Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 3. (Győr, 1961)

E. B. Thomas: Roman Glazed Ware Ornamental Vessels in the Győr Museum

of fact this form is familiar with Roman luxury articles of glass and metal till the end, allowing but small variations. The nearest analogies of our jar, the two-handled small glasses, preserving Hellenistic forms of ornament, ribbed horizontally with spiral threads, come into fashion during Hadrian's reign again.

13 It is these small Hadrianic glasses which are imitated by the two-handled earthen jar of the Brewery Hill. Its body is covered with a dull brownish-greenish glaze, producing a thick, uniform, well covering surface, endeavouring to look like glass. The date of the glazed jar is probably later than that of the glasses. The quality and colour of its glaze is entirely identical with the ornamental vessel of the Hungarian National Museum derived from Kiskőszeg,

14 dated to the middle of the second century.

15 So the two-handled glazed jar of grave 5 of the Brewery Hill, Győr was manufactured about the middle of the second century, as judged by its shape and glaze. 3. Similarly grave 5 of the Brewery Hill yielded a handled earthen pot, covered inside and outside with a light yellowish-green, well covering, thick glaze. (Fig. 5—7.) The comparatively thin handle, fitting to the rim of the rather deep pan, is decorated with embossed figures. The back of the handle is flat, unornamented, the flat bottom of the pan is divided from the outside by four concentric grooves (Fig. 6), producing the effect similar to the botton rings of the bronze pans. Since the glazed pan of Győr is modelled doubtless after the silver pans, the paper dwells also on the question of the metal paterae with embossed handles shortly. In the first half of the second century several fragments of embossed glazed earthen patera handles occur-in the material of Pannonian pottery,

29 imitating the mentioned metal types. Among the glazed pan handles of Pannónia we find two pieces similar to the Győr specimen in shape, i. e. ending in a straight line, becoming thinner in the middle. One of them, a small fragment, comes from Aquincum, the other, an almost complete handle from Mursa.

30 We read the name of the same master on both pieces: FECI

—V

ALMAX, feci Val/erius/ Max/imus/. According to the conjecture of Lajos Nagy,

31 he might be one of the masters of the glazed pottery workshops between the Drave and the Save in the middle of the second century, the first representative of Pannonian glazed ornamental vessels known by name. The glazed patera of Győr does not come from the workshop of the mentioned master in our view, nor do we date its production to the middle of the second century, but to an earlier time, to the first quarter of the century. The Győr patera is the imitation of those silver paterae made in the provinces, the original specimens of which were presented by Vermaseren from first century Gallián workshops.

32 The Győr specimen is an earthen copy of the simplified provincial type, cast together with the handle. As to destination, the patera of the Brewery Hill was unsuitable for practical purposes, i. e. drawing liquids, since the weight of the liquid would have separated the pan from the handle at once. Therefore we cannot regard our patera as a vessel for use, it may rather have been an ornamental vessel. In order to investigate its destination let us regard the reliefs of the handle. In the upwards broadening end of the pan handle we see some flower or rosette, below it a picking bird standing on the rim of a vessel. Under it there is an articulated hanging garland or spike below a horizontal dividing stripe, then on the part of the handle adjoining the pan there stands a sheep or a goat, flanked by one 'rosette on each side. Still on the handle, the margin of the pan is flanked by a long-beaked bird's head bent in an arch from both sides. The figures are but slightly protruding, nay the covering thick glaze makes them the more obtuse. We may recognize, however, some connection between the subject and the fertility cults, perhaps the cult of Terra Mater; it is equally possible that we may see simply symbols of fertility and plenty in these figures.

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