The House of Serenos. Clementina Caputo

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B3b) Wares: Sc, Sy, Dr Medium-bodied, medium-fine to medium-coarse textured fabric. The inclusions mainly consist of medium and fine red particles, sand, and a moderate presence of small shale plates and clay pellets.7 The fabric is usually fired orange/pink or yellow/brown. The surface has often a thick yellow/creamy slip with spiral and waves decorations. Fabric B3 is used in Double-handled cylindrical bottles/flasks and small bowls. Fabric: A27 Wares: Sr, So A dense-bodied fabric, fine to medium-fine texture, rich in silica and iron oxides. Macroscopically visible inclusions consist of numerous fine grains of quartz, very fine white and black particles, and small plates of clay ovoid in shape (plaquettes d’argile silicifiée). The fracture ranges from red/brown to light red in color, dark colored cores are rare; the surfaces have thick shiny red/orange slip. This fabric, characteristic of the fine ware of the fourth and fifth centuries CE (Oasis Red Slip Ware = Kharga Red Slip Ware), is associated mostly with open forms such as bowls and dishes, some juglets, as well as lamps and terracotta figurines. Mudstone/Claystone/Shale Fabrics—Vegetal Tempered Variant Fabric: A4 Wares: Sr, Sw, Ww A medium to open-bodied, coarse-textured fabric. It is characterized by the presence of many long planar voids, which are the results of straw and other vegetal material being burnt away during firing. Macroscopically visible inclusions consist of sand, limestone, clay pellets, and in the occasional low-fired example it is possible to detect the remains of straw.1 This fabric is fired reddish to brown to gray/black, usually zoned with dark gray/black core, apparently caused by the burning out of the vegetal temper.2 The surfaces are usually not smooth or homogeneous in color. This fabric is almost exclusively used for domestic vessels with very thick walls, such as bread molds, baking trays, pithoi, and large basins.
Coarse Quartz Marl Fabrics
Fabric: B1/B10/B15 Wares: Sc, Sw An open-bodied, medium to coarse textured fabric, with many small rounded voids. Macroscopically visible inclusions consist of fine quartz, rare fine clay pellets and fine shale.3 This fabric is usually fired cream to gray/green, although pink is sometimes found. It is occasionally zoned, with cream interior and exterior surfaces and a gray/green or pink core. It generally has a soft, lightweight consistency and is usually quite brittle. This fabric is generally used for liquid containers (water jugs and costrels), lids used also as bowls, and small bowls stricto sensu.
Imports4
Fabric: A3b Wares: Sbr, Pr/br Nile Silt fabric is attested only in few examples in the corpus. The vessels made in this fabric are typically fired a dark “chocolate” brown and stand in contrast to the typical Oasis fabrics, which are never fired in this color. The Nile Silt imports also display a finer, dense, texture with minimal macroscopically visible inclusions. The presence of mica is a clear indicator that this fabric is imported, as mica does not occur naturally in the Oasis. The Nile Silt fabric is associated to wine amphorae (LRA 7 and AE3), small table amphorae, bottles.
Lake Mariout fabric Ware: Sr/br Fairly coarse sandy and rough fabric, reddish-brown in color (7.5 YR 7/8). Macroscopically visible inclusions consist of frequent grains of quartz, some limestone, particles of mica, and fine small iron oxide. Light reddish/brown slipped surfaces (2.5 YR 6/6). Lake Mariout fabric is characteristic of the Amphores Égyptiennes 4 (Egyptian Dressel 2/4).
Rhodian fabric 15 Hard, fairly fine fabric, pale orange in color (5YR 7/6) with a paler slip on the outer surface. Macroscopically visible inclusions consist of sparsely rounded white inclusions, sub-rounded and rounded red-brown particles, sparse quartz and black iron-rich inclusions.

       Table 2. Total kilograms for each fabric found in B1, S2, and S3 (above floors)

      The majority of the containers present in the ceramic corpus of Area 2.1 are wheel-made. However, in the preparation of the handles for cooking pots, jugs, and amphorae, potters frequently used the freehand modelling technique. In the case of storage amphorae, the toes are molded by the potter by a torsion of the excess clay at the base of the amphora.

      The coiling techniques or clay plates are reserved mainly to the manufacture of large vessels with thick and/or taller walls, such as pithoi, baking trays, and bread molds.40

      Apart from the category of lamps, which is not discussed in this volume, only one category of ceramic has been molded, that is the one consisting of the red slipped vessels made of A27 fabric (ORSW).41

      The stratigraphy in Area 2.1 is articulated into four main distinct horizons: the earlier phase (Phase I), with a large public bath occupying the area in which stood Serenos’ house (B1), the school (B5), and, later, the bath to the north (B6), was founded on natural, compacted sand dunes and abandoned toward the end of the third century CE or perhaps somewhat earlier.42 The ruins of the bath were razed and covered with dumped materials onto which B1 and B5 were subsequently built in the second quarter of the fourth century CE (Phase II). The phases of use of B1 (Phase III) have been identified in the restorations of walls, floors, and paintings, but little securely datable material has been found in connection with these phases, which belong approximately to the period 335/340-365/370. The post abandonment phase is identified with some refuse found in the DSUs above the floors in B1, S2, and S3 (Phase IV).43

      The study of the ceramic assemblages from this area, according to the stratigraphy,44 complements the analysis of the numerous dated ostraca found in both the dump layers (ca. 275–350 CE) and occupation levels (ca. 350–370 CE),45 the coins (337–361 CE),46 and other objects,47 contributing to a more refined interpretation of the archaeological contexts. In general, the deposits of dumped materials found in the foundations of B1, S2, and S3 have provided ceramic types dated between the end of the first century BCE and the beginning of the fourth century CE. The occupation deposits in B1, S2, and S3, on the other hand, yielded an abundant quantity of pottery dated to the second half of the fourth century CE onwards. To the post-abandonment period of the buildings in Area 2.1 belong those ceramic types that appear sporadically in the units lying directly above the floor deposits and that can be assigned to a period after 370 CE onward.

      Each type in the catalogue of this volume has been dated by taking into consideration a number of factors, including stratigraphic sequence, DSU formation process, and the type’s incidence or absence in the ceramic assemblages coming from the reliable stratigraphic units. Comparisons with wares and shapes attested at other sites also serve as important data. Parallels with vessels found in contemporaneous sites of the western Oasis, as well as elsewhere in Egypt, help to define each production’s chronological horizon. The suggested dates published for these comparanda are provided in the Catalogue.

      In order to deliver a synthetic yet analytical overview of the ceramic material, this volume adopts a typo-chronological classification based on a selection of the individual objects found within the most significant contexts in occupation levels and in the dumped layers below House B1 in Area 2.1 (Chapters 2 and 3)

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