Ancient Roman coarse ware in the Regio X and beyond: an archaeological approach to distribution and trade

Long neglected by archaeological research, coarse ware has beenrecognised as important source of information on ancient livingpractices, technological know-how and the organisation of productionand trade in ancient communities only from the second half of the 20thcentury.Deeply rooted within this background, this research concretelyexplores the possibility of using coarse ware to retrieve complex datafor refined socio-economic analysis.In details, focusing on the territory of the Roman colony of Aquileia,inserted in the broader framework of the Regio X Italica and of thewhole Northern Italy, the study aims to investigating the trade ofcoarse ware, in order to define its nature and extent.The research starts from the study of coarse ware collected during the2013-2016 excavations of an unpublished underwater archaeologicalsite, Stella 1, located in the river Stella, within the nowadaysmunicipality of Palazzolo dello Stella (Udine District, Italy).The investigation of these artefacts clearly points that coarse ware wastraded along the river; nevertheless this trade, rather than involving thevases themselves, concerned instead their contents.Moving from this achievement, the study broadens its sight,investigating the circulation of ancient Roman coarse ware firstly in theentire Regio X and then in all of Northern Italy.A wide comparative study enabled to detect patterns of trade andconsumption of ancient Roman coarse ware and its contents.The distribution of a number of peculiar shapes, analysed inconjunction with the capillary Roman routes network, highlighted theexistence of some preferential routes for coarse ware circulation, thatemployed both terrestrial roads and inland waterways.The research fully exploited coarse ware informative potential,definitively confirming the value of ancient Roman coarse ware inproviding powerful insights for a deeper understanding of the ancienteconomic and social systems.The study of Stella 1 coarse ware firstly enabled to achieve a bettercomprehension of the site itself, determining its nature as a commercialsite and clearly assessing its chronology to the second half of the 1st –2ndcentury AD.Furthermore, Stella 1 coarse ware fully testified that these vases weretraded as food containers. Despite the difficulties in determining thecontents, suggestions about the nature of foodstuffs traded come fromboth ancient literary sources and contemporary archaeological data.Coarse ware proved therefore to be a source of information about thetrade of perishable materials, rarely recorded by archaeologicalevidences.A wide comparative study, that took in consideration findings from theentire Northern Italy, demonstrated that, far from having only a localcirculation, coarse ware was traded on a regional, and even supraregional level, reaching also far away markets.These results provided insights for a better comprehension of theeconomic system of the Aquileia’s ager, and, more broadly, of the entireRegio X. The economic model that points to Aquileia as the uniquecentralising node, the only centre in charge of the distribution offoreign products within the Regio, needs to be reviewed.Thanks to the capillarity of the Roman routes network, also other areas,only apparent peripheral, played an essential role in the circulation anddistribution of products, both locally produced and imported. Goodsdid not necessarily need to arrive in Aquileia to be redistributed.Some areas were responsible of the local distribution of importedproducts and were furthermore able to trade autonomously, even to faraway markets, goods locally produced; this turned out to beparticularly true for an important productive area as the Stella basin,served by both terrestrial routes and inland waterways.The idea that settlements within the ager served uniquely the main city,Aquileia, should be therefore overcame.As a final result, the study proved that coarse ware, whencomprehensively approached, is a powerful tool for the reconstructionof complex economic dynamics, providing a better insights into theancient system of trade and exchange.