ABSTRACT
At the end of the previous chapter terra sigillata was produced, the pots had been made. But it was not ‘ust’ produced, it was produced in a particular way: as a category. Its production practices lined up to define sigillata as a bounded thing, clearly separate from other production sequences, and identifiable through a package of traits. The logical next step is distribution, the trading of sigillata pots. But practices of distribution posed rather different requirements for sigillata than production. Work was needed to assure a smooth transition from the pots’ definition in production to their role in distribution. How was sigillata made into a trade-able, calculable object? How did its definition as a category facilitate this?
