La Muette Pottery Workshop, Lyon
About
Discovered by chance on Lyon's Saone quays in 1966, this workshop turned out molded sigillata so close to Arretine originals that scholars mistook its wares for genuine Italian imports for decades. At least sixty individual potters' names are known from stamps found here, several tied to branch craftsmen who relocated from Arezzo. Chemical testing of pottery from the Roman fort at Haltern in Germany credited half its fine ware to this workshop. Its run ended in the early 2nd century, already cold by 117 CE.
What happened here
The workshop runs as a production line. Clay is dug locally, weathered over winter, kneaded and thrown, or pressed into moulds for the decorated wares. Vessels are dried under cover, stamped with the potter's name, stacked in the kiln around a central flue and fired for days with the temperature judged by eye and by test pieces pulled from a port in the side. A big firing holds tens of thousands of pots and a bad one loses the lot. Wasters are dumped in heaps beside the works. Some workshops export across half the empire and their stamps turn up thousands of miles away. Fuel is the limit on everything, so kilns sit near woodland and move when it runs out.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →