During the last years of Greek rule in West Asia, about 150 BC, West Asian potters were starting to make a new kind of pottery. This pottery was new: it was red, instead of black like most Greek pottery, and the decoration was molded on instead of painted.

Early Eastern Sigillata

This West Asian red pottery, which is called Eastern Sigillata, was very successful. When the Romans conquered part of West Asia, about 50 BC, they were very impressed by the new fashion in pottery, and soon they began to produce imitations of it themselves.

Later Eastern Sigillata

Red Eastern Sigillata pottery continued to be sold in West Asia all through the Roman Empire, until about 300 AD. It seems to have been replaced with a similar kind of pottery called Late Roman C, which was sold until the Islamic conquests of the 600's AD.

To find out more about Roman pottery, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

Ancient Rome (Eyewitness Books), by Simon James (2004). For kids.

Handbook of Mediterranean Roman Pottery, by John W. Hayes (1997). Hayes has been the leading expert on Roman pottery for the last several decades.

Roman Pottery, by Kevin Greene (1992). Greene is another pottery expert, particularly interested in what pottery can tell us about the Roman Economy.

Byzantine pottery
Islamic pottery
Main Roman art page
Main art page

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