During the 1st century A.D., southern France experienced a surge in pottery workshops that imitated the Italic red gloss “sigillata” ware, initially made in Arezzo and then in Pisa.

These workshops made items for the continental European market, and only products from the La Graufesenque group, near the current town of Milau, were also distributed around the Mediterranean (fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - Diffusion of products from the workshops of La Graufesenque (shown in red) (from BEMONT, JACOB 1986, p. 102)

Between 40 and 70/80 A.D., an unknown workshop in this group gave birth to the idea of an unusual type of decoration of crocks: the surface was no longer coated with the usual red gloss paint, but was given a “marbled” effect, where red and yellow merged together to create a special effect.

We do not know the reason behind the making of these pieces, which only lasted for a generation, and were then abandoned, as, in the contexts that have been excavated, we find them together with other earthenware from the same workshop, with no distinction made.

The most probably hypothesis is that the effect was an accidental result of some problem in kilning the ware and then reproduced on purpose, without a specific meaning, but just for its appearance.

The plate, that probably comes from a tomb given its excellent state of preservation (figs. 2-4) is an excellent example of marbled crockery. It has a simple, functional shape, with a low base, a short oblique wall, and the flat bowl, that is raised internally in the centre, where the illegible manufacturer’s stamp can be seen.

Fig. 2 - South-Gaulish marbled Samian ware (Oristano, Antiquarium Arborense) (photo by Unicity S.p.A.)

Fig. 3 - South-Gaulish marbled Samian ware (Oristano, Antiquarium Arborense) (photo by Unicity S.p.A.)

Fig. 4 - South-Gaulish marbled Samian ware (Oristano, Antiquarium Arborense) (photo by Unicity S.p.A.)

The shape of the vase is canonical, for both Italic red gloss sigillata ware and south-Gaulish samian ware and is off the Dragendorff type 18 (fig. 5).

Fig. 5 - Plate in South-Gaulish marbled Dragendorff samian ware 18, from the Agorà of Athens (from HAYES 2008, fig. 23, 743)

In Sardinia, the South-Gaulish in general, and therefore also marbled work was rather widespread (even if not shown in the map in fig. 1, which is not updated with the most recent data) and mainly characterises the levels of life in the second half of the 1st and the first decades of the 2nd century A.D.