"ANTIQUITAS" - the Officina Artis Cretariae project was created to achieve the most accurate reconstruction of the production process of various kinds of ancient pottery. I have decided to create it because since 1994 I have been studying the problem of distribution of Terra sigillata (Samian ware) around Little Poland, inflowing to the Polish land from Roman Provinces. In the course of the archaeological research on the necropolis from the Roman Period located in Korytnica, one of the participants of the research - Tomasz Zwierzchowski - took up an interest in the pottery of the Przeworsk culture and decided to devote his time to the reconstruction of the ancient pottery techniques. Observing his talent and engagment, I once suggested that he should try to reconstruct the relief of the Terra sigillata ware. Apart from literature, we based on the help of Julia Passamonti from USA who kindly offered us her recipe for preparing a slip - very similar to the one present on original pottery relics. The first firing of Terra sigillata replicas took place in 2006 during the archaeological picnic "Iron Roots" in Starachowice. Within several next months Tomek perfected the technique of preparing the slip and shaping wares in moulds and now one can honestly tell that his products have become high-class reconstructions of Terra sigillata. On vessels produced before there are relief decorations in the style of PRIMITIVUS I - the producer of ware from the 1st half of the 3rd century A.D. from the Rheinzabern workshop located in the present Rheinland-Pfalz (Tabernae Rhenanae in Eastern Gaul). Relief decoration arrangement on vessels was based on findings of the ware of PRIMITIVUS on the Polish land but the set-up of an ornament was not an accurate copy of the decoration of the original relic. The majority of previous products in the type of Terra sigillata by Tomasz Zwierzchowski consists of replicas of bowls (form 37 according to the classification of Dragendorff) predominantly occurring on the Polish land as the Roman import. Apart the relief Terra sigillata, Tomek produces vessels inspired by the kind called just "plain Terra sigillata" and tries to reconstruct "en barbotine" decoration on the plain ware.

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