Roman Pottery Reading Group at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

A few of my ISAW/NYU colleagues and I have begun a "Roman Pottery Reading Group," which seems to be settling into a sort of every-other-week-ish-y schedule.

We began with three "Romanization" articles:

• D. Malfitana, J. Poblome and J. Lund. 2005. "Late Hellenistic imports of eastern sigillata A in Italy. A socio-economic perspective," Babesch 80: 199-212.
• Poblome, Jeroen and Michael Zelle. 2002. “The table ware boom: a socio-economic perspective from western Asia Minor” in Christof Berns, Henner von Hesberg, Lutgarde Vendeput and Marc Waelkens (eds.), Patris und Imperium, Leuven: 275-287.
• Rotroff, S. 1997. "From Greek to Roman in Athenian Ceramics," in M.C. Hoff and S.I. Rotrof ( eds.), The Romanization of Athens, , Oxford: 97-116.

It was an added bonus that my colleague Billur Tekkök, in the States on a Fulbright Fellowship, could join us for that first session.

Next we read:

• John Hayes. "Roman Pottery from the South Stoa at Corinth," Hesperia Vol. 42, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1973), pp. 416-470. http://www.jstor.org/stable/147465
Kathleen Warner Slane. "Two Deposits from the Early Roman Cellar Building, Corinth, " Hesperia, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1986), pp. 271-318. http://www.jstor.org/stable/148282
• Kathleen Warner Slane, Guy D. R. Sanders. "Corinth: Late Roman Horizons," Hesperia Vol. 74, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 2005), pp. 243-297. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25067955

The point here was to look at representative samples of 40 years of publication from one site. Put simply: what has changed in techniques and approaches over that time? A little "inside baseball" but a fun conversation.

Next up is ceramics and dining:

• Nicholas Hudson. 2010. "Changing Places: The Archaeology of the Roman Convivium." AJA 114.4: 663-695.
• Joanita Vroom. 2008. ‘The archaeology of late antique dining habits in the eastern Mediterranean: A preliminary study of the evidence’, in: L. Lavan, E. Swift and T. Putzeys (eds.), Objects in Context, Objects in Use. Material Spatiality in Late Antiquity (Late Antique Archaeology 5), Leiden and Boston: 313-361.

We're meeting Thursday, March 31 at 3:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. It's tempting to see if anybody wants to join us virtually. If really, truly, "yes", I'll see what we can do.