‘Tripolitanian Sigillata’: North African or Campanian?

Abstract

AbstractIn this article Campania is proposed as the provenance for a class of terra sigillata, somewhat frequent at Berenice and on other North-African sites, which was recently termed by Kenrick ‘Tripolitanian Sigillata’.Particularly frequent on Campanian sites, above all at Pompeii and Naples, it was present in this region from the end of the first century BC, occurring with high percentage values in assemblages of fine pottery from excavations. This new evidence for its distribution would appear to exclude a North African provenance. A Campanian origin, in the area of the Bay of Naples, is, moreover, supported both by the results of thin section analyses of the clay and by the discovery of possible kiln wasters at Naples.