• Gunneweg, Jan; Perlman, I.; Yellin, J. 1983, The Provenience, Typology and Chronology of Eastern Terra Sigillata, Monograph of The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, QEDEM Series 17

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    Eastern Terra Sigillata-I Plate

    The manufacturer center(s) of Late Hellenistic and Early Roman eastern terra sigillata-I ware (hereafter ETS-I) were traced to eastern Cyprus. ETS-II, Roman pottery with a brown-slipped texture, was traced to the southern littoral of Turkey, i.e. to the Pamphylian sites of Side, Perge and Aspendos.

    Some specimens of western sigillata had their origin in Arezzo in Italy. Again, others were found to have originated in Assos in Turkey. All the analyses were performed at the Hebrew University's Unit of Archaeometry except for a few that had been analyzed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California with the aid of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). ETS-I is the name for a chemical group of a class of red-, red/black-, brown- and black-slipped pottery of which only the red- and red/black slipped version was classified earlier by Kath. Kenyon as Eastern Sigillata-A (hereafter ESA). Gunneweg et al. included in his study also the chronologically earlier black-slipped pottery which was proven to belong chemically to ETS-I, ranging in time from 180-150 B.C.E. The statistical match for ETS-I was found with local reference pottery from Enkomi (from Late Bronze and Iron Age periods, because the clay source used by the potters did not change in chemical composition). Local clay collected in Enkomi Village by Iz Perlman in 1972 also matched the ETS-I ware. A chronological range for each vessel form was proposed, based on the certainty that the various forms of this ware (uncertain prior to this INAA study) all belong to the chemical ETS-I group. A chronological chart for each sigillata form concludes this study.



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    Jan Gunneweg Ph.D., The Hebrew University, revised November 2005