202 Samian Ware. 



of that great power. Coming now to the potters' names and 

 marks, one is astonished at two things. First of all the amazing 

 number of different names and marks. Mr Wright in the 4th 

 edition of his work, published in 1885, gives a list of about 1200 

 varieties. Since then that number must have been greatly in- 

 creased. Every year, too, the excavator is making further addi- 

 tions. These facts alone will assist us, no doubt, to a more 

 adequate conception of the extent of the ancient Roman Empire. 

 But the second point that seems to me at least to require further 

 explanation is that in single localities in Britain where finds have 

 been extensive there have been so comparatively few re- 

 duplications of potters' names. Take, for example, the two 

 largest finds nearest to Dumfries, Carlisle and Birrens. The 

 names on the Birrens list are total strangers to the Carlisle list. 

 Carlisle, Birrens, Castle Cary Fort, Rough Castle, and Ardoch 

 have not a single name in common. Carlisle records one or two 

 duplicates, but the other places none. Four names on the 

 Birrens list appear in London and one at Donai, in France, while 

 at Carlisle a sexfoil in shaped margin deeply stamped is repeated 

 in York Museum. What strikes one at once is that there must 

 either have been a wonderful method of pottery distribution or 

 that the laws of distinction have operated in a most discriminating 

 way. It would be interesting if some one with knowledge of this 

 matter were to inform us on the following points : — 



l.%\.re the potters' marks on the so-called Samian ware the 

 marks of master potters or of individual workmen privi- 

 ledged to use a mark? 

 2. Were consignments of pottery and other goods sent out from 

 a central depot on behalf of the armies on the frontiers of 

 the empire, or would the individuals in the army be them- 

 selves responsible for the ordering and transmission of 

 crockery and other articles of use ? 

 These and many other questions are suggested by the very 

 small number of names that are duplicate even in considerable 

 finds. 



The real old Samian ware, originated in the islands of Greece 

 in the first century B.C., continued to be made during the reigns 

 of the Cfesars, but not to such great perfection. By the begin- 

 ning of the reign of the Antonines it ceased to be made altogether, 



