Pottery jar

Germanic, later 3rd century AD
Found in a male grave near Leuna, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany (1834)

The jar is burnished, imitating the sheen of imported Roman metal vessels, and has rusticated decoration on the lower half. Other objects were found at the time, possibly in the same grave, though no detailed records of the discovery survive. These include luxury Roman 'imports', which may have been diplomatic gifts to obtain the friendship or alliance of a local leader beyond the Roman frontier: cut glass from the eastern Mediterranean, a red samian ware bowl, and a copper-alloy skillet and wine-strainer. The other finds consist of three silver brooches, silver arrowheads, spurs and cosmetic implements, a copper-alloy buckle, fragments of a bucket and neckring, and two other pots.

Pottery vessels were made in individual households in western Germanic regions. The use of the potter's wheel was unknown. Instead the pots were built up from coils or small slabs of clay. The surfaces were then smoothed before firing in a bonfire covered with turf. Regional forms can often be distinguished, but the decoration could be more individualistic and both forms and patterns could change with fashion over time.

W. Schulz, Leuna. Ein Germanischer Best-1 (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1953)