Roman pottery began with Etruscan-style pottery, but soon developed a tradition of its own. In general, pottery in Italy tended to be made in one color, rather than painted as in Greece, and the decorations were molded into the clay rather than painted.

Campanian Pottery

Throughout the Roman Republic, most Roman pottery was made near where it was going to be used. This piece, from Southern Italy, is typical - black slip, over a red fabric.

Arretine pottery from Arezzo

But in the time of Augustus, people began to build big pottery factories, where they made lots of good pottery to sell to other places. There were some factories in Italy, near a town called Arezzo, and some in southern France.

South Gaulish pottery

This pottery was made in a new way, which the Italians had learned from West Asian potters in the recently conquered eastern areas of the Empire. Instead of being black like earlier pottery, it was red. And the decoration was created by pushing the clay into plaster molds, instead of by painting it on. Molding the decoration was much faster and cheaper than painting it, so these factories could make great quality pottery and sell it very cheaply. This pottery was a big hit, and the factories made a lot of money.

It didn't take very long for potters in other places to notice that this Arretine and South Gaulish pottery was making some people a lot of money. By the time of Vespasian, around 70 AD, this red, molded pottery was being imitated all over. In Spain, for instance, the imitations are called Terra Sigillata Hispanica.

African Red Slip

In North Africa, the imitations are called African Red Slip. This African pottery was very successful. In fact, after about fifty years of production the African pottery had completely put the Italian and South Gaulish factories out of business! After that, nearly everyone in the western part of the Roman Empire, and even people living outside the empire, used African Red Slip pottery. Archaeologists find this pottery in England and Denmark, in Austria, in Spain, and as far east as Greece. And of course there is loads of it in North Africa. (In the eastern part of the empire, people kept using Eastern Sigillata).

But, once they had put the competition out of business, the North African potters didn't worry too much about producing beautiful pottery. African Red Slip gradually became less carefully made.

African Red Slip

African Red Slip continued to be the main luxury pottery for North Africa and Europe for 400 years, even after the fall of Rome. In North Africa, people continued to make it under Vandal rule in the 400's and 500's AD, and right up until the Islamic invasions in the late 600's AD brought with them a new kind of pottery, glazed with colorful glassy glazes.