Samian @ Nottingham
Key staff: Dr Will Bowden, Geoffrey Dannell, Dr Eddy Faber, Dr Gwladys Monteil, Dr Naomi Sykes
The quintessential tableware of theRoman world was a fine red gloss mould-made pottery known today as terra sigillata, or samian ware. Its distinctive qualities combined with its recovery from a number of closely-dated contexts mean that samian is a primary source of dating evidence for archaeologists studying theRoman Empire. Its analysis has, however, become restricted to an ever-diminishing group of specialists. This situation needs to be rectified urgently to prevent a serious skills-gap and, at Nottingham, we are leading the field in developing this crucial area of Roman archaeology.
