General Information

Late Roman Light Colored Ware (LRLC) is another member of the large family of Late Roman red wares that were mass-produced from Asia Minor to Cyprus to Egypt to Tunisia. LRLC most often occurs at Aegean and Western Anatolian sites, and occasionally farther afield. It gets its name because vessels have a notably lighter fabric color than many of the other Late Roman red wares; they are light-red-to-pink, with thin, slightly darker reddish pink or light brown covering slip. LRLC vessel shapes include large platters and bowls of various sizes. In general they emulate luxurious silver table service of the sixth and early seventh centuries.

The production center of the LRLC ware is still under debate. While Hayes thought that the ware were highly likely to have been from Asia Minor and made in the Kinidian region, Simsek considered the most possible production location to be Laodikea. According to Ergürer (2014), the comparatively large quantity of LRLC ware found in Parion strongly suggests that the production center was located somewhere nearby, perhaps in the Pergamene region or Propontis (175: 3). He writes that "the distribution pattern of the Late Roman Light Colored ware embraces the Propontis region, the whole Aegean basin, Cyrenaica, the Levantine coast, as well as the Black Sea region, showing that these vessels were a subject of long-distance maritime trade and also that sometimes they were transported inland, especially in the western part of Asia Minor and along the lower Danube" (Ergürer 2014, 176: 1).

The first scholar to identify LRLC was F.O. Waage, in his publication of the pottery from Antioch. John Hayes described it in more detail in his fundamental 1972 study of Late Roman Pottery.

Vessels are distinguished by a fine, clean, compact fabric ranging in color from cream to light brown, light reddish and pink. The fabric contains some silvery mica and single, bigger flakes of golden mica, as well as occasional pieces of lime and sand. Vessels are covered with a thin, warmly-toned light brown slip, slightly darker in color than the fabric itself, and often with a metallic luster. The slip can a have a slightly glossy appearance when held in direct light. Later products take on a more reddish tone. Decoration consists of interior and exterior rouletting and stamps. Rims are sometimes notched. Later vessels also carry cut-out decoration (champleve).

The above description comes from Ergürer 2014, 177: 3 and Sebastian Heath and Billur Tekkok, https://classics.uc.edu/troy/grbpottery/html/lr-lightcolored.html.

Light Colored Ware; West Asia Minor Pale; Late Roman West Asia Minor Ware; Asia Minor Light Colored Ware