Roman Nile Silt Cooking ware is distinguished from the silt-based cooking ware (Ptolemaic Nile Silt Cooking Ware) of the Hellenistic/Ptolemaic era in that it contains more added temper (Herbert and Berlin 2003, 30). At Coptos, many new forms of cooking vessels appear in this ware the 1st century CE and continue to be used throughout the Roman period. Nile Silt Roman Cooking Ware is one of two Roman-era cooking wares identified at Coptos; the other is Nile Silt Chaff-Tempered Ware, which is rougher because it contains considerably more chaff in its temper.
Roman Nile Silt Cooking ware is a smooth, and slightly micaceous, reddish brown alluvial fabric, with considerably more added temper than the previous cooking ware. There are a fair number of small and some medium sized inclusions, occasional chaff fragments and small particles of lime, and frequent small and some larger rounded grey black particles. Vessels are generally fully fired, but some have a sandwich core of red-grey-red within brown colored walls.
