Aspects of Ancient Ceramics in Romania: from Secular to Paleo-Christian Pottery
Aspects of Ancient Ceramics in Romania: from Secular to Paleo-Christian Pottery

Summary/Abstract: In the two border provinces – Dacia Traiana and Scythia Minor – ceramic pots prove the spreading of the Roman Empire’s art on the territory of our country today. One of the debated problems of the present paper is the propagandistic importance of this field of ornamental arts which, more easily and more rapidly than sculpture and architecture, brought the Roman features in all corners of the conquered world. Forms and decorations, and even their presence in the provinces was a proof of the existence of the Roman way of living in that area, in connection with the autochthonous basis and then, a proof of the spreading of the new religion, Christianity. Moreover, the present paper records the general aspects of pottery, and also the evolution of the technique used (from the procedures through which common pottery was used, to those of obtaining luxury ceramics – terra sigilata, terra estampata), but also the evolution of forms and their decor, from amphorae and big cley pots with two lugs, to cups and plates. The PaleoChristianity from the end of Antiquity brings changes regarding the decor of these pots which receives the new religious symbolics. Therefore, the ceramic pots also on the territory of Romania, just like the ones from other provinces, keep abreast of the transformations of the Imperial Roman art.

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