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We aim to publish here selected notices of
- congresses and exhibitions of interest to those concerned with Roman pottery
- new finds of major interest
- requests regarding the identification of unusual pottery finds ("Who knows what this is?" But please note that we do NOT offer a general identification service!)
- other matters of direct interest to members of the Society.

Items/links for submission should be mailed in the first instance to the Secretary or President. It is the responsibility of those who submit information to ensure its accuracy, and their right to make it public in this way; the decision on what to publish on the site, and for how long, will remain in all cases with the Officers of the Society.

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Latest news

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28.02.2024

Photo: John Hayes at Giardini Naxos (Sicily) in 2004		John W. Hayes † (21.4.1938–27.2.2024) With deep sadness we are sorry to announce, that John Hayes, our Fautores member for more than 60 years, passed away on the 27th of February 2024. He really was an icon of our science, of the research of Roman pottery, and everybody knows his Late Roman pottery (1972) and the Handbook of Mediterranean Pottery (1997). I remember a situation during our RCRF conference 2012 on a trip to Syracuse, where he walked alone for some minutes of recreation in the labyrinth garden of the "Ear of Dionysios" (photo). Now his walk in the labyrinth of life came to an end. Requiescat in pace! Please read the obituary, written by Philip Kenrick. F.R.	Photo: John Hayes at Syracuse 2012 (F.R.)

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25.02.2024

Second edition of the Corpus Vasorum Arretinorum (OCK) now available online!

Thanks to our busy member Philip Kenrick for this announcement. For details please click here!

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20.02.2024

Just a small break

Sometimes in our scientific life it might be good to pause and remember some of our forerunners in Roman pottery research, e.g. in our days Giuseppe Pucci and Berndmark Heukemes.

Giuseppe (Pino) Pucci, 1948–2021 Photo: tp24.it/2021/02/17	Berndmark Heukemes, 1924-2009 Photo: Mannheimer Morgen 17.02.2024
The name of our former Fautores member Giusepe Pucci is well known not only to our Italian colleagues using the Atlante delle forme ceramiche and the Conspectus formarum terrae sigillatae italico modo confectae. He died on 16.02.2021. Now we thank our faithful member Philip Kenrick, who had written and sent us an excellent obituary with lots of information about Pino's scientific life. Please read it.
And this year marks the 100th anniversary of Berndmark Heukemes on 26. February. Especially for German archeologists the name of our former RCRF member is connected to his exploration of the Roman forts and vici of Heidelberg and Ladenburg (Lopodunum). His publication "Römische Keramik aus Heidelberg". Materialien zur römisch-germanischen Keramik 8 (1964), is still very useful, namely for the pottery of the 1st century AD. And Heukemes was the first director of the excellent 'Lobdengaumuseum' of Ladenburg, which was founded by him in 1968. His successor in this position, Andreas Hensen, published in 2009 also the large Roman cemetary of Heidelberg (1349 graves), excavated by Heukemes in the years 1951-1969. And now Andreas Hensen will take this day as an opportunity to honor Berndmark Heukemes, named "the Schliemann of the Bergstraße", with the opening of a small presentation in the museum of Ladenburg.

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02.01.2024

Here the latest information about our next Congress in Leiden 2024:

• First Circular
  
  
• Call for Papers
  
  
• Registration Form
  
  
• Reminder to register before the end of March
  
  
• Accomodation
  
  
• Official congress website of our hosts

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08.12.2023

Congratulations

Our member Joanna Bird forwarded the good news: Kay Hartley (Fautores member since a long time) on December 8, 2023 received a D. Litt. Honoris Causa from the University of Newcastle. Described as ‘the oracle on Romano-British mortaria’ (Roman pottery), her research over the past 70 or so years has advanced the study of the Northern Roman walls with which Newcastle University is closely associated. She has championed female inclusivity within archaeology and continues to contribute to academic scholarship.   “I am flabbergasted,” said Kay, 94. “I really do feel the honour.  I did register for a PhD in 1959 but I couldn’t get a grant as I was married.”

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25.11.2023

"Terra Sigillata in pre-consumption deposits: characteristics and aspects of production and trade"

Workshop, 14th – 15th of June 2024, University of Vienna

Call for papers
Deadline was already 31st of October 2023. Sorry! But reached us too late.
For further information, please contact Marina Palmieri (marina.palmieri@univie.ac.at) or Julia Kopf (Julia.Kopf@univie.ac.at).

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25.11.2023

Did you miss a review to our last congress at Athens?

Here you can read a report (now also published in our Communicationes 65, 2023).

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10.4.2023

Save the Date, Fautores Congress Leiden 15-22 September 2024

At the last congress in Athens the upcoming 2024 Congress in Leiden was announced. Here some key information about the congress. A First Circular and Call for Papers will follow at the end of this year. We, the congress organisers, Philip Bes and Roderick Geerts, are very pleased to be welcoming the Fautores community to Leiden. The congress is organised in collaboration with the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University and the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. The congress will take place from the 15th of September 2024 to the 20th, followed by two days of optional post-congress excursions on the 21st and 22nd of September, according to that wonderful Fautores tradition. A full program will follow in due time, for now it is our pleasure to already share the congress theme with all of you: (Cultural) Contacts & Ceramic Contexts

We are continuously presented with a wealth of archaeological remains and artefacts from across the enormous area once covered by the Roman world. This growing richness continues to provide us with new research challenges as well as opportunities. Pottery was an omnipresent medium, and in certain respects we can speak of empire-wide phenomena, such as the production of terra sigillata/red slip ware. When investigated more closely, however, we become increasingly aware that pottery was highly heterogeneous in terms of production technique, typological and decorative style, exchange range and intensity, and so forth. This perspective allows us to ask a variety of local, regional and ‘global’ questions, for instance concerning the origin and connectivity of objects and styles (e.g., ‘local’ vs ‘non-local’; distributed/absorbed via military presence), the spatial/regional extent of certain styles and customs (e.g., urban-based; a regional feature), or the factors which are thought to have played a role in shaping regional styles and patterns (e.g., landscape; production capacity; transport possibilities). We hope if not expect to see all Fautores members and other ceramic specialists in Leiden in September 2024 and are already looking forward to an inspirational and interesting week. In case of questions, please contact us directly using this e-mail address: rcrfleiden2024@gmail.com Philip Bes, Roderick Geerts

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27.1.2023

Please have a look to the new RCRF Acta homepage, which will be presented now (in progress) by ARCHAEOPRESS
and can be accessed here:
https://archaeopresspublishing.com/ojs/index.php/RCRF/index

For the GUIDE (access etc.) to the Open Journal Systems (OJS) of Archaeopress look here.

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The Acta guidelines for authors are also changed. Please pay attension to the new version !

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19.12.2022

Our member Philip Kenrick offers guidelines for identifying and recording stamps on Italian Terra Sigillata,
surely helpful for those working in this subject. Please have a look at it.

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22.11.2022

Tineke Volkers †  (1943-2022) With deep sadness we are sorry to announce, that Tineke Volkers, pottery specialist and terpen (dwellingmound)-specialist - and our Fautores for many years -, passed away on the 9th of November 2022. Please read the obituary

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13.07.2022

Geoffrey B. Dannell † (July 2022)

Our secretary Roderick Geerts wrote us:

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06.05.2022

Roberta S. Tomber †  (1954-2022) Our secretary Roderick forwarded from the Study Group for Roman Pottery the sad news, that our former member Roberta Tomber passed away on 1 May 2022 at an age of 68. "Those of us working in Britain will be familiar with Roberta's work both as a pottery specialist and as a petrographer, not least among which was her work on the National Roman Fabric Reference Collection, one of the cornerstones of modern Romano-British pottery studies. Many will also remember her as a kind friend and, to many, a generous mentor." For the Berenike Project, she was the chief pottery specialist. Please read the obituary, written by Iwona Zych (Berenike Project)

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26.01.2022

Wolfgang Czysz †  (1949-2022) With deep sadness we are sorry to announce, that, subsequent to the loss of Sebastian C. Sommer on 12 October 2021, one of our prominent German scientists, a specialist in Roman provincial archeology, Wolfgang Czysz, passed away, at an age of only 72, on 19 January 2022. He was a member of the Fautores for many years and was well known for his excavations at the Terra Sigillata workshops of Schwabmünchen near Augsburg, together with S. Sommer (cf. Wikipedia).  RIP. An obituary will follow.                                                  Fridolin Reutti, Germany

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17.07.2019

Nicolae Gudea †  (1941-2019) We are terrible sorry to announce you that Professor Nicolae Gudea, our remarkable personality of the Roman provincial archaeology from Dacia, a very good researcher and outstanding professor of the generations of younger archaeologists of the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Babes-Bolyai University, has passed away at an age of 78 in 5th of July. For a long time he was a very active member of our society. Viorica Rusu-Bolindeț, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Please read the obituary!

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16.03.2019

Doina Benea †  (1944-2019) With deep sadness we inform about the passing away of Professor em. Dr. Doina Benea, our dear, beloved friend, which organized the 1st RCRF Congress held in Romania in 1994. She left us at Timisoara in 16th of March 2019. I don't have words to express my grief and sorrow - Professor Doina Benea was for me a mentor, but also a good friend and mother! She had only 74. Viorica Rusu-Bolindeț, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Please read the obituary!

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07.01.2019

Friedrich-Karl Bittner †  (1928-2018) It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our colleague and friend Friedrich-Karl Bittner, who passed away on December 28, 2018 at an age of ninety. R.I.P.     An obituary will follow.

 

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02.11.2018

From now on the Acta will be produced by ARCHAEOPRESS.    The new guidelines for authors are now available.

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26.08.2018

Alain Vernhet †  (1941 - 2018)

With deep sadness we announce that our colleague and friend Alain Vernhet passed away in August 2018 at the age of 77 years. Some of our members will remember with gratitude his wunderful congress at Millau in 1980. Please read the obituary!

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01.08.2018

We would like to make our members aware of a recent publication in the BAR Publishing British series,Links to Late Antiquity: Ceramic exchange and contacts on the Atlantic Seaboard in the 5th to 7th centuries AD by Maria Duggan, which we believe may be of interest to you, as it is primarily concerned with ceramics.          Table of Contents         Introduction  Please note that there in an offer to RCRF members of 15% discount by using the code at checkout (DUGGAN18) until 31 August 2018. You can order online here or by emailing info@barpublishing.com, or calling us on 01865 310431.

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11.05.2018

Christian Goudineau †  (1939-2018)

It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our French colleague and member of the RCRF Christian Goudineau,
who passed away on May 09, 2018.

Please read the obituary, written by Lucien Rivet

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08.04.2018

It is a pleasure as well as honour for us to annouce, that our member

Ninina Cuomo di Caprio   has published her book

Ceramics in Archaeology: from Prehistoric to Medieval Times in Europe and the Mediterranean:
Ancient Craftmanship and Modern Laboratory Techniques. 2 Vols. (2017)
(Advisory English Editor: Philip M. Kenrick)

Ed. L'Erma di Bretschneider
ISBN: 978-88-913.1012-5 (paper edition) - ISBN 978-88-913-1014-9 (digital edition)

It is her totally revised new English edition of her famous "Ceramica in Archaeologia".

Preview

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16.02.2018

Ludwig Berger †  (1933-2017)

It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our Swiss colleague Ludwig Berger,
who passed away on October 16, 2017 at an age of eightyfour. R.I.P.

Please read the obituary, written by Christine Meyer-Freuler

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17.02.2017

Call for participation in the scanning of the RCRF Acta vols. 1 - 44

 

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07.08.2015:

"Big Data on the Roman Table"
A research network to develop approaches to Roman artefactual evidence for eating and drinking

Big Data Roman Table Questionnaire

Prof. Penelope Allison (Leicester) asked us to publish her letter:

"Dear Colleague

With funding from the Arts and Humantities Research Council, Professor
Penelope Allison (University of Leicester) and Dr Martin Pitts (University
of Exeter) have set up a research network which aims to develop approaches
to Roman artefactual evidence for eating and drinking whereby this wealth of
data can be investigated more effectively and be truly instrumental in
understandings of social practice across diverse social, cultural and gender
groups in the Roman world.

The principle aims of this network are to establish a research dialogue to
review and develop analytical methods for interrogating artefact assemblages
to investigate eating and drinking practices across the Roman world, at
household, community, regional and global levels, and to refine and develop
techniques for enhanced visual communication of analyses of the large and
complex datasets that constitute Roman foodways material culture.

The network will be holding two workshops over the next 12 months to address
these aims and to develop guidelines for best practice. The results of these
workshops will be published at the end of the project. Unfortunately, due to
limited resources the initial workshop is now full but if you are interested
in taking part in the Network we have an online Forum where you can view the
workshop programme and abstracts and add comments. We will shortly be
posting copies of the papers on this Forum.

If you are interested in being part of this Network please contact the
project administrator, Dr Sarah Colley (sc532@leicester.ac.uk ).

Whether or not you are interested in being part of this network it would be
very helpful for us to know about your or your organisation's current
practices in regard to collecting and analysing Roman foodways material
culture. We would therefore be most grateful if you would fill in the
attached questionnaire, to the best of your ability, and return it to Dr
Sarah Colley (sc532@leicester.ac.uk ), as soon as possible.

If you have any queries regarding this questionnaire please contact Penelope
Allison (pma9@le.ac.uk ) or Martin Pitts (M.E.J.Pitts@exeter.ac.uk )

Kind regards
Penelope Allison and Martin Pitts

Dr Sarah Colley
Research Project Administrator for 'Big Data on the Roman Table' Research
Network Project Honorary Research Fellow, School of Archaeology & Ancient
History, University of Leicester "

Big Data Roman Table Questionnaire (word-file)

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14.04.2014:

Our member Rob Perrin asked us to publish:

Study Group for Roman Pottery On-Line Bibliography

Since 1986 the Study Group for Roman Pottery has compiled a bibliography of Roman pottery publications. The bibliography has appeared in the Group’s Journal of Roman Pottery Studies up to Volume 11 (2004), with these and subsequent entries being placed onto its website (www.romanpotterystudy.org). A grant from English Heritage has now allowed this bibliographic information to be turned into an on-line resource, organised and hosted by the Archaeology Data Service and accessible through the following link:
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/sgrp_2013/

Various on-line bibliography data fields are searchable, but the bibliography is still a work in progress and additions, amendments and improvements will be carried out.

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Congresses and conferences of other organisations

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Société Française d'Étude de la Céramique Antique en Gaule (SFECAG)

Congress 2023: 18-21 may 2023 at Hyères (France)

Second circular

Recent publications notified to us

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17.01.2020

We would like to announce the recent publication of our member   Michael Mackensen : Relief- und stempelverzierte nordafrikanische Sigillata des späten 2. bis 6. Jahrhunderts. Römisches Tafelgeschirr der Sammlung K. Wilhelm. Münchner Beiträge zur Provinzialrömischen Archäologie, Vol. 8. 2019. 4°. Hc., 2 Vol., 596 pp., 1554 ill. b/w- and 525 ill. (colour)., 220 plates, 1 insert, 85,− EUR (978-3-95490-413-6).   The study presents a summary of the development over 500 years of the high-quality North African red slip ware, a fineware which was mainly used as tableware. The masterful handicraft of several large pottery production centres in one of Rome’s economically most important provinces, Africa Proconsularis, is particularly well reflected in the exceptional relief-decorated wares. The study focuses on the rare appliqué-decorated north Tunisian red slip ware of the late 2nd/early 3rd century and also the wide range of forms and decorations of the appliqué-, relief- and stamp-decorated red slip ware of the early 3rd to mid 6th century, produced in Sidi Marzouk Tounsi, the most important pottery production centre in central Tunisia which operated for at least 350 years. Production at this site included lamps and terracotta figurines in red slip ware as well, but in particular a wide variety of plain and decorated red slip ware vessels made not only for a regional market, but for Mediterranean long-distance trade. Research is based on the exceptionally extensive collection accumulated by K. Wilhelm mainly between 1960 and 1995. The material is presented in a catalogue containing 138 vessels and 104 fragments, including several unique vessel forms and a series of unknown appliqués and stamp types. For comparison, some important, but partially unpublished vessels and fragments in several European, North American and North African museums and private collections were additionally taken into account. For the first time, the decoration schemes and also the vessel forms of an appliqué-decorated pottery produced in a north-eastern and in another central Tunisian production centre throughout the late 2nd and 3rd century, are classified and clearly represented. The research also succeeded in defining the late phase of the so-called El Aouja ware and highlights the stylistic development leading to the appliqué-decorated red slip ware of the 4th century. Moreover, the analysis of the appliqué and relief decoration with pagan, allegoric and early Christian motifs emphasises an iconographic transformation over the centuries based on the visible change in the figural scenes. Of utmost importance is the fact that the production centre at Sidi Marzouk Tounsi clearly survived the Vandal rule of the provinces Africa and Byzacena (429-533/534). Alongside the late relief-decorated red slip wares, there is now also evidence for the production of mould-made, relief-decorated red slip ware platters and several specific forms with mainly Christian motifs, far exceeding the previously suggested end of production (c. 430/440) and suggesting an end around the middle of the 6th century. PDF English: https://reichert-verlag.de/users/CS/MBPA8_Mackensen_Nordafrikanische_Sigillata_engl.pdf PDF German: https://reichert-verlag.de/users/CS/MBPA8_Mackensen_Nordafrikanische_Sigillata.pdf

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01.08.2018

We would like to make our members aware of a recent publication in the BAR Publishing British series,Links to Late Antiquity: Ceramic exchange and contacts on the Atlantic Seaboard in the 5th to 7th centuries AD by Maria Duggan, which we believe may be of interest to you, as it is primarily concerned with ceramics.          Table of Contents         Introduction  Please note that there in an offer to RCRF members of 15% discount by using the code at checkout (DUGGAN18) until 31 August 2018. You can order online here or by emailing info@barpublishing.com, or calling us on 01865 310431.

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01.05.2018

MVLTA PER ÆQVORA

Il polisemico significato della moderna ricerca archeologica.
Omaggio a Sara Santoro, a cura di M. Cavalieri e C. Boschetti, in: 

Fervet Opus 4, Presses universitaires de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve.

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08.04.2018

Ninina Cuomo di Caprio:

Ceramics in Archaeology: from Prehistoric to Medieval Times in Europe and the Mediterranean:
Ancient Craftmanship and Modern Laboratory Techniques. 2 Vols. (2017)
(Advisory English Editor: Philip M. Kenrick)

Ed. L'Erma di Bretschneider
ISBN: 978-88-913.1012-5 (paper edition) - ISBN 978-88-913-1014-9 (digital edition)

It is her totally revised new English edition of her famous "Ceramica in Archaeologia".

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04.03.2017

Journal of Hellenistic Pottery and Material Culture
Volume 1 2016

edited by Dr Patricia Kögler, Dr Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom and Prof. Dr Wolf Rudolph (Heads of Editorial Board).
xiv+212 pages; illustrated throughout in colour and black & white. Archaeopress.
ISBN 2399-1852-1-2016. ISSN 2399-1844 (Print), ISSN 2399-1852 (online).

Available in print (£30.00 [plus standard shipping rates]) and Open Access.

Table of Contents:
A Fill from a Potter’s Dump at Morgantina – by Shelley Stone
Trade in Pottery within the Lower Adriatic in the 2nd century BCE – by Carlo De Mitri
Hellenistic Ash Containers from Phoinike (Albania) – by Nadia Aleotti
Pottery Production in Hellenistic Chalkis, Euboea. Preliminary Notes – by Yannis Chairetakis
A Terracotta Figurine of a War Elephant and Other Finds from a Grave at Thessaloniki – by Eleni Lambrothanassi & Annareta Touloumtzidou
Moldmade Bowls from Straton’s Tower (Caesarea Maritima) – by Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom
Greco-Roman Jewellery from the Necropolis of Qasrawet (Sinai) – by Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom

ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS AND PROJECTS
Panathenaic Amphorae of Hellenistic and Roman Times – by Martin Streicher

BOOK REVIEWS
Shelley C. Stone, Morgantina Studies 6. The Hellenistic and Roman Fine Wares – by Peter J. Stone
Pia Guldager Bilde & Mark L. Lawall (eds.), Pottery, Peoples and Places, BSS 16 – by Kathleen Warner Slane
Susan I. Rotroff, Hellenistic Pottery. The Plain Wares, Agora 33 – by Patricia Kögler

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27.01.2017

A. Muller/E. Lafli (eds.), Figurines de terre cuite en Méditerranée grecque et romaine.
Vol 1: Production, diffusion, étude.
École française d’Athènes, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, supplément 54
(Paris/Athens, École française d’Athènes 2016). Pp. 517; ISBN: 978-2-86958-274-3.

The vol. II of the same book was already out in 2015 (for its review: A. Queyrel Bottineau, Revue des études anciennes 118/2, 2016. 632-635).

Address for orders: École française d’Athènes, 6, Odos Didotou, Kolonaki, GR-10680 Athens.
Tel.: +30.210.367 99 22.
E-mail: marina.leclercq@efa.gr

Preface and table of contents

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18.03.2016

And now we enjoy to announce Margherita Bergamini's last part of Scoppieto!

SCOPPIETO  IV/2:   I Materiali. Terra sigillata liscia, punzoni e matrici

For details click   here

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25.6.2014

We are happy to announce

SCOPPIETO  IV/1.   I Materiali. Terra sigillata decorata a rilievo
a cura di Margherita Bergamini.
Testi di Cristina Troso e Valentina Dezza, con il contributo di Massimo Oddone,
Apparato fotografico di Stefano Simoni, disegni di Valentina Dezza e Viviana Grassetti.
Edizioni Quasar, Roma 2014. 208 pp. many ill. (bw+c).
ISBN 978-88-7140-553-7. € 35,00.

For details and order click   here,
for contents here

and also

14.10.2013

SCOPPIETO III - Lo scavo, le strutture, i materiali (Coroplastica, Marmi)
a cura di Margherita Bergamini.
Editioni Quasar. Roma 2013. 304 pp., many ill., 8 color tables.
ISBN 978-88-7140-522-3. € 35,00.

For details and order click   here

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Other News

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25.1. 2013:

"A Passion for Roman Pottery"

An article, written by Philip Kenrick for Current World Archaeology:

For the complete article: click here  ( also for download)

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16. 12. 2011:

Our member Roberta Tomber has informed us
that the Study Group for Roman Pottery (SGRP) has compiled the

kiln site in honour of Vivien Swan.

Please look at:
http://mapdata.thehumanjourney.net/vgswandb_index.html

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