Researching & Illustrating Romano-British Samian Ware
To continue my long-dormant ancient pottery series, I turned to one of the most popular Roman ceramics in ancient Britain: Samian Ware.
Samian ware, or terra sigillata, is some of my favourite ancient pottery due to its brilliant reddy hue, which can variate from pale orange to deep red. It also has a lovely shiny texture, and yes maybe I’m a little obsessed. It was prevalent all over the Roman Empire, but largely produced in, and exported from, Gaul (modern-day France). Decoration varied from plain to intricate designs, which were usually impressed onto the ceramic in a mould, making it easy to mass produce (Hull Museums no date; Trimontium Museum 2022).
Samian ware was widespread in Roman Britain, where it was used primarily as posh tableware. It is found in both civilian and military sites, from the South of Britannia all the way to Caledonia in the North. There’s evidence that some Samian pieces and sets were even kept over generations (Wallace 2006, 267). Its value and utility also made it a common grave good, with many Romans in Britain being buried with Samian ware “meal for one” dining sets (Willis 2011, 224). We also find Samian ware buried (well, deposited) all by itself - In Vindolanda they found an entire Samian dining set broken and thrown into a ditch. Apparently it had been damaged enroute and thrown away by the receiver (2019)! I probably would have been cross too, but considering how long shipping would have taken I think I would have tried to salvage at least some?
I also think it’s very cool that Samian ware was stamped or inscribed with the name of the potter (Dickinson 2015). This is how we can know so much about the pottery’s origins and time dates. As an artist of ancient history, I love these little windows into the lives and business of artists in ancient history.
The Illustration
Because Samian Ware was so prevalent, I wanted to narrow down a specific theme in this illustration. In my ancient pottery series, almost all illustrations are restricted to a specific region, so I continued that theme onto here with my province. Furthermore, while most Samian Ware dating relies on general century dates, I wanted to continue the temporal specificity of the previous illustrations. Subsequently I am using the years CE 20-260, which are the earliest and latest creation dates of Samian currently found in Britain (Willis 2015, table 17).
While there are many different forms of Samian on the continent, most imported to Britannia were inkwells, jars, bowls, dishes, cups, and mortaria (Willis 2011, 209–22). This illustration emphasises decorated pieces for the aesthetic, but as there would have been a lot of plain ware I included this little cup from Segontium (Caernarfon). Each piece is from an existing artefact, or heavily based on a fragmented find. I have listed them below.
Featured pieces
Rabbit bowl – Did you know rabbits were introduced to Britain by the Romans? The original bowl also had birds but I embellished this design a little bit by keeping just rabbits (British Museum 1st century)
Barbotine plate – I added the CELSIM makers mark for extra decoration, but this was an actual potter in La Graufesenque, Gaul (Dickinson 2015). The actual bowl is based on the Colchester Museums (McLean and Colchester Museums 125AD)
Dog and figures cup – from the Samian Ware display the Vindolanda.
Lion mortaria – Displayed in the Mithras display in the Great North Museum Hancock. This would have been used in religious ceremonies rather than as tableware (Kirk 2017).
Hunt cup – OK this is a little bit of a chimaera design, but I like the look of it. This is a ‘hunt cup’ scene like some found on the continent (Sauber and German National Museum 2010). However, I based the design on the famous caster ware hunt cup from Corbridge for some local flair :)
Plain cup (Museum Wales 110AD)
Gladiator cup – This is a reconstruction of an unusual cup found in the Chesters amphitheatre (Wilmott and Garner 2017). Maybe a fun little souvenir?
Rabbit bowl – This is the bottom of a bowl made by the potter Censor in about AD 70–85. Part of the collection at Corbridge Roman Town. (English Heritage 80AD)
Lion bowl - Kingsmead Quarry, Horton, Berkshire. The repeating design of six panels depicts a hunting scene featuring satyrs and lions. (Wessex Archaeology and Lymer 120AD)
Final thoughts
Overall I am very pleased with this illustration! I wanted to create something with a little more colour like my Faience illustration as there’s a bit of beigey-ness between the Minoan and Bucchero pieces. Originally, I had a royal blue background in my head, but when I tried out the pink background I fell in LOVE. I definitely want to continue this series’ colourful trend into 2023!
Works Cited
British Museum. 1st century. Bowl. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1915-1208-54.
Dickinson, Brenda. 2015. ‘The Decorated Ware and the Potters’ Stamps’. Heybridge: A Late Iron Age and Roman Settlement, Excavations at Elms Farm 1993-5, Internet Archaeology, , no. 40. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.40.1.dickinson.
English Heritage. 80AD. Samian Bowl. 3D Model. https://sketchfab.com/models/b58568bd2e7e45cd82809f74b7d870f5/embed?autostart=1.
Hull Museums. no date. ‘Samian Ware: From the Pottery to the Table’. Hull Museums Collections. no date. http://museumcollections.hullcc.gov.uk/collections/storydetail.php?irn=565&master=566.
Kirk, Flora. 2017. ‘Worshipping Mithras in the Roman Empire. A Guest Post by Flora M. Kirk’. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Blog(blog). 21 August 2017. https://blog.twmuseums.org.uk/worshipping-mithras-in-the-roman-empire-a-guest-post-by-flora-m-kirk/.
McLean, Laura, and Colchester Museums. 125AD. Roman Samian Ware Vessel. https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/138263Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/138263Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/179466. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_Samian_ware_vessel_%28FindID_179466%29.jpg.
Museum Wales. 110AD. Roman Samian Cup, Stamped. https://museum.wales/collections/online/object/e0fe2d14-120b-32c9-9150-5cf7c6655ab9/Roman-samian-cup-stamped/.
Sauber, Wolfgang, and German National Museum. 2010. Terra Sigillata with Barbotine Decoration, 2nd Century AD. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GNM_-_Terra_sigillata.jpg.
The Vindolanda Trust. 2019. ‘A Closer Look at Samian Pottery’. The Vindolanda Trust. 2019. https://www.vindolanda.com/blog/a-closer-look-at-samian-pottery.
Trimontium Museum. 2022. ‘Samian Ware Pottery’. Trimontium Museum Archive. 2022. https://www.trimontium.co.uk/archive-item/samian-ware-pottery/.
Wallace, Colin. 2006. ‘Long-Lived Samian?’ Britannia37: 259–72. https://doi.org/10.3815/000000006784016602.
Wessex Archaeology, and Kenneth Lymer. 120AD. Decorated Samian Ware, Horton. 3D Model. https://sketchfab.com/models/72491fda514b456ab3a2be60a92c18f1/embed?autostart=1.
Willis, Steven. 2011. ‘Samian Ware and Society in Roman Britain and Beyond’. Britannia42: 167–242. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X11000602.
———. 2015. ‘An Analysis of Some Aspects of the Samian Pottery’. Heybridge: A Late Iron Age and Roman Settlement, Excavations at Elms Farm 1993-5, Internet Archaeology, , no. 40. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.40.1.willis.
Wilmott, Tony, and Dan Garner. 2017. ‘Part 4: Life in Early Roman Chester: Artefactual and Environmental Studies’. In The Roman Amphitheatre of Chester, Volume 1: The Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology, 1st edition, 1:211–302. Oxbow Books.
