Panel 5.8 – The production and distribution network of the bay of Naples: from a regional to a Mediterranean perspective


Organiser/Chair:

  • Marco Giglio (Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale)
  • Luana Toniolo (Parco archeologico Pompei)

Speakers:

Panel abstract

Campania has always played a key role in the agricultural and ceramic production in the Mediterranean well before the Romans arrived. The foundation of the colony of Puteoli (194 BC) was a crucial moment of change for the region since its harbor from the mid-second century BC. became an essential node of density for the Roman trade routes, especially the ones directed to the Eastern Mediterranean. Puteoli came to be the hot spot where all the foodstuff produced in the Phlegrean fields, in Neapolis and the Vesuvian area was gathered and then traded towards Rome and the main harbors. The area was well-known for its wine production, transported in locally produced amphorae, and for its fine ware (Campana A and at a later time fine ware, both from Puteoli and the bay of Naples). From this period onwards, this area became one of the most important productive and trading centers of the Roman world as far as regards wine and fine pottery, a secondary tradable good. At the turn of the century, the products of this area were widespread all along the existing trade routes, as confirmed by the large diffusion of pottery and foodstuffs coming from Campania and recovered in Spain, southern France, Cyrenaica, Greece, Syria and Palestine and towards most of the areas located along the Germanic limes or in the northeastern provinces (especially in castra as Oberaden and Haltern). Even if the main trade routes have now been identified, many questions still need to be answered, as far as regards the quantification of the Campanian products in these regions, the social forces involved in these exchanges, the secondary trade routes and the potential consumers of the products. The panel aims to analyze the ceramic production in the bay of Naples from the late Republican to the early Imperial period and its distribution across the Mediterranean, through sea-routes or internal road and viceversa, to investigate the main products and foodstuffs imported in the Campanian centers.

 

Paper abstracts

1. Marco Giglio (Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale) / Luana Toniolo (Parco archeologico di Pompei, Grande Progetto Pompei)

The production and distribution network of the bay of Naples: from a regional to a Mediterranean perspective: an introduction
 

"The Production and Distribution Network of the Bay of Naples: from a Regional to a Mediterranean Perspective: an Introduction" (Fulltext)

 

2. Marco Giglio (Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientale) / Luana Toniolo (Parco archeologico di Pompei, Grande Progetto Pompei)

Pompeii as hot spot of Mediterranean trade: new datasets for the Late Republican period
Le nuove ricerche condotte a Pompei negli ultimi anni hanno messo in luce numerosi depositi riferibili ad un orizzonte cronologico tardo-repubblicano, portando alla ricostruzione di un panorama delle produzioni e dei consumi molto articolato e complesso. Pompei, come è noto da tempo dalle anfore vesuviane note in numerosi siti, era infatti un importante centro di esportazione di vino ma anche un centro in grado di consumare derrate e merci provenienti dal Mediterraneo orientale e meridionale (anfore orientali e puniche; contenitori iberici; servizi da tavola orientali) tramite la mediazione del porto di Pozzuoli. Oltre a questo commercio a lungo raggio si sviluppò un'intensa rete di scambi su scala micro-regionale e regionale con i centri del golfo di Napoli e dell'area flegrea, testimoniata dalla presenza di produzioni neapolitane di vernice nera e di terra sigillata, oltre che di ceramiche comuni. L'analisi di nuovi contesti, con dati quantitativi, e la revisione di vecchi contesti con nuovi metodi statistici permetterà di valutare l'incidenza di tali produzioni locali, regionali e mediterranee nel tessuto economico pompeiano e il loro mutuo interagire.

"Pompeii as hot spot of Mediterranean trade: new datasets for the Late Republican period" (Fulltext)

 

3. Stefania Siano (Herculaneum Conservation Project)

Campanian productions and imported pottery at Herculaneum. The ceramic assemblage coming from the excavation of the septic tank of Cardo V
When Vesuvius erupted, Herculaneum had an efficient system of water drainage with subterranean sewers. As part of the Herculaneum Conservation Project, the two principal sewers that ran on a north-south axis through the town to the shoreline were cleaned out. The septic tank that runs under Cardo V is a large tunnel measuring up to 3.5 metres high that had never been completely excavated and a half-metre deposit of ceramic and organic waste along its entirety was found. The 85-metre tunnel is linked to chutes that flowed from the latrines and kitchens of the homes and shops above. Instead of draining into the sea, this sewer was more like a giant septic tank that collected human waste, food scraps and discarded objects.
The ceramic assemblage found in the septic tank represents an extraordinary sample of the instrumentum domesticum used in the years immediately preceding the eruption of 79 A.D. in the shops and modest habitations connected to them, which faced the Cardo V of the Insula Orientalis II.
The paper provides an overview of the Vesuvian area productions attested in the context, analyses the presence of tableware and cooking ware imports from Eastern and Western Mediterranean, and gives an overview of the amphorae assemblage, adding one more piece of knowledge to the production and distribution network of the bay of Naples.

"Campanian productions and imported pottery at Herculaneum. The ceramic assemblage coming from the excavation of the septic tank of Cardo V" (Fulltext)

 

4. Giovanni Borriello (Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale") / Vittoria Carsana / Franca del Vecchio / Daniela Giampaola

Pottery from the ancient harbour of Neapolis (Ist BC – Ist AD)
The archaeological researches about the building of the Naples underground station Municipio (Lines 1 and 6), gave back a trench of the ancient harbour of Neapolis, used by the Hellenistic until the Late Roman Period. The stratigraphic sequence of the different harbour seabeds gives us a highly amount of findings, like urban waste, ships board equipment, or lost objects during loading and unloading of goods. The great quantity of pottery data allows an evaluation of the trade routes' complexes, which were representative of the Neapolis harbour during all its life. The topic of this analysis is the presentation of the pottery during the Late Republican and Early Roman Imperial periods, characterized by the significat presence of local production goods, to be export or for local supply, and for the imported goods. The examination of the pottery finds focused on the trade routes markers (amphorae and fine ware), enhances the knowledge about the economic trades on production and used goods in Neapolis during this period.
In addition to the goods trade, an important role is playing by the Terra Sigillata, especially the Bay of Naples production, which improves the data on the vessel morphologic repertoires, and about the workshops realizing them that held a prominent role in the production and diffusion of this pottery in the local and provincial areas.

"Pottery from the ancient harbour of Neapolis (Ist BC – Ist AD)" (Fulltext)

 

5. Gianluca Soricelli (Università del Molise) / Vincenzo Di Giovanni / Costanza Gialanella / Celestino Grifa / F. Garcea / L. M. Proietti

Contesti di età augustea dal Rione Terra di Pozzuoli
Tra i contesti ceramici di età romana scavati in questi ultimi anni nel Rione Terra di Pozzuoli, assumono un significativo valore quelli rinvenuti al'interno del cd. "pozzo montacarichi", che permettono di avere un quadro della produzione e della circolazione della ceramica nel porto flegreo tra media e tarda età augustea.
Funzionale, verosimilmente, al sollevamento del materiale da costruzione destinato agli edifici pubblici che sorgevano sulla sommità del Rione Terra (esso è ubicato a pochi metri dal tempio di Augusto) il cd. "pozzo montacarichi", esaurita la sua funzione, venne colmato versando al suo interno scarti di lavorazione di marmi e macerie alternati a scarichi di rifiuti. Questi ultimi si presentano coerenti nella loro composizione, con molti materiali ricomponibili pressoché integralmente o per larga parte; sembra, inoltre, possibile osservare un sia pure ridotto scarto cronologico tra i diversi contesti ceramici, suggerendo che la struttura sia stata colmata progressivamente, sia pure in un ridotto arco cronologico, tra il 10 a.C. e, al più tardi, il 10 d.C.

"Contesti di età augustea dal Rione Terra di Pozzuoli" (Fulltext)

 

6. Diana Dobreva and Anna Riccato (University of Padova)

Patterning campanian ceramic exchange in northern adriatic region: The coastal and inland evidence
Recent data put into account the importance of the Campanian centres in the Mediterranean market but a comprehensive model of their role in the northern Adriatic trade is still far from being defined. This paper aims to reconstruct the distribution patterns of Campanian pottery of the Late Republican and Early Imperial period through a comparative analysis of some case studies from Aquileia and its region. Updated ceramic evidences of Internal Red Slip and other Tyrrhenian cooking wares found along the upper Adriatic coast put into light the existence of dynamic trade routes, possibly related also to the presence of southern Italic population in the area. The paper will consider the potential consumers of these products and their role in the local market. It will take into account also the phenomenon of the globalization of food preparation practices and the adoption of new eating habits, which could explain the success of Campanian cooking wares in the northern Adriatic region.

"Patterning campanian ceramic exchange in northern adriatic region: The coastal and inland evidence" (Fulltext)

 

7. Eleni Schindler Kaudelka (Archaeologischer Park Magdalensberg)

Vesuvian pottery imports on the Magdalensberg
In der Stadt auf dem Magdalensberg wurden bei Grabungen mehr als 1.000 cumanae testae gefunden, während nur sehr vereinzelte Terra Sigillata Funde aus der Vesuvregion gezählt werden. Auch die Zahl der campanischen Amphoren ist mit knapp 100 im Verhältnis zu 5.000 Importen aus dem adriatischen Raum und 2.500 aus dem östlichen Mittelmeerraum verschwindend gering. Andere Keramik kommt stets nur vereinzelt im Fundmaterial vor. Die Selektion in den für die Versorgung in der Dtadt zuständigen Handelshäuser in Aquileia war ganz klar auf Waren beschränkt, die anderswoher nicht verfügbar waren. Das wirft ein Streiflicht auf die Logistik der Organisation von Handel und Transportwesen in der frühen Kaiserzeit.

"Vesuvian pottery imports on the Magdalensberg" (Fulltext)

 

8. Marisol Madrid (Universitat de Barcelona) / Alejandro G. Sinner (University of Victoria) / Sandra Grujin

From the workshop to the table. An Archaeomteric study on Campanian Black Gloss Pottery from NE Hispania
Black gloss pottery, traditionally called Campana or Campanian fine ware, is one of the most important ceramic production of classical antiquity. However, its morphological heterogeneity, together with the large number of workshops involved in its production, makes provenance attributions of finds from consumption sites extremely complex. This issue poses a challenge in addressing broader questions such as the distribution circuits and trade routes that this popular ware followed and their evolution over time. To shed light on this problem, archaeometric research has come to form an integral part of archaeological studies carried out mainly in the Italian Peninsula itself, both on workshops and on consumption centres. However, archaeometric studies are scarce outside the Italian Peninsula. The aim of our project is to contribute to a better understanding of the Campanian pottery distributed in Hispania by means of a systematic archaeological and archaeometric programme. To this end, more than 100 samples archaeologically classified as Campanian (A, A late, Etruscan, Cales ancient, middle and late), recovered from the coastal sites of Emporion, Ilduro, Iluro and Baetulo were selected. The main objective of our research was to gain a clearer idea of the provenance of the pottery. Besides, trade networks that supply the Roman town of Cosaand Hispania, have been explored to see whether artefact distribution follows the same pattern inside and outside the Italian Peninsula.