Ceramiche comuni a Roma in età tardoantica: nuovi dati dal Santuario delle Curiae Veteres

This study is part of a wider project which aims to provide the review and study of the Late Antique common wares of Rome. Starting from the rich context of the Curiae Veteres sanctuary on the Palatine hill, a new investigation of the common wares circulating in Rome during Late Antiquity has been carried out. This article focuses on a peculiar kind of medium-sized common ware vessel. These vessels were locally produced, and they have easily distinguishable features: they are mainly characterized by a truncated conical body-shape, everted rim and flat base. In this article a typology is therefore proposed. The vessels were organized into three groups which seem to circulate more or less at the same time frame, with a few exceptions. Even though these vessels were attested from the second half of the 4th century contexts of Rome, a peak in numbers is recorded in the 5th century. The analysis of the vessels allowed the identification of some incrustations on the inner base of a vast majority (63% of the truncated conical vessels from the Palatine hill context). According to archaeometric analysis of the encrustations, the most relevant recorded pattern was the constant presence of phosphorous in all the samples. As suggested by a recent study on examples from the latrine of the Domus Tiberiana, these types of vessels can be identified as chamber pots and not as foodstuff containers. Furthermore, the constant presence of phosphorous was also recorded from chemical analyses on imperial period chamber pots from the site of Carnuntum. In summary, this research shades new light on these kinds of vessels and their primary use as chamber pots. It is, however, necessary to carry out further analyses on this functional class for the city of Rome, although there are few studies on other sites.