The House of Serenos. Clementina Caputo
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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)
1.4. MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES
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
1.5. DATING OF THE CERAMICS IN AREA 2.1
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.
1.6. STRUCTURE OF 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)