Terra sigillata

Siegel, n. seal, -erde, /. terra sigillata (Lem-uian earth), -lack, m. < n. sealing wax. -wachs, n. soft sealing wax. 

Figure 4.13 Map of Gaulish terra sigillata production centers. (From Symonds, 1992, by permission of Oxford University Committee for Archaeology.)...

Figure 4.15 Dendrograms of chemical data from Rhenish wares and terra sigillata from three regions of Gaul (a) Central Gaul, (b) Mid Gaul, (c) East Gaul. (From Pollard et al., 1982 Figures 2-4, with permission.)...

Baillie, P.J. and Stern, W.B. (1984). Non-destructive surface analysis of Roman terra sigillata a possible tool in provenance studies Archaeometry 26 62-68. 

Pollard, A.M., Hatcher, H. and Symonds, R.P. (1981). Provenance studies of Rhenish pottery by comparison with terra sigillata. Revue d Archeometrie, Actes due XX Symposium International d Archeometrie, Paris 26-29 Mars 1980, Vol II, 177-185. 

AAS has been widely used in Europe to study archaeological ceramics and metals, ranging from Chinese celadons (Pollard and Hatcher 1986) to Roman terra sigillata (Mirti et al. 1990), and from Renin bronzes (Willett and Sayre 2000) and Islamic brasses (Al-Saad 2000) to Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age copper alloys from ancient Israel (Shalev 1995). ICP-AES, using solution sampling, can potentially provide data on a wider range of elements... 

Mirti, P., Aruga, R., Zelano, V., Appolonia, L., and Aceto, M. (1990). Investigation of Roman terra-sigillata by atomic-absorption and emission-spectroscopy and multivariate-analysis of data. Fresenius Journal of Analytical Chemistry 336 215-221. 

Analyses by R. Nasini and R. Grassini indicated that boric acid entered into the composition of the brilliant coral red glazes on the Aretme vases (first century B.C. to first century A.D.) excavated at Arezzo (57, 76). Because of the seal, or impression, on the bottom, these vases were known as terra sigillata ware. Paul Diergart of the research staff of the Royal Porcelain Works in Berlin questioned these analyses, however (58). 

The so-called terra sigillata (pottery with small decorations) from Greece and later also from the Roman Empire is an example of ceramics with engobes. Later people also started to use oxides and mixtures of oxides, the glazes. 

TERRA FERE LUTEA — Slimy Earth TERRA SIGILLATA — Red-coloured Earth. 

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. 

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

Terra Sigillata. A type of pottery having a fine-textured red body and a glossy surface, usually with a raised decoration. The Latin name derives from the pastilles... 

Heimann, R. and Maggetti, M. (1980) Experiments on simulated burial of calcareous Terra Sigillata (mineralogical changes). Br. Mus. Occas. Papers, 19, 163-169. 

Maggetti, M., and Ktipfer, T. (1978) Composition of the Terra Sigillata from La Poiiche (Vidy, Lausanne, Switzerland). Archaeometry, 20 (2), 183-188. 

Roman Pottery (terra sigillata) Using Hierarchical Fuzzy Clustering. 

In the Borradaile edition of the Strasburg MS (15th cent Clarke MS 2000) it is stated that Lemnian earth is symonymious with Terra sigillata (q.v.), sealed earth , as described in Merrifield s The Art of Fresco Painting (1846). Lemnian earth is named after a source on the island of Lemnos (Linmos), Greece. 

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