Archaeobotanical analysis of fuel and forest management from a Roman pottery workshop in southern France (Mas des Tourelles, Beaucaire)

The Iron Age, especially its final centuries, was without doubt a time of profound changes within the communities of the eastern Adriatic, mainly due to shifts within the cultural and political geography of the area, often interpreted through scant and ambiguous historical sources. Nevertheless, varied social processes, induced by increased connectivity and appropriation, are starting to be evidenced, shedding light on the ways in which locals and newcomers adapted to and exploited these newly generated cultural landscapes and the kinds of mobility and local interactions they engaged in. The organization of autochthonous communities during this time is not well understood due to a lack of archaeological knowledge. Most of the data available comes from funerary contexts, which makes it difficult to interpret developments within a broader social framework. However, analyzing certain objects and their related practices through different theoretical models can help us to understand different social implications that arise when a more current, relational methodology is applied. Pottery of the later 1st millennium BC on the eastern Adriatic will be used here as a case study, with the aim to deconstruct aspects of its production by observing its technical features and understanding, through them, the social organization behind the technological choices of both autochthonous and colonial societies. In this way, pottery production will be employed to shed light on the interaction of the various eastern Adriatic communities within the last centuries BC, ending with the set up of Roman pottery workshops during the period of late 1st century BC – early 1st century AD.

Analysing Roman pottery workshops in the Civitas Viromanduorum (France, Picardy)

The paper presents results of a geophysical survey conducted in Crikvenica, a town located at the north-eastern Adriatic Sea coast in Croatia. The main aim was to identify extent of a Roman pottery workshop discovered to the north of the present town, at the site known as “Igralište”. The performed magnetic and GPR surveys within the area of the modern playground in Crikvenica revealed a large number of anomalies that may be connected with anthropogenic activity during different periods, both in modern and ancient times. The first group consists of anomalies generated by remnants of the modern underground infrastructure. Magnetic and ground-penetrating radar maps revealed anomalies in the north-western part of the modern playground that can be very likely interpreted as remains of a large ceramic kiln dated back to the Roman Period, similar to the kiln discovered during the excavations located further to the north. Finally, the survey performed within the Crikvenica football stadium clearly indicates that the integration of different Ground Penetrating Radar and magnetic methods allows for a detailed and effective identification of buried archaeological structures in large areas.