Engobed goods

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A certain type of ceramic ware from the Roman Empire is called engobed ware , glossy ceramic or varnish ware . These are mostly drinking utensils made from clay-ground, often very thin-walled earthenware that is usually covered with a matt engobe . In addition to a decorative character, this process also had a technical background. Special engobes make it difficult for liquid to pass through the vessel walls.

development

Engobed goods, end of the 3rd century ( Trier Spruchbecher ); Gelduba , grave 5555;
Museum Burg Linn , Krefeld

Engobe ceramics appear for the first time in Augustan times , when especially the lip lips of clay cups were provided with engobe. From the Claudian period, complete vessels are engobed inside and out. The color of the engobe changes from a reddish yellow to brown in the early 1st century to a black-brown to deep black from the 2nd century onwards. This technique reached its peak in the 3rd century.

The goods produced in the Rhineland differ from ceramics produced in other regions by their light, almost white-burning shards . The shards of engobed goods, for example from Raetia (see Raetian varnish ware ) are colored red due to a high iron content.

decor

This type of goods could be decorated with barbotine (see slip painting ) or with notch patterns. To improve the grip of the dishes, engobed cups could have been pelted with sand before the fire. This process is known as groaning. Engobes were also used for purely decorative purposes. From the end of the 1st to the 2nd century, engobed crockery occurs, the slip coating of which is mixed with mica . It imitates bronze vessels, but is relatively rare.

literature

  • Erich Gose: Types of vessels in Roman ceramics in the Rhineland. Cologne 1976, ISBN 3-7927-0293-2 , p. 15f.
  • Karl Heinz Lenz : Fine ceramics. In: Thomas Fischer (Ed.): The Roman Provinces. An introduction to their archeology. Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1591-X , pp. 290-293.
  • Eszter Harsányi: The Trier black engobed goods and their imitations in Noricum and Pannonia. Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-902666-30-7 ( Austria Antiqua 4).