Internet Archaeology 50: Big Data on the Roman Table: new approaches to tablewares in the Roman world

This project involves the high-resolution 3D laser scanning of a cache of Italian black gloss pottery from the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Our aim is to examine in detail the minute traces of production and use of these vessels and to produce a digital record of their form. We have experimented with several scanning devices in order to determine the optimal methods for capturing abrasions on pottery and are developing digital methods for surface analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to consider how black gloss vessels from ritual contexts (tomb and sanctuary deposits) may have been used before they were deposited and to refine our understanding of vessel production methods.

The Roman tableware pottery samian (terra sigillata) was distributed over the whole Roman Empire. From the early days of archaeological research, it has always been considered as an instrument not only for analysing Roman trading routes, but also for comparing consumption patterns in smaller regions and between individual sites. This article questions the degree to which samian can fulfil these expectations.

In this discussion and commentary a number of themes emerging from the Workshops and articles presented in this volume are highlighted and discussed. The 'Big Data on the Roman Table' (BDRT) initiative is viewed within the context of Roman pottery studies past and present. Issues to do with sampling and the nature of site formation processes, and sample collection, are considered. Questions around form and function, use and wear are assessed. Means of presenting data, as seen in this volume, are examined. As the articles showcase resources and capabilities being applied to research goals in the present digital environment, the future prospect of, and questions for, continuing work are considered. This discussion highlights the enormously rich archaeological record of the Roman era and the potential for Big Data studies of tableware. Through a narrative that links to the on-going daily familiarity of pottery use that people of our world experience, it may be possible to bridge the gap between specialist knowledge and wider audiences.

This article examines the variety of the locally made ceramic group known as Pannonian slipped ware (Pannonische Glanztonware - PGW). For the Roman provincial archaeology of Pannonia this group has particular meaning because it is perceived as a regional amalgam of Roman imperial taste and local Celtic traditions. This phenomenon is even more intriguing given that almost all the imitations were burnished grey and black, differing significantly from terra sigillata originals. The quality of the imitations clearly indicates that such colouring was not a consequence of a technological deficiency, but a clear expression of local taste and demand. Imitations that were made subsequently, later in the second century, show that the preference for black/grey slipped imitations of terra sigillata persisted in this region, obviously representing a distinctive alternative to the ever-present red gloss terra sigillata that was later imported from Gaul and Germania. A re-examination of other sites in the region and contextualisation of published material shows that this was not an isolated phenomenon, but that these imitations were part of a regional ceramic group known as Pannonian slipped ware (PSW). Several aspects of these imitations could be explored, but the task of this article is to investigate why these vessels were made as they were by comparing the PSW finds with original terra sigillata found in the region to determine patterns of differences and similarities.

This introduction outlines the rationale for and concerns of the research network, 'Big Data on the Roman Table' – an international forum showcasing and exploring new ways of harnessing and analysing the extensive datasets of tablewares from around the Roman world, for agenda-changing, consumption-orientated approaches to this rich archaeological record from the early Roman Empire. The introduction sets out the problems facing more social-historical approaches to these, mainly ceramic, tablewares and includes examples from my own research into tablewares, from the Roman world and beyond, to demonstrate my reasons for initiating and co-organising this network. It also summarises the structure and the approaches of this volume and its selection of articles, from papers presented at the two workshops of this network.

The use of traditional 'chrono-typologies' are rooted in the evolutionist and aesthetical principles underlying classical archaeology as a discipline. Accordingly, the use of such categories in the analysis of domestic patterns of tableware consumption in local communities during the Roman period risks introducing different kinds of biases to our current theories. I start the article with a discussion about the need to review traditional categories used to classify such finds. Based on the conclusions of this discussion, I propose an alternative procedure for the analysis of domestic patterns of Roman tableware consumption.My analytical approach is based on two main methodological principles: 1) the use of other functional classification categories established from multiple criteria ('technofunction', usewear analysis, productive and archaeological provenance, etc.) and 2) the testing of these functional categories using statistical tools for comparison between different scales.To illustrate this proposal, I apply a correspondence analysis to infer consumption patterns through comparison of functional and typological variables recorded in the analysed tableware finds from three Roman domestic contexts excavated in the province of Soria (Spain): the Domus of Los Plintos (Uxama); the Domus of the Aqueduct (Tiermes); and the Roman villa of 'La Dehesa' in Cuevas de Soria (Quintana Redonda). Some of the inferences obtained can be used to gain a deeper insight into the household economies of these settlements of Roman Spain.

This article discusses the problems surrounding the matching of South Gaulish terra sigillata shapes to the descriptions used by their potter manufacturers and modern sigillata type-series produced by scholars in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then goes on to postulate which shapes and types of vessel might have dressed a Roman table, and how those vessels might have been used. The discussion is quantified by examples of comparative frequencies occurring at the kiln site and on export sites within a historical framework of key consumer sites.

Pottery in northern Gaul represents, in terms of types and number, the largest component of funerary offerings. The function of categories and types of vessels from funerary assemblages located in the three tribal areas of the Tungri (Hesbaye), the Atrebates (Ostrevant), and the Neruii/Nervii (Hainaut), are discussed here to inform understanding of vessel use in domestic contexts. In funerary contexts, we can discern much about how particular categories of vessels provided for particular dining functions, and thus correlate the hierarchy of the graves and the vessels. However, the function of certain forms changes when used in a grave, especially when a container becomes a cinerary urn. Comparison of quantitative data clearly separates funerary series from domestic context ones and proves that if vessels share an identical function, their assemblage context gives evidence of a choice made for representation and rite. We need to look at vessels in their context of deposition to get a sense of how function varied across different social/ritual contexts.

Although the widespread use of Gallic terra sigillata in first-century AD Gallia Narbonensis represents a dramatic change in relations of production and consumption, anthropological literature on consumption practices suggests that these mass-produced dining vessels would not necessarily have been used in identical ways in different social contexts. This article examines the discarded Gallic terra sigillata assemblages from the Gallic sites of Lattara, Ambrussum, and Carsalade in eastern Languedoc, France, as well as from the Roman colony of Narbo Martius (modern Narbonne) in western Languedoc. Rather than indicating a homogeneous use of Gallic terra sigillata throughout the province, the ceramic data analysed here suggest instead that there were at least three distinctive patterns of terra sigillata use, as can be discerned by the proportions reflected in practices of discard. These patterns do not directly reflect actual dining sets or specific commensal events, but rather long-term, recurring practices among different social groups.

This article presents an analysis of three dining-related assemblages of pottery from Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltavorum) and compares them to the patterns already established for pottery supply and vessel use derived from other rubbish deposits across the town and its suburbs. Spatial correspondence analysis is then used to map the varying character of these other assemblages, and the emerging pattern is interpreted.Large-scale excavations in Leicester over three decades have provided a substantial dataset for broader analysis of vessel supply and usage but only rarely do tightly dated groups, relating to specific buildings and food remains, occur. Two of these groups present evidence for 'dining out' during the second century. The first is from the backfill of a cellar, perhaps from below a tavern on Little Lane, containing tablewares, drinking vessels, amphorae, and flagons, alongside animal bones and oysters. The second is the fill of a cess pit (latrine pit) from Castle Street containing amphorae, flagons, tableware bowls and dishes, but no drinking vessels, alongside exotic plant foods, fish and smoked shoulders of beef, which is considered to relate to a 'delicatessen'-style 'take-away'. The third group represents 'eating in' at the later third-century courtyard house on Vine Street and comprises a wide range of animal and plant foods alongside cooking pots, bowls and dishes, and large colour-coated ware beakers, excavated from the kitchen drain and two cess pits.The mapping of data gathered from 26 other assemblages, dating between the mid-first and late second centuries, highlights two spatial trends in vessel deposition across the town. The first is a north-south opposition, with more vessels associated with drinking in the central and northern parts of the town, while the second shows a contrast between the centre, around the forum, where there is a greater proportion of finewares, and the suburbs, where there are larger numbers of jars. Together, these trends suggest that we can identify zonation within Leicester that can be related back to different depositional practices and ultimately patterns of use and consumption.