MOULDS AND MOULD-MADE CERAMICS FROM THE JARASH HIPPODROME POTTERS’ WORKSHOPS
MOULDS AND MOULD-MADE CERAMICS FROM THE JARASH HIPPODROME POTTERS’ WORKSHOPS

Author(s): Ina Kehrberg-Ostrasz
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: pottery figurines; moulds; moulded vessels; Roman; Byzantine; pottery workshops; Gerasa/Jarash hippodrome; replicas; iconography; chronology
Summary/Abstract: This paper presents a collection of pottery moulds for ceramic figurines and moulded vessels from the 1984–1996 excavations (Dir. Antoni Ostrasz) of the pottery workshops at the hippodrome site of Gerasa/Jarash. The discussion focuses on their scarcity or singular occurrences among vast amounts of pottery, mould-made lamps and lamp moulds from the Classical periods’ workshops at the site. It is posited that figurines, unlike lamps, are not mass produced and instead ordered by clients and made for specific festivals, elucidating the lack of figurine fragments among the vast pottery waste of workshops which included many lamp fragments. The producer–vendor and client relationship is examined based on the comparison of a small number of finds from other excavated sites in Gerasa/Jarash where figurines had evidently been used. Lastly the paper reflects on replications of mould-made figurine and lamp types in antiquity and iconographic dating criteria in varying find contexts.

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