Amphoralis Pottery Workshops
About
Kilns here, some big enough to hold seventy cubic meters of pottery per firing, turned out the flat-bottomed Gauloise 4 amphora that carried Narbonensis wine across the empire's western provinces. Discovered starting in 1976 twelve kilometers north of Narbo Martius, the workshop also produced roof tiles and tableware through its centuries of operation. Gauloise 4 output took off from the mid-1st century CE and was still running full tilt when Trajan died in 117.
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
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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 →