Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 25. – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1995)

Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautorum Acta XXXIV - cvjetićanin, T.: Late Roman glazed Pottery from the Iron Gate Region (Dacia Ripensis). p. 27–32.

represents 12,5 %; in period С 13,3 %, in period D 4,1 %.

(5) 2. The forms of glazed pottery recorded in the Iron Gate region are presented on plates 1 and 2, divided by relation between type and applied surface treatment. Plate 1 demonstrates forms, and the distribution area, amount and dating which exclusively appeared as glazed wares (group 1). Plate 2 includes forms with commonly unworked surface treatment (raw), but there are among them some glazed specimens (group 2).

(6) Group 1 wares were recorded on almost all sites. Naturally, depending on the size and type of sites and the degree of research done, a smaller or greater part of the repertoire was recorded on each site. It is interesting that in the settlements (Fig. 3/4, 14) occurred only table-ware. Group 1 is common for periods В and C. Group 2 wares were recorded only on some of the sites, mostly those of significance (like auxiliary camps, Fig. 3/8, 10) or on the more completely excavated sites. They are common for period B. 3. The repertoire of types presented on plates 1 and 2 certainly is not final, and the absence of some common glazed forms could be explained rather by the stage of research work in the whole region, than by the lack or non-usage of particular ware forms. The quantity of wares in group 1 is great - the most numerous are food-serving wares (bowls - 582 items, plates - 363 items), while food-preparing wares (mortars - 176) and liquid-serving wares (jugs and flagons - 174) appeared in smaller amounts. The quantity of wares in group 2 is not so great, but the repertoire is enriched with cooking wares - pots, which are, together with plates and jugs, the most frequent form. Quantity and distribution of forms are not proportionate. 4. As only macroscopic analyses show, the raw material base of these wares is very similar, and does not change during the Late Roman period. Clay with the same non-plastic additives (fine-grained sand, quartz, silica) was used. Wares were red baked, in all qualities of red, often with visible gray shades on the break. They were glazed with lead glazes, using metallic oxides to obtain the color of paste - all shades of green (copper oxide) and red (iron oxide), seldom transparent. The surface texture is smooth, but on almost all specimens errors are visible: pinholing (small holes in the surface) and bubbling of glaze (frothing of glaze - small bubbles of air). Results expressed in percentages must not be taken as absolutely accurate but, rather, as a demonstration of particular conditions on excavated parts of sites and the state of research in the region. Particular types with only one glazed specimen recorded are not represented in plate 2. This included five types of pots from period C, one type of lid from period C, five types of bowls from period A and AB, four types of jugs from periods В and ВС, one type of beaker from period AB one type of pithos from period ВС. Gray, non-well-baked shades, just as mistakes in the glazed surface (and its repetition), show that process of firing was done in a partly oxidized atmosphere, with a fast rise to high temperatures and a short retention. The coarse temper of the wares - the consequence of nonplastic elements in the clay - enabled fast and even drying, as well as tolerance of rapid temperature changes. 5. The decoration of the glazed wares is very primitive - simple geometrical ornaments incised independently, or in combination with dotting, are visible mostly on horizontal rims of bowls and plates. In this narrow zone of the Danubian bank, a small north-western part of the Roman province of Dacia Ripensis, the Late Roman sites with glazed wares are numerous. As shown above, glazed pottery appeared already in the last quarter of the 3rd century; its production and distribution increased in the 4th century, especially in the last quarter of the 4th century and on the turning point to the 5th century (when glaze was applied on forms that were not usually glazed), and its manufacture decreased in the second quarter of the 5th century. In the 6th century, during Justinian's restoration of the limes, 2,3 % typologically identifiable glazed material was recorded in this region. The lengthy production and usage, large distribution area, frequency and variety of forms of Late Roman glazed pottery, after its almost complete absence in the material of provincial ceramic production during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, certainly seeks explanation, or at least requires some suggestion about the phenomenon of its renaissance. The idea that this revival originates from Italy or, more often, Pannónia (Póczy 1957; Vikic-Belanőic 1970; Vikic-Belancïc 1971; Bonis 1991), seems to us to be groundless. The claim that one, technologically and professionally easily practicable process, was started, and then diffusely spread, from one center, area or province, in circumstances of total Romanisation of a large part of the territory of the Roman Empire, an excellent network of communications, total cultural standardization started in the, 2nd and consistently carried out in the 3rd century MÓCSY 1974; Böttger 1978), is not, for sure, the solution for the problem of the Late Roman glazed pottery. The answer, as it seems, is likely to be found is socioeconomic terms in the beginning and during the Late Roman age, in demands imposed by complete pauperisation of society and especially its modification and reorganization (particularly military reforms). The basic needs of the community confronted with a big economic crisis and the slow decomposition of the structure of society are undoubtedly mass and fast production of cheap, common products, specially those for everyday use, such as pottery. The consumers of ceramics, first of all their purchasing power, and then their needs and claims, dictated the kind of production. 29