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Decorations for a drinking vessel
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Decorative Techniques on Roman Period Ceramic Drinking Vessels
The Latin term poculum refers to a broad range of drinking vessel forms. The lack of terminological consistency in the literature sees a number of names used to describe related drinking vessel types: beakers (tumblers), goblets (chalices), jugs, pots, and cups. Here we will use the term beaker to refer to drinking vessels without handles, and the term cup to refer to drinking vessels with one or two handles. Beakers are an item of tableware of small dimensions, no more than fifteen centimetres tall, used as an everyday drinking vessel. They were made on a potter’s wheel or using a mould, of finely refined clay and shaped in a manner that allowed them to be grasped with a single hand. The selected specimens are of the types of fine thin walled pottery and terra sigillata tableware that were made in imitation of vessels done in the noble metals or glass.
Thin walled pottery was either wheel thrown or mould made of high quality refined clay. The wall thickness ranges from 0.5 to five milimetres, with an average thickness of two to three millimetres. The most prevalent forms are beakers and hemispherical bowls, but we also see cups, small bowls with one or a pair of handles, pots and jugs. They were produced from the second century BCE to around the late third century CE, especially in the northern provinces of the Roman empire.
Terra sigillata ware is fine Roman ceramic tableware primarily characterised by its glossy red slip. The clay used to fabricate terra sigillata ware was very finely refined and rich in iron oxide. It was fired at temperatures ranging from 900°C to 960°C. A slip (a thick clay slurry) was applied after the vessel had cooled before a second firing that transformed the slip into a thin crust of intense red metallic gloss. In terms of the manufacturing method, we differentiate between two terra sigillata groups: smooth (undecorated) and relief (decorated). Smooth terra sigillata was wheel thrown, while relief work was done with moulds. The first terra sigillata ware was made in central Italy, from where it spread to other lands under Roman dominion. Workshops were set up in Gaul, Hispania, Pannonia, Raetia, Africa and in the Orient in the period from the first century BCE to the end of the second century CE.
The Decorative Techniques
Clay is a material that lends itself to a broad range of decorative techniques and motifs. Decorative elements on ceramic ware can be fabricated prior to firing (on the smoothed or raw clay surface) or following firing (on an unglazed or glazed surface). Some techniques are suitable before and after firing. The decorative techniques can thus be grouped into categories. The following methods are used on raw unfired clay surfaces: incision, stamping, application, modelling, imprinting and encrusting and the numerous subvariants, and burnishing and painting. Burnishing and painting can be executed on a fired unglazed surface, while painting can also be executed on a fired glazed surface. A particular vessel may exhibit a single or a combination of multiple decorative techniques (Fig. 1). Various surface treatment techniques, including slips and glazes, may also be used to achieve a decorative effect.
Here we will focus only on the decorative techniques employed in creating the exhibited drinking vessels.
Fig. 1 Sherd of a thin walled cup with a rouletted decoration on the lower half, and crescent shaped scale-like applications done in the barbotine technique on the upper half (A-27804).
The Incision Technique
The incision technique is, in essence, a graphic decorative technique. It is one of the most widespread and has numerous subtypes. It involves incisions executed with a variety of tool tips and varying levels of applied pressure on a raw and unfired clay surface. A line incised with a tool having a sharp, pointed tip will produce a V cross-section, while a line formed with a tool having a rounded or angular tip will produce a U cross-section. Motifs are incised with knives, sticks, awls, the finger, fingernail, shell, grain, fine thread, stamps and other tools, including those formed like combs, brushes or a roulette. Combed and brushed decorations are similar. A combed decoration is deeper, producing motifs of narrower or broader horizontal, wavy, oblique, or zigzag bands, while a brush-like tool produces a shallower decorative pattern, often over the entire vessel with the exception of the neck and rim area (cat. no. 1). A roulette (wheeled tool) impresses a pattern across the surface of an object, producing a band with a repeating motif of a variety of notches (cat. no. 2), triangles and rhombi.
