Survey and Excavation: Mons Claudianus, 1987-1993: Ceramic: Vessels and Related Objects.

• Author: Gates-Foster, Jennifer E.

Survey and Excavation: Mons Claudianus, 1987-1993: Ceramic: Vessels and Related Objects. By VALERIE A. MAXFIELD and DAVID P. S. PEACOCK. Fouilles de I'IFAO, vol. 54. Cairo: INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE, 2006. Pp. xxii + 450, illus. (paper).

This volume, the third to appear in the publication of the survey and excavations at the Egyptian desert site of Mons Claudianus, presents the long-awaited results of the study of the ceramic vessels and several categories of related small finds. The primary focus is on the ceramic vessels recovered from the site, while other chapters offer catalogues and analyses of ceramic lamps, vessel stoppers, terracottas, and other small finds. These materials, especially the pottery, represent a major contribution to the study of Roman ceramics from the Eastern Desert, which is an increasingly rich regional contributor to the growing field of Romano-Egyptian ceramic studies. As Roberta Tomber points out in her introduction to the pottery catalogue, Mons Claudianus presents the archaeologist with a rare opportunity to study materials excavated from contexts which contain extensive evidence for absolute dating in the form of ostraca. These texts offer a framework for the establishment and refinement of the chronology of pottery production and supply which is exceptional and, needless to say, extremely rare. The other objects benefit, although to a lesser degree, from this chronological refinement, making this book an indispensable contribution to the study of Egyptian material culture of the Roman period and of the Eastern Desert.

The remote site of Mons Claudianus is located in the mountainous desert region east of the Nile Valley, northeast of Qena and west of Safaga in an area exploited by the Romans for its stone resources. Granodiorite from the quarries at Mons Claudianus was exported to Rome for imperial building projects and the quarries were run as an imperial monopoly. Mons Claudianus is in fact a multi-component site with three major areas: a hydreuma or watering station founded in the Neronian era, a fortification and associated nearby buildings established under the reign of Domitian, and finally, another fortification 10 km to the southeast of the main site at a location known as Barud. Material recovered from the Claudianus site, as a whole, dates from the mid-first to early third centuries C.E. During this period, the Eastern Desert was intensely exploited both as a source of stone and...