ABSTRACT
The association of pottery with these or with others artifacts, glassware, brooches, or belt-buckles, which themselves may have been distinctive or fashionable at particular times, can be of benefit for arriving at firm dates or for comparing groups or deposits of material from one site with others on sites nearby. Roman sites in general produce an abundance of finds, particularly pottery, glass, and metalware. One of the commonest forms of pottery, virtually empire-wide, since it was produced for and used by the Roman army, is the distinctive orange-red terra sigillata. In 1881, in the ruins of Pompeii, a consignment of thirty-seven pottery lamps from North Italy, together with eighty-seven terra sigillata bowls of two common shapes, but by a number of different potters, were found still packed in the crate in which they had been delivered. Archaeologists tend to group Roman pottery into either 'fine' or 'coarse' wares.
