Roman pottery, defined for convenience as that made and used within Italy and the Roman provinces between about 100 BC and AD 600, can be characterized by a group of stylistic and technical developments which built upon those of the Hellenistic Greeks and then led to those of the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. Roman pottery can thus provide evidence for ancient literacy, artistic trends and trading patterns within the complex of Mediterranean lands which made up the empire.

This book consists of a detailed and comprehensive study of the pottery found in the course of the excavations of the Persian and Ptolemaic period site Kom Tuman (Memphis).

Presents papers presented at an international workshop dedicated to the study of Roman common ware pottery in the Near East held in Berlin on 18th and 19th February 2010.

A group of closed deposits, ranging in date from the 1st century B. C. to the early 7th century A. D., provide evidence for the relative and absolute chronology of pottery used during many centuries of Roman domination; from the sack of Athens by Sulla in 86 B.C. to the Byzantine period. A descriptive catalogue divides the pottery into eight groups, arranged into chronologically differentiated layers. Prefacing the catalogue of each group, a brief general description gives the location, chronological limitations, basis for dating, etc., and then the individual items are described in considerable detail.