80 THE POTTERY 



In Italy the manufacture of Terra Sigillata seems to 

 date from about 40 — 30 B.C. and had its principal centre 

 at the Etruscan town of Arretium, whence is derived the 

 name of Arretine ("vasa Arretina") given to the Italian 

 vases in general. This Italian fabric produced by far the 

 finest examples known to us of red relief vases, and in the 

 Augustan period the Arretine vases were not only used in 

 Rome and Italy but were exported throughout Gaul and 

 Germany. 



The manufacture of Terra Sigillata in the Western pro- 

 vinces {Provincial Terra Sigillata) began about the close 

 of the first quarter of the 1st century A.D., and developed 

 with extraordinary rapidity. Partly by the greater con- 

 venience of the provincial factories as centres of distribu- 

 tion, and partly by the greater cheapness of the ware, it 

 rapidly ousted the finer Arretine vases from the markets 

 of Western Europe.* The earliest factories were in the 

 ten-itory of the Ruteni ^ (Southern Gaul) at the modern 

 Graufesenque, Montans and Banassac, and until the later 

 part of the 1st century A.D. this " Graufesenque ware " is 

 predominant throughout Gaul and Germany. It is found 

 even in Italy, at Rome, Pompeii and elsewhere, and 

 reached as far as Britain to the north-west. By the time 

 of Hadrian, however, the factories of what is now Lezoux, 

 somewhat to the north of Graufesenque, were rapidly over- 

 taking it in public favour, and during the 2nd century 



4. Thus at Haltern (dated 11 B.C. — 17 A.D.) there is, according to 

 Dragendorff, nothing but Arretine with the exception of a few frag- 

 ments which may be from a provincial branch of some Italian factory 

 At Hofheim (dated 40 — 60 A.D.), to judge by the potters' names, 

 Arretine has wholly ceased and there is nothing but Gallic ware of the 

 " Graufesenque " type. 



5. The views here put forward are those of M. Dechelette, I.e., which 

 are based upon an unequalled knowledge of the local remains and 

 museums of Southern France. 



