Pottery repertory

The basis for reading pottery is the existence of pottery repertories, each of which is recognized by a kinship among its members. The vessels... 

In addition to its function as a marker for chronology, a pottery repertory is always used to identify the people who made it and, by inference, its provenance. Pottery of local styles is to be expected, but more often than not vessels that are not indigenous to the area also appear—sometimes in large numbers. Pottery of foreign styles may simply reveal ancient trade patterns, which in itself is important. However, much more is learned from the full array of pottery when examined in conjunction with everything else noted in the stratum. In this connection, the architectural remains have a special importance. 

The big problem in using typology to establish pottery provenance stems from the fact that discernible variations in a style are found in pottery from one place. Consequently, there is lack of precision in defining exactly what belongs in a pottery repertory and what should be excluded. Even when artifacts of pottery excavated at difierent places appear to be identical, there is no assurance that they were in fact made in one of the places. 

In short, after work spanning 80 years. Eastern Terra Sigillata has not provided the kind of firm information that makes a pottery repertory useful. 

The category of pottery most prominently dealt with is one that has been called Eastern Terra Sigillata (ETS). The repertory is vast both in the number of forms that have been included and in the numbers of such vessels that must have been made. 

The last data column in Table IV pertains to a second ETS repertory, which we call ETS-II the composition of ETS-II is greatly different from that of ETS-I. This pottery group consisted of 48 vessels from 9 sites. The numbers analyzed for ETS-II and ETS-I cannot be interpreted in terms of amounts found because only a very small percentage was sampled. This repertory was classified according to forms and other visual features, as was done for ETS-I, and the dating was established. Members of ETS-II are not difficult to distinguish by eye from those of ETS-I. ETS-II came into being only at about 50 b.c. and lasted until about A.D. 150. 

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