Tipologie E Contesti Stratigrafici Della Ceramica (1968-2003). Descrizione E Documenti

The three volumes - Capernaum VI, Capernaum VII, and Capernaum VIII - are intertextual and present the description (Capernaum VI), illustrated documentation (Capernaum VII) and photographic documentation (Capernaum VIII) for the ceramics collected on the Franciscan property in Capernaum (Israel) over the course of twenty-three archaeological digs. For this project, the author took part as Assistant to the Director V. Corbo (1968- 1986) and then as his successor (2000 - 2003), and the dates of the material range from the early Bronze Age to the Mamluk period (about 3200 BC to 1400 AD). In this account, the different types of terra cotta vases are presented using a uniform classification system with an alphanumeric code assigned according to type, and with references to the illustrations, photographs, descriptions, frequency, dating, contexts, and parallels. There are numerous illustrations: 10,539 of the 44,730 items recorded have been sketched to illustrate both individual type and their associations in certain stratigraphic contexts. The Ceramics Register makes cross-referencing between the three volumes easy. The author allows the figures to speak for themselves in the twenty-one tables included. For example, regarding Table XIII, one learns that terra sigillata is represented at Capernaum by a tremendous 8,387 examples. No other archaeological site in the Holy Land has furnished such a massive amount of terra sigillata, coming mostly from Africa Proconsularis (896 examples of African terra sigillata), the western coasts of Asia Minor (3,832 pieces of Phocaean terra sigillata.) and Cyprus (2,947 specimens of Cypriot terra sigillata). This flood of terra sigillata affected all of the homes in Capernaum irregardless of social class, which can be readily verified vis-a-vis the Register. Additionally, the author presents Map II to show the areas in Capernaum where terra sigillata moulds with crosses were located. Capernaum's contacts with foreign countries are not limited to the elegant terra sigillata plates primarily from the Byzantine period. An Egyptian scarab was already present as early as the Second Millennium BC. In the Persian period, characteristic amphorae from Phoenicia reached Capernaum. Plates inspired by the ceramics of Megara, amphorae with Greek inscriptions most likely from Rhodes, and ciboria from Corinth are recorded in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The involvement with distant cultures does not end with the Arab period; even in the Mamluk period, glazed ceramics inspired by faraway China were found in Capernaum. Beyond these lively contacts with foreign places, facilitated by Capernaum's position on the via maris, the lengthy excavations at Capernaum have yielded other results that are just as important to ceramologists interested in the region's "common" pottery.