Samian Ware Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

THE ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY OF THE ROMAN PERIOD PHASE C1 IN THE LIGHT OF SAMIAN WARE FINDS ON THE TERRITORY OF THE PRZEWORSK CULTURE.
SUMMARY
Samian ware belong to the group of important sources enabling to attempt reconstruction of contacts between the Roman Empire and European Barbaricum. It results from the signifi cant number of fi nds of that kind of ceramics coming from various territories outside the Roman limes, as well as from the possibility of determining places and the sequence of the production of these products, as well as from the diversified group of their recipients. Studies based on dispersion of
these finds are playing an important role, enabling to conclude about the model of the distribution of Roman products on these areas. Finds of the Samian ware also have an essential importance for the study of the absolute chronology of development phases of „barbaric” cultures of Europe.
We can establish as the base of the synchronization of recalled stylistic changes with the absolute chronology of Samian ware, that terminus post quem determines the period of the start-up of the production of an individual Samian ware.
Presented in older literature attempts of the interpretation of the Samian ware infl ux to the territory of Central-European Barbaricum pointed, that it took place not necessarily at the same time as beginnings of the activity of workshops producing them. It is possible we can accept with the higher probability, that Samian ware fi nds are not evidences of the
most late phase of the activity of these workshops as well.
Presumably the period of distribution and later using of one Samian vessel in the environment of the Przeworsk culture every time could be a bit different. With exception of finds dated by historical events, we have no data enabling us to determine more precisely the period, after which the deposition of the vessel could take place. Precise determining of the Samian ware usage is hampered by the specifi c of the sepulchral rite in the environment of the Przeworsk culture. Very often it is impossible to recommend expressively, which items present in the inventory of the cremation burial could be used by the deceased intravital, which were gifts given by participants to the commitment service, and which got to the assemblage by chance. Basing on the less numerous fi nds from the settlement contexts, we can only suppose, if these imports – Samian ware - could be used for instance in a household, and if so, how long this usage took place. Proper interpretation of the sepulchral fi nds could be sometimes hampered by cases when we notice pieces of the same Samian vessel in different graves or fragments of more than one vessel in one assemblage. Presumably such situations are caused by the repeated use of the same cremation place. However sometimes we can reconstruct possible sequence of these cremations, what was proved by the study of the assemblages containing Samian from the cemetery of the Przeworsk culture in Opatów, Kłobuck poviat.
One may record a distinct progress in the research of the places of production of Samian ware and the dating of the activity of workshops producing this pottery, and even more so, as a result of a signifi cant increase in the number of source evidence. It applies most of all to Przeworsk Culture, now with a record of 92 closed assemblages containing Samian pottery, originating from 33 sites (Fig. 1). This is more than twice the number available at the time of the start of earlier studies addressing the absolute chronology of the phases of the Roman Period basing on Samian ware present in grave inventories from the entire territory of the Barbaricum.
However these new fi nds of Samian ware from the Przeworsk Culture territory have not signifi cantly changed the overall view of the infl ux of these imports, nevertheless some individual finds have come to light, originating from workshops not represented earlier in the record of Samian ware in our study area. First of all, there has been a visible increase in the number of finds from the youngest wave of the influx of Samian, produced during the 3rd century AD – mainly at Westerndorf
and at Pfaffenhofen.
Presented analysis is focused mainly on the phase C1of the younger Roman period. Many assemblages of the Przeworsk culture coming from this stage contain Samian ware belonging to the main wave of its infl ux on the territory of the Polish land. Basing on such assemblages we have more data useful for determining the absolute chronology of phase C1a as well (Fig. 2). Only a handful of grave assemblages from
this phase contain Samian ware manufactured after AD 160, at Rheinzabern or at Lubié. The majority of these workshops, except for the workshop of CASURIUS at Lubié, continued to produce their wares over several decades, presumably, until AD 210s/220s. A similarly modest number of grave assemblages from phase C1a contain Samian manufactured starting from AD 175 until 210–220 (from Rheinzabern and Westerndorf). A number of further grave inventories from
phase C1a contain even younger wares, originating from the workshop of HELENIUS in Westerndorf, active in AD 200–230, and possibly a little longer. In the group of grave assemblages likely to date from phase C1a there are also two finds with Samian ware produced by the potter HELENIUS who was active at Pfaffenhofen in the period AD 210–250.
The largest group (more than 30 graves) is formed by assemblages assigned to phase C1 but their dating cannot be refi ned further – either to phase C1a or to phase C1b (Fig. 3). Despite this they have some relevance for the dating of the origins and the time of the spread of the Younger Roman Period style. Only in a single case a grave dated broadly
to phase C1, presumably its earlier stage, contained a Samian ware vessel produced in AD 150–170 at Rheinzabern. Of the remainder nearly a half are inventories containing Samian ware produced only between AD 175 and 210–220, some of them, even until 230. These are the wares from Rheinzabernand from Westerndorf. The same number of inventories dated to an unspecifi ed stage of phase C1, contain somewhat later wares, with a dating of between AD 190/200 and 230s, and some, as late as AD 245/250 (from Rheinzabern, group IIc; Rheinzabern, group IIIa and from Westerndorf).
The extended period of activity of individual workshops producing Samian ware makes it rather diffi cult to specify more closely of the relationship between fi nds attributed to successive chronological phases. This observation applies also to the correlation of phases C1a and C1b. The latter phase is represented in the investigated material by a small number of inventories (Fig. 3). They contain Samian produced in AD 175–210/220 (from Rheinzabern and Westerndorf) or AD 200–230 (from Westerndorf). From phase C1b comes also a number of grave fi nds with Samian ware produced at Pfaffenhofen in DICANUS style, AD 230–260. Thus, Samian ware finds confirm that artefacts recognized as
typical for phase C1b were in use presumably already during the late 2nd century, or the fi rst and the second decade of the 3rd century, contemporaneously with forms typical for phase C1a. Because, if we assume that the Samian ware from AD 170–210/220 does not come from the fi nal years of activity of the workshops which produced them, we have to accept that the fi nd from Chorula (grave 151) confi rms a surmise drawn on the basis of Roman iconography on the early appearance of shield-bosses with a hemispherical body without a collar,
prior to the period of the spread of the style of phase C1b. This is shown by the sarcophagus from Via Tiburtina-Portonaccio, dating from AD 180s, with a depiction of a shield boss of a form corresponding to the find from Chorula.
We may conclude that inventories with the youngest imports of Samian ware, the wares of HELENIUS of Westerndorf and somewhat younger wares from Pfaffenhofen (HELENIUS, DICANUS), originate still from the final years of phase C1. These grave inventories, like the relatively abundant other wares from Pfaffenhofen discovered without a specified context, would be evidence of a much more intensive Przeworsk Culture settlement during phase C1b, than might be concluded basing on the known finds of artefacts of a form recognized as markers of this phase.
The number of currently known assemblages dated by Samian vessels shows that, in determining the chronology of the onset of the younger Roman period, our basis are mainly sepulchral Przeworsk culture assemblages containing this pottery. To some extent observations presented here relative to the dating of the onset and the duration of phase C1b find confi rmation also in fi nds of assemblages with Samian ware from the territory of the Wielbark Culture. The correctness of our observations is indicated also by the relatively modest number of closed assemblages containing Samian ware from other regions of the Central European Barbaricum.
The cultural change during the younger Roman period did not unfold by leaps and bounds, and the periodization scheme used universally for this period refl ects only a general sequence of successive stylistic changes and, as such, does not allow a closer absolute dating also of the fi nds which are recognized as characteristic for a particular phase.
Prof. dr hab. Piotr Kaczanowski (†)
Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
ul. Gołębia 11, PL 31-007 Kraków
Dr Andrzej Przychodni
Wojewódzki Urząd Ochrony Zabytków w Kielcach
ul. Zamkowa 5, PL 25-009 Kielce
andrzejp@korzenie.gimnazjum.com.pl