Produzioni ceramiche locali e tradizioni artigianali tiberine nella Terni di età orientalizzante

A complete and systematic reconstruction of the data available on Terni in the pre-Roman period, a crossroads between the Tyrrhenian and Apennine regions, is a desideratum from several points of view. Since 2019, work has been underway to set up a project for the comprehensive re-examination of those contexts that are still unpublished or for which renewed attention was needed. The necropolis of San Pi- etro in Campo-Ex Poligrafico Alterocca has been the starting point. It came to the fore again at the end of the 1990s, following excavations carried out by the Soprintendenza, but for which a satisfactory analysis of the research carried out at the beginning of the 20th century was still lacking. The research carried out so far has highlighted the need to rethink certain aspects, which at this stage of the project mainly concern issues related to the ancient craft sector, with particular regard to the ceramic one. The aim of this paper is to present some reflections on the ceramic craftsmanship of pre-Roman Terni in the 7th-6th centuries B.C., starting with the impasto vases, incised and decorated with the ad incavo techniques. The importance of impasto ware, which has not always been sufficiently taken into account in the past, is now unquestionable. For many areas of the Peninsula it represents almost the entire ceramic record of the period in question, and it is the framework on which the various cultural stimuli, espe- cially external ones, are grafted. The analysis carried out on this occasion reveals, also in the case of Terni, an impasto pottery firmly anchored in the local production sphere, undoubtedly open to foreign stimuli, all to be defined and understood in detail, leaving behind mechanically predetermined relationships. The obvious local reworking, involving several aspects (formal and decorative), then seems to be part of a production method that involves the choice(?) of a technology that is not particularly refined, less costly, at least in terms of the raw material used to feed the kilns, and quicker to imple- ment, which also affects the durability of the product.