The Jerusalem Legio X Fretensis Kilnworks: Contextualizing Ceramic Manufacture and ‘Legionary Wares’

Abstract

The Legio X Fretensis Kilnworks at Binyanei Ha'uma (Jerusalem) is one of the few such legionary production sites to be excavated in recent decades and the only legionary kilnworks to be found in the Near East and Asia Minor to date. The study of its production-related material therefore offers a necessary complement to consumer-focused discussions of so-called 'legionary wares' by providing a more refined contextualization of ceramic manufacturing within a military context. Detailed analyses of production techniques and technologies, as well as comparative study of contemporaneous legionary kilnworks in other regions and other ceramic production sites from the eastern provinces, serve to contextualize the Jerusalem site and offer new perspectives on the technological choices that were made in such settings. These technological choices demonstrate a balance between some commonly shared structural features of production and labour organizations, with locally specific circumstances of raw material availability and technological knowledge. SITUATING LEGIONARY WARESThe Roman military and its movements have long been seen as major stimuli to local and regional economies of the period. Undoubtedly, the arrival of soldiers sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands would have substantially broadened a local consumer baseeither through military contracts or spending power of individual soldiers paid in silver (Erdkamp 2002). Longdistance movement of commodities such as wine and olive oil in amphorae specifically for military consumption demonstrates that the imperial reach of military supply lines could be substantial, with its economic impact felt at both regional and local levels (Monsieur 2004). Military economic networks were concerned, however, not only with supplying raw foodstuffs (and drink), but also with the means to prepare and consume them, as observable from assemblages of ceramic cooking vessels and tablewares found at military sites. These assemblages of so-called 'legionary wares' typically display certain similarities between contemporary military sites (even at opposite ends of the empire), while at the same time contrasting with assemblages from neighbouring local communities.