PAINTED CERAMICS

Budapest – Békásmegyer

POT WITH GEMMA PRINT

Budapest - Tabán

In the first century BC several pottery settlements operated on the right bank of the Danube (Gellérthegy, Tabán, Békásmegyer), and there are a great number of painted ceramics among their products. The ovens for baking pottery and the workshops were built if possible near clay deposits. The ovens were sunk into the ground, and the inside of the ovens was divided. The rack on which the pots were placed rested on the divide, the spine of the oven. This type of oven was used in Pannonia in the second century BC, even after the Roman invasion.

The simplest type of painted pottery is represented by the oval shaped pots, which were made of local clay and baked brown or red. The red-white band or wave decoration was painted on the pot before baking. The other group of painted pottery consists of so-called "matricás" or "patronos" pottery, on which there are geometric patterns combined of a bunch of lines, bar- and ladder-motives, or ornamental decoration. The patterns made with black sepia paint were then covered with a white or red coat. The custom of painting pottery can be traced to Western European Gallic influence or origin. The stamp on the sides of pots (Italian gemma print) might have been the mark of the master. The very good quality painted ceramics were transported as far as 60-80 kilometres from the pottery workshops.

The Eraviscan workshops (at the foot of Gellérthegy and near the bank of the Danube) continued to produce fine ceramics with painted or imprinted decoration in the first century of the Roman times.

Literature

B. Bónis Éva: Die spätkeltische Siedlung Gellérthegy-Tabán in Budapest. Arch. Hung. 47 (1969) 167-174.