Roman ceramic centres. The results from the long archaeological explorations in ltalia, Gallia, Germania and other provinces have found their place in а number of fundamental research works.

Still insufficient work has been done on the East Roman provinces. This state of matters could bе explained mainly with lack of systematic complex archaeological explorations of the ceramic centres in this part of the Roman Empire. Thе only explored ceramic centre in Asia Мinor for the time being was localized in 1911 bу S. Loeschke near Çandarlı – about 30 km away from Pergam near the ancient settlement of Pitane.

More data about the different stages of the organization and technology of ceramic production in the East Roman provinces are known from the archaeological explorations of the ancient sites in the Northern Black Sea area. The monograph published forty-five years ago bу V. F. Gajdukevic about the ancient pottery kilns discovered in Pantikapaion and Phanagoreia has not lost its significance. The origin and development of ceramic production is considered in the monograph from Marxist methodological standpoint.

The archaeological sources published in 1966 with В. А. Rybakov as editor, contributed greatly to clarifying the ceramic production and the ancient ceramic building materials. The studies of the Romanian archaeologists, who explored Micia, Oltenia, etc., also throw light upon the facilities used for firing the ceramic production.

Many kilns dating from the Roman era have been discovered in Greece.

There are no special studies on the problems of ceramic production in Bulgaria, but there are а number of publications on some concrete problems bу А. Dimitrova, D. Dzonova, В. Sultov and V. Naceva.

The comprehensive exploration of the ceramic centres near Hotnica, Pavlikeni and Butovo provided а possibility and enough grounds for considering the most important and typical stages of the organization and technology of ceramic production. The discarded products and the obsolete potter's tools found in the garbage pits are of particular significance in this respect. All this allows to follow the development of production from the potter's wheel to the firing in the kiln, as well as the different techniques used for additional processing and decoration of the earthenware.

The pottery kilns discovered and explored bу the author, which had been destroyed during the firing, together with the production left in them and the remains of combustibles, were of assistance in determining the stages of their construction, improvement and use, as well as the causes which led to their destruction. The various ceramic material in the potter's workshops helped to determine the character of ceramic production. It also confirmed the relative specialization and differentiation of earthenware. The presence of human fingerprints indicates implicity that women and children were also occasionally employed in the production of ceramics.

The archaeological data from the excavations and the epigraphic records found on the territory of Nicopolis ad Istrum helped in specifying the ethnic origin and the social status of the owners of the potter's workshops.