Scoppieto
About
More than fifty craftsmen worked side by side at this Tiber valley manufactory, the earliest fully documented case in Italy of every stage of pottery production organized under one roof. Coral-red terra sigillata cups, plates, and bowls left Scoppieto by river barge bound for Rome and Mediterranean coastal markets. Active from Augustus through Trajan, the workshop was still producing when Trajan died in 117 CE, right at the end of its two-century run.
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
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 →