Sigillate medioimperiali e tardoantiche da Bergamo romana. Produzioni locali e importazioni

The pressent study analyzes the terra sigillata pottery found in Bergamo, both locally produced or imported, dated from the end of the 2nd century AD, period in which the high-imperial productions run out. Roman Bergomum was a small Roman city located in northern Italy on the hills at the foot of the Alps and quite far away from the main trade routes that crossed the Po Valley. The potsherds analysed come from seven different contexts located inside the town walls including excavations of residential area (Via San Salvatore 8, Vicolo Aquila Nera, Via San Lorenzo) and public locations (Via San Salvatore 12-14, Vicolo Sant’Agata, Via del Vagine, Palazzo del Podestà). Locally produced terra sigillata is the most abundant, especially between the second half of the 2nd and the 4th century AD; it is inspired by the contemporary forms of African Red Slip and Gaulish sigillata. The later shapes, still slipped ? in red, are attested until the 7th century AD. African Red Slip is mainly represented by the fabric D, but also with the fabrics C and C/E. It appears in the 4th century AD and it is still attested in the 6th and 7th century AD. Gaulish sigillata is very rare and it is certainly documented only by a cup produced in Lezoux and another one from Rheinzabern. The tablewares are mainly concentrated in two places: almost all the fragments of African Red Slip come from the area of the forum (area of Palazzo del Podestà); the most refined pieces and later ones (6th-7th AD) come from the domus at the Biblioteca Civica (currently Archaeological Area of Vicolo Aquila Nera). The chronology provided by the terra sigillata, combined with the re-reading of some excavation data, allowed to offer new chronologies for some evidences. For example in the domus near the Biblioteca Civica the paved courtyard, which represents the last work of the house, could be dated to the beginning of 5th century AD, instead of a century earlier. Similarly, in the forum area was refined the chronology of the latest frequentation, especially relating to two tabernae. The concentration of African Red Slip in this area could indicate that the urban social elite should have resided in this part of the city in the late antiquity, perhaps in connection to the rising of the episcopal complex. Archaeological excavations documented the traces of a devastating fire in several parts of the city (via San Lorenzo, Biblioteca Civica and Palazzo del Podestà) which could be interpreted as a single event. The tableware from the levels of the fire suggest a date of the second half/end of the 4th century AD. The Mediterranean goods arrived from the Adriatic ports to Bergamo through the Po and Oglio rivers. The last stretch over land was along the Bergomum-Brixia road. As archaeological data suggest, this route must have remained in use even after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, when Italy was divided between the Lombards and the Byzantines. Finally, a small amount of sigillata pottery was observed in Bergamo during the Late Antiquity and compared to the main Roman centres in Lombardy. Probably there is not a single explanation for this few presence and it can be variously justified by the small size of the city, an unimportant political-military role, and its peripheral position in relation to the main marketplaces of products that circulated on a regional and Mediterranean scale.