Late Roman coarse ware at Aquileia, northern Italy. Between economic crisis and revival of tradition

Between 2009 and 2013 an équipe of the Padova University, in agreement with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Friuli Venezia Giulia, conducted a research study aimed at reconstructing the historical and urban dynamics of a section of the residential quarter of the ancient colony of Aquileia. In particular the searches interested the “fondi ex Cossar” area, where a domus (of Tito Macro) has emerged in all its extension, which in its earlier phases presents a typical “ad atrio” structure. The long-standing researches also gave the opportunity to investigate some contexts, that can be dated between the second half of the IV and the beginning of the VI century A.C., uncovering a group of extremely interesting fragments of coarse ware. In specific it is number of pots attributable, according to the thin section analysis, to different groups of fabric, that however share the same morphology, decoration and manufacturing techniques. The observation of the pottery and further X-ray analysis conducted on some samples, highlighted how these were made associating coiling and the use of the hand-wheel. According to the analyzed data, this type of production process in Aquileia is rarely documented on fragments of the imperial era, whereas it is widely present in the first phase of the occupation of the site, up until the use of the fast wheel became dominant. On the contrary, it seems that in the alpine arch regions the process of shaping by hand the pottery was maintained uninterrupted from the protohistoric age to the late antiquity, in parallel with the manufacturing with fast wheel. The return of aquileian potters to more archaic (therefore less effective on a qualitative level) production techniques, is a phenomenon that may have been determined by different reasons and historical dynamics. The crisis that struck the city in the late antiquity certainly played a central role. It also probably determined a reorganization of the productive system, following different methods from those typical of the roman kilns; probably these processes were not entirely unknown to the artisans from those regions in which coiling in the production of pots made of coarse ware was maintained.