Sallèles d’Aude, reference for research on amphora workshops, reveals here its complete production chain of iis au iiie century: clay quarries, storage basins, potters’ wheels, kilns in their buildings. The oil lamp and tableware factory complements the amphorae factory.
The potters’ habitat reveals many testimonies of daily life: the color of the walls, the wood used for the fire, the menus of oysters, mussels or beef, the wines tasted, but also the dice games, or the toilet instruments and even a bathing facility.
Talented craftsmen, the potters that we imagine toiling in clay wells, sitting in a line in front of their wheel in a large gallery, sweating day and night in front of the incandescent kilns, manipulating tiles, amphoras, lamps and vases, are men, perhaps also women, strong but also sensitive. Faced with infant mortality, families chose to bury their newborns in the workshop itself, under the symbolic care of a young dog.
Editor:
Franche-Comté University Press
Place of publication:
BesançonPublication sur OpenEdition Books :
November 5, 2025Digital ISBN: 978-2-38549-188-8
DOI : 10.4000/153Collection :
Institute of Ancient Sciences and Technology (ISTA)
Year of publication: 2024
ISBN (Print edition): 978-2-38549-103-1
Name of pages: 328
The Ancient World Online: The Gallo-Roman potters of Sallèles d’Aude (Aude, France): Production and daily life
