Roman Samian Ware. 



229 



Samian ware of Gaul and Britain the potter's stamp is almost 

 invariably placed in the centre of the vessel inside, in the 

 Arretine pottery it is always impressed on the exterior side. 



Another circumstance has come under my observation, 

 which tends to show that this description of pottery was 

 made in various places throughout the empire, and that we are 

 probably justified in giving the name of Samian to the red 

 ware which forms the subject of the present article, and which 

 therefore, I shall retain. A few years ago I received from the 

 late Mr. Burckhardt Barker three pieces of pottery obtained 

 from excavations made at Tarsus in Cillicia, which I subse- 

 quently presented to Mr. Mayer, of Liverpool, and they 

 are now preserved in his valuable museum in that town. Two 

 of them are represented in the accompanying cut, Fig. 1 . To 



Fig. 1. Red "Ware from Tarsus. 



my surprise when I first saw them, these present all the 

 peculiarities of our red ware, from which they differ very 

 slightly in the shade of red presented by the glaze. They 

 offer, also, forms exactly similar ; but, as they are all three 

 plain examples, we can form no opinion of the character of the 

 ornament. The potters' names which appear on two of them, 

 are impressed exactly in the same form as on our red ware, 

 and, contrary to those of the Arretine ware, in the same place, 

 as may be seen in one of the examples given in our cut. The 

 names are Greek, and in Greek letters, which implies that 

 they must have been made in the East ; and they may possibly 

 come from the very potteries of which Pliny speaks as existing 

 at Pergamus. 



The other question, that of the locality in which our Roman 

 Samian ware was made, seems to admit of a more decisive 

 solution. The general character of identity which marks the 

 Samian ware found in Britain, Gaul, and Germany, would lead 

 us naturally to suppose that it all came from one source, and 



