Nicole Constantine: Study of Archaeological Ceramics at the Archäologische Staatssammlung, Munich

This summer I studied a group of ceramics at the Archaologische Staatssammlung in Munich, Germany. These ceramics were taken from the seabed off the coast of Turkey, from the site of an ancient shipwreck of the 1st century BCE. The study of these ceramics offers valuable information about ancient Mediterraenan trade, particularly the circulation of a new type of mass-produced pottery during this period of significant political, economic and social change.

With the support of the Europe Center, this summer I conducted a research visit to the Archäologische Staatssammlung, the State Archaeological Collections of Bavaria, housed in Munich, Germany. My purpose there was to study an assemblage of fineware table vessels recovered off the coast of Turkey in the 1970s, where a group of German divers encountered a shipwreck at a depth of 45 meters. The wooden remains of the hull appeared to have been entirely lost, but tall stacks of plates, cups and bowls remained piled on the sea bed – an ancient potter’s shop preserved in the depths. The divers took 300 pieces of pottery from the wreck site, and brought them to Germany, where they have remained since. A cursory study of the vessels was carried out in the 1970s, revealing that all the vessels looted from the wreck were Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) ceramics produced sometime in the 1st century BCE. The shipwreck site was revisited by a team of Turkish archaeologists in 2022. They found the stacks of ESA still preserved on the sea bed, and lifted a small sample of vessels for study. Thanks to the gracious staff at the Archäologische Staatssammlung, I was able photograph, measure and catalog these beautifully preserved ceramics, which represent a previously untapped wealth of information both about the shipwreck, and the history of this important ceramic ware.

Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) is a class of ceramics produced between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The ubiquity of the ware, with shining red surfaces and standard shapes of plates, cups and bowls make it instantly recognizable to archaeologists working in the Hellenistic and early Roman Mediterranean. The proliferation of ESA is understood as representing a major and lasting development in the production of ceramic tablewares in the ancient Mediterranean. The popularity and wide distribution of the ware is understood as the beginning of a kind of ‘mass production’ of ceramics never before seen. As its name implies, ESA is the first in a line of ‘terra sigilatta’ (‘stamped earth’ in Latin) ceramic wares, that would come to be a celebrated and widely-studied component of the material culture of the Roman world. But the beginnings of this red-slipped ceramic tradition, and the developments in technology that allowed for its proliferation are still the subject of much speculation - in part because no production sites (kilns or workshops) have yet been identified. This leaves scholars with a body of questions: What methods were used to produce the distinctive-looking ceramics? How was ESA moved around the Mediterranean and what mechanisms allowed for its wide distribution? Why was it so popular, and what factors led to its eventual decline and disappearance? Were ESA plates, cups and bowls really standardized, or can we identify meaningful variations that might indicate the existence of multiple workshops? 

The existence of a shipwreck with a unified cargo of table vessels is, in and of itself, remarkable. We typically understand that ancient Mediterranean trading vessels primarily carried cargoes of amphoras, ceramic containers full of valuable wine or olive oil. Table vessels were typically secondary cargoes - small amounts of them were used to pack the empty spaces in a ship’s hold, and to act as ballast, weighing the ship down in the water. The ESA wreck therefore has the potential to challenge our notions of the way ancient Mediterranean maritime trade was carried out in this period. An important task for addressing these questions is the scholastic reunification of the pieces in Germany with the data produced by the new Turkish survey of the site. 

My typological analysis of the vessels at the Archäologische Staatssammlung suggests a narrower date range for the sinking of the vessel, which sailed along the coast of Turkey between 50 and 20 BCE. This study reveals the kinds of plates, cups and bowls that were available to consumers at this moment in Mediterranean history, and the sheer quantity of vessels supports the notion that a wide body of people in the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle of the 1st century BCE were engaged in producing, shipping, buying and selling ESA. The results of my summer study trip to the Archäologische Staatssammlung reveal insights about this industry and more broadly, maritime trade during this period of historic transition in the Mediterranean. Future work will focus on contextualizing the data from this sites with other shipwreck cargoes, including that of the famed Antikythera Wreck, a roughly contemporaneous 1st century BCE shipwreck discovered in the Aegean Sea. These insights will be a valuable addition to my dissertation project, which investigates shipwreck assemblages to understand the changing social and economic dynamics of the Hellenistic Mediterranean Sea.