A Roman Pottery near Sutri

Abstract

In 1957 an archaeological field-survey revealed the presence of a Roman pottery near Sutri. It lay 1·8 km. to the north of the town on an isolated ridge of clay, about 800 m. east of the modern Sutri-Ronciglione road at point 713823 of the 1: 25,000 map of the Istituto Geografico Militare (Sheet ‘Ronciglione’) (fig. 1).In August 1959, with the kind permission of the Soprintendenza alle Antichitá for Southern Etruria and with the help of half-a-dozen friends, to whom go my warm thanks, the site was partly excavated. The main object of the excavation was to recover, if possible, a closely dated pottery series which might be of use to other archaeologists excavating in central Italy. In this, despite the shallow depth of soil and effects of recent ploughing, the excavation was successful. A kiln was unearthed, a comprehensive range of the pottery's wares was recovered, and the main period of production was securely dated to the third quarter of the first century A.D.