Name/Title
Pottery / bowl / fragmentEntry/Object ID
X.FRA 1321Description
Fragment of a bowl of Samian ware, decorated on one panel with Venus and on the other with part of the figure of a man, from the Roman site at Newstead (Trimontium).Use
Pottery was used for a variety of purposes such as but not limited to: to store food and liquids, cook with, eat/drink from, decoration, and to hold cosmetics.Context
Samian ware (or 'terra sigillata') pottery was imported in to Romano-Britain from Gaul, generally. It was produced on an industrial scale and exported across the Roman empire, where it was favoured for its use as a fine tableware.
Samian ware comes in a range of glossy red finishes (or sometimes black). They could be plain, but were often decorated with typical Graeco-Roman patterns and figures, such as egg-and-darts, flora or fauna, or scenes from myth.
The Trimontium site has a large collection of Samian ware, but also shows evidence of the fort making its own pottery (known as coarse-ware).Collection
National Museums Scotland, James CurleCategory
Samian ware, Pottery
Food Preparation & Storage
Made/Created
Time Period
1st - 2nd Century ADLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
PotteryNomenclature Secondary Object Term
SherdNomenclature Primary Object Term
FactoryNomenclature Primary Object Term
FragmentNomenclature Sub-Class
Industrial StructuresNomenclature Class
StructuresNomenclature Category
Category 01: Built Environment ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 10: Unclassifiable ObjectsGetty AAT
Concept
bowls (vessels), Samian ware, sherdsOther Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
Previous Accession NumberOther Number
V.15.83Provenance
Provenance Detail
1905 - 1911 ExcavationsAcquisition Method
FoundNotes
James CurleResearch Notes
Research Type
ReferencePerson
James CurleNotes
Curle, James, and Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. A Roman Frontier Post and Its People : The Fort of Newstead in the Parish of Melrose.
(Page 225, Fig. 6)
'86. Fragment of a bowl (Dragendorff 37). The surface divided into panels by
conventional palm-leaf ornament. Ludowici, Stempel-Bilder, p. 60. In each panel a
figure; both incomplete. (1) A figure of Venus holding up her left hand, with her
right she grasps her draperies. (2) Part of the figure of a man; probably the figure is
one blowing a flute, with a skin over his back. The fragment is in the style of
Reginus, and is probably Rheinzabern. (Page 225, Fig. 6.) See Knorr, Terra-
sigillata Gefässe von Cannstatt und Köngen-Grinario, Taf. xxviii. 1.'Notes
As referenced by Curle ('See... Taf. xxviii. 1.'):
'Die verzierten Terra Sigillata-Gefässe von Cannstatt und Königen-Grinario'
Image Plate XVIII.Notes
For further information on Samian Ware