HISTRIA XVI: THE SACRED AREA SECTOR ROMAN COARSEWARE (1st – 7th centuries)

The history and evolution of the old Milesian colony Histria is quite well known from numerous articles and an impressive series of monographs that have discussed many archaeological discoveries from the Archaic to the Roman era. There is no need, therefore, to summarize their contents here.

This study of the coarseware ceramics from the Sacred Area sector called also “sector T”, at Histria seeks to bring to light an archaeological material generally neglected by the publications of this sector. Because Roman ceramics were not usually retained in the course of excavations in the Sacred Area sector, the number of pieces in this study is smaller than the number analyzed in a relatively recent monograph focusing on more thoroughly-collected Roman ceramics from other sectors. We can add numerous other ceramic publications that have appeared since this monograph especially in recent years.

In turn, the “Sacred Area sector “ sector has been discussed in numerous publications, and summarized in two recent articles published by A. Avram and his collaborators, and one published by F. Munteanu. Although the focus of the former article is on the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, when the temples in this area were in use, several pages are also dedicated to the Roman period when this sector changed its sacred character and became, for a short period, an artisanal area and then until the 7th century AD a residential district. The second article pays more attention to the Roman quarter, which featured a large “Constantinian house” covering 380 m², with four rooms and an internal court with peristyle, built perhaps during the second half of the 4th century. During the 6th century this edifice was repurposed and subdivided into many rooms with storage functions. Perhaps also in the 6th century, a series of other buildings-perhaps simple houses-were constructed to the south of this edifice, containing dolia, mortaria, and many vasa potatoria, coquinatoria and amphorae.

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