Seleucia on the Tigris
Pottery
The pottery from Seleucia is significant not only for the extraordinary abundance of the findings, which, originating from blocks of dwellings, burials, public buildings and open areas, covered the entire lifespan of the city from Seleucid times to the late Parthian period, but also for the exceptional wealth of the chronological and historical/artistic reference picture, outlined during the course of 26 Italian and American excavation campaigns. The most interesting aspect of this production is the originality with which the innovations brought by the Macedonian settlers merged with the millenary local tradition, forever modifying the consolidated Mesopotamian repertoire, in all classes of production, from glazed and fine pottery to common cooking ware.
In addition to bowls, small vases and pots, lamps and pilgrims’ flasks, which were still produced, in accordance with the tradition of Mesopotamian glazing, many types of Hellenistic models typical of the 4th – 3rd centuries B.C. (black-painted, West Slope Ware, Megarian) are recognizable under the green, white and blue glazed surface. In the light of very scarce ceramic imports from the fatherland, the city’s shops in Seleucid times met the settlers’ demands using a traditional technique to create original adaptations of western types, such as the two-handled amphora, the kantharoid bowl, the fish plate, and the lagynoi.
In the Parthian period that followed, thanks to the increase in trade over long distances, the diffusion of Eastern Sigillata A and of blown glass contributed to the creation of a varied production of glazed ceramics, that spread throughout all the main Parthian sites, from northern Mesopotamia to the Gulf to the Iranian plateau between the 1st century B.C. and the late 1st century A.D. The particular wealth of Parthian Seleucia’s repertoire, with the family of pyriform pitchers with one handle, the large bowls and the turquoise dishes, the amphorae decorated with carvings, the elegant white-glazed bowls and the bell-shaped jugs reflect the prosperous economic situation the city enjoyed thanks to its status of commercial emporium and of primary economic center in the exchange economy of the ancient world.
Even the production of common pottery, usually more tied to local traditions, was affected by the innovations brought by the settlers. The phenomenon may be observed in other cities of Hellenized Mesopotamia, but the extraordinary diffusion of the countless variants of single-handled jugs and bottles, always characterized by a rather high manufacturing quality and a strict adherence to western prototypes is peculiar to Seleucia, while the repertoire of cups, bowls, terrines and basins for everyday use perpetuates the shapes of the Mesopotamian tradition.
A very distinctive type of fine ware, with eggshell-thin walls and ascribable to the Neo-Assyrian and Achemenid palace ware tradition, persisted throughout the city’s lifespan, but it too was not immune from the influences of western models, as attested by shapes such as the small amphora with two handles, the small single-handled jug and the kantharoid bowl.
The long-spout and saucer-shaped lamps, of Mesopotamian tradition, are complemented by Hellenistically inspired lamps, sometimes with several spouts, decorated with relief figures that make them small sculpture masterpieces.
The quality of production decreased only in the last phases of the city’s life, with a simplification of types and less meticulous glazing and crafting, but the legacy of most of the repertoire was picked up by the Sasanian Veh Ardashir/Choche, which elaborated it into a new synthesis bordering between the late ancient and medieval Islamic styles.