- Thursday 3 October - Panel VI
THE IMPACT OF LATE HELLENISTIC EASTERN SIGILLATA A IN ITALY. A SOCIO-ECONOMIC EVALUATION
Daniele Malfitana and Jeroen Poblome
The paper forms
part of a wider, joint research project initiated by the authors on
"Eastern Sigillata. The mechanisms of production and exchange",
which aims at integrating the published evidence on the production and
trade of this category of tableware, with new fieldwork at production
sites such as Pergamon and Sagalassos. This specific study focuses on
the reconstruction of the pattern of importation of late Hellenistic
Eastern sigillata A into contemporary Italy, and at explaining its background.
A quantified evaluation of the evidence is attempted, taking into account
the variable conditions of research, and resulting in a general state
of art and overview of the distribution patterns. New archaeological
and literary evidence attests to the interest of late Republican society
for goods, commodities, manpower and knowledge native to the eastern
Mediterranean, emulating, to a certain extent, the Hellenistic way of
life. These processes of exchange may be exemplified by the interest
in eastern sigillata A, the most common type of sigillata in the late
Hellenistic and early imperial eastern Mediterranean, which found its
way in large numbers to a variety of Italian sites. Areas and sites
of interest include coastal Etruria, the northern Adriatic with Aquileia,
Campania with Puteoli and Sicily with Monte Iato, Morgantina, Lipari
and Syracusae. In this context, Apulia and especially new find assemblages
from the port of Brindisium are of extraordinary importance, providing
the keys to the rest of Italy and more generally, the western part of
the Roman areas of influence. The attested patterns of artifactual exchange
are projected against a wider background, involving, for instance, the
mercatores qui Asiae Syriae negotiantur and the negotiatores de Oriente
venientes. Also the contemporary socio-political framework will be examined
by evaluating, for instance, the role of the emporion of Delos. Finally,
the socio-economic impact of eastern sigillata A in late Republican
Italy should be compared to how this type of tableware acted within
its native eastern Mediterranean social context.
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