General Information

This ware is made from calcareous marl clay native to Upper Egypt (Herbert and Berlin 2003, 29). Potters used this clay to manufacture a wide variety of forms, from delicate, thin-walled saucers and tall, rather thin-walled piriform jugs to small, sturdy jars, and large, bulky water jars. At Coptos, this ware first appears in the 1st century CE, in one of the earliest Roman ceramic assemblages, and new forms continue to appear throughout the Roman phases. Parallels for the Coptos vessels occur most frequently from sites in the Karnak-Qena region. Upper Egyptian Roman-Byzantine White Marl ware is equivalent to the Marl clay class M, traditionally known as Qena clay (Grataloup 1989, 95; Lecuyot and Pierrat 1992, 179). At Dime/Soknopaiou Nesos, this ware first appears in the 1st century CE but continues only until the 3rd century CE.

Upper Egyptian Roman-Byzantine White Marl ware is a calcareous ware, made in lime clay, with fine to medium-fine to coarse texture. It is sandy and porous, and the inclusions consist of numerous fine grains of quartz and a few white nodules, reds and blacks of different sizes. Fired vessels exhibit a beige or whitish fracture with often a pinkish core or light yellow to chamois/beige.

Aswan, Syene (Egypt/Upper Egypt)

Coptos (Egypt/Upper Egypt)

Dime, Soknopaiou Nesos (Egypt/Fayoum)

Medamud (Egypt/Upper Egypt)

Mons Porphyrites (Egypt/Eastern desert/Red Sea Coast)