Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/643

Rh KOMAN.] POTTERY 619 with groups of dots in relief, blackened in the smother kiln. and Jlazed /are. being pinched in at various places by the potter s fingers while they were fresh from the wheel. Others are deco rated with groups of dots, made of semi-fluid slip, appa rently applied through a pierced stencil-plate (see fig. 43). The dots are arranged in close rows, forming rectangular patches, ar ranged round the body of the vessel, a very dull kind of ornament, which may, however, have had a practical use in making the pottery FiQ.^3. Roman ^ Mack ware^ decorated less liable to slip from the holder s fingers. 5. Glazed Pottery. This is rare, but has been found in most of the countries once occupied by the Romans. Some of the best specimens resemble that described above as Greece- Roman glazed ware. Most are, however, very inferior, both in execution and in the quality of the glaze, which is a true glass, usually coloured light green or brown ish yellow. A cake of semi-fused greenish glass, appa rently intended for this purpose, was found in the ruins of a kiln in Britain. This glazed pottery is small, and is decorated in various ways, by incised lines, or groups of dots in relief, or by brush-applied stripes of red or white clay. lortaria. In addition to the forms of Roman domestic pottery shown in the above figures one peculiar shape occurs very frequently, namely, the &quot;mortarium,&quot; a large shallow dish, made of thick clay, with a spout at one side, used for triturating cooked vegetables or other soft substances. The inside of these mortar-like dishes is often roughened by being sprinkled, while in a soft state, with crushed quartz or potter}&quot;, apparently to aid the process of pounding. They are made of various kinds of ware, especially red Samian and yellow biscuit clay. lay Clay lamps were very largely used by the Romans, mostly made imps, of plain biscuit clay, but the finest specimens are in the red Samian ware. A few have been found with a thick vitreous glaze, coloured like the rest of the Roman glazed wares (see LAMP, vol. xiv. p. 247). aked An extensive use of baked clay was made by the Romans in the ricks, manufacture of bricks, roofing -tiles, flue -tiles, drain -pipes, baths, and even coffins. The bricks are generally very large and thin, some 15 to 18 inches long, and only 1^ inches thick, and walls were entirely built of them. They were also used to form alternating bands in stone walls, the brick bands usually consisting of from three to five courses. In Rome bricks were merely used as a facing to concrete walls. They are always triangular in shape, except such as were set at the angles of walls and used as facing to arches. Those used for the latter purpose are generally two Roman feet square (about 1 foot 11^ inches English). See ROME. The system of heating employed by the Romans in their houses and baths was very ingenious and complete. Sometimes the whole walls of a room were lined with clay flue-pipes, square in section, which, being con nected at the bottom with the hypocaust, carried the hot air over the whole wall-surface as well as under the floor (see BATH), the mosaic and concrete area of which (the &quot; suspensura &quot;) was supported on large clay slabs carried on short brick pillars. Flanged tiles, similar to those used for roofing, were often built up on edge, with others set across the top, to form graves, and to protect the sepul chral urns and other buried objects from being crushed by the weight of earth upon them. oman Roman Pottery-kilns. Great numbers of Roman kilns have been iliis. found in various countries, but none quite perfect. They are small, round, or oval structures of brick, with a place for the fuel at one side, and a floor made of pierced slabs of clay, on which the pots were piled, the flames and hot air passing through the holes in the clay floor. Most kilns were probably covered by a brick dome with a central opening, exactly the same in principle as the early Corinthian kiln shown in fig. 3. The smother kilns may, how ever, have been arranged rather differently, so as to fire the pots in an atmosphere of heated smoke ; or this may have been done by partly closing the aperture at the top, in order to half smother the fire, and prevent its burning with a hot clear flame. Fig. 44 shows the remains of one of the Castor kilns, about 7 feet in diameter, with an arched opening for the insertion of the fuel, and a pierced floor, made of large clay slabs radiating to a central point, where they were supported by a brick pillar. Other kilns have been found m^the Upchurch marshes (Kent), along the Severn banks in Shrop shire, at Ashdon (Essex), Colchester, London, York, and many other Romano-British towns. Though varying in shape, yet in general principle Roman kilns, in whatever country they are found, are practically the same. Inscri2)tions on Roman Pottery. Potters names, impressed from Inscrip- oblong or circular incuse stamps, occur very frequently on many tions. varieties of Roman pottery, especially on the plain biscuit and FIG. 44. Roman kiln found at Castor. The low arch is for the inser tion of the fuel ; the pots rested on the perforated floor, made of clay slabs ; the top of the kiln is missing, it was probably a dome. Samian wares. Teutonic and Gaulish names sometimes appear, showing that in certain cases native potters worked at the Roman potteries. When the potter s name is in the nominative, it is followed by F. or FECIT ; if in the genitive, by MANY or OFFICINA, usually in some contracted form. In addition to the potter s name those of the owner of the workshop and of the estate from which the clav came occasionallv occur, as, for example, OP(US) DOL(IARE) L. IVLI THEOD(OTI) E(QVITIS) R(OMANI) FIG(LINAE) SAL(ARIAE) EX PR(AEDIS) FL(AVII) TITIAN! C. V. (clarissimi viri), &quot; Pot-work from the salarian manufactory belonging to L. Julius Theodotus, a Roman knight, (the clay taken) from the estate of Flavius Titianus, a most distinguished person,&quot; this last being a title used like the English &quot;esquire.&quot; This brick stamp is from a house built against the ancient wall round the Capitoline hill, and dates from the middle of the 2d century A. D. Few brick stamps found in Rome are older than the end of the 1st century A.r&amp;gt;. ; but some have been found at Telia in Cisalpine Gaul dated with the names of the consuls for 75 B.C. Others have also the name of the ruling emperor. Roman soldiers were often employed to make bricks and tiles ; and many such are stamped with the mark or number of a Roman legion, e.g., LEG. VI. for &quot; legio sexta. &quot; Amphorse were occasionally inscribed, in rudely-painted ochre colours, with words to indicate the quality of wine they contained or their measure of capacity, but such inscrip tions were probably added when the amphorre were in their owner s cellar, and were simply painted in tempera. Numbers of large amphora? were frequently embedded in the concrete of which Roman vaults were made, especially during the 3d and 4th centuries A.D., one object of this being to gain lightness without much loss of strength. The circus of Maxentius and the mausoleum of the empress Helena, both outside the walls of Rome, are examples of this curious use of pottery. Literature. Pliny, H. N., xxxv. ; Birch, Ancient Pottery, 1873; Jewitt, Ceramic Art of Great Britain, vol. i., 1877 ; Artis, The Durobrivie of Antoninus. 1828 ; Church, Corinium Museum, 1871 ; Cochet, Archeologie ceramique, 1860 ; Roach-Smith, Roman London, 1S59 ; Wright, The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon, 1801 ; Marcilly, L Art ceramique en Gaule, 1874 ; Fabroni, Vasi fittili Aretini, 1841 (Samian ware) ; Robert, Les figures des poteries rougedtres antiques, 1865 ; Shortt, Sylvia antiifua Iscana, 1841. See also many articles in Archseo- logia, the Archxological Journal, and other societies Proceedings. SECTION VIII. PERSIAN AND MOSLEM. It is convenient to class under this head all the numerous varieties of pottery which were the work of Moslem races. In all this pottery, with the exception of that included under the head &quot; Hispano-Moorish &quot; (see p. 622), there is a great similarity in character of design and in methods of execution, both of which appear to a great extent to have been originated and brought to highest perfection under the Persians, who seem to have inherited, through the Sasanians, much of the skill in manipulating clay and manufacturing enamels and glazes which was possessed by the people of ancient Assyria. The Persians of the 10th to the 17th century, perfect masters of all the de corative arts to a degree possessed probably by no other