Bowls by Acavnissa from Birdoswald, Mainz and Cologne

Extract

An interesting bowl in terra sigillata (form 37) with the cursive signature ACAVNISSA was found last year in excavating Birdoswald; and, since the only other known bowls by this potter, were found at Mainz and Cologne, a description of these two bowls may be of some interest, especially from a chronological point of view.

The glaze of the Birdoswald bowl is poor and the figures are in places somewhat blurred. The decoration consists of an alternation of two panels separated by bead-rows ending in rosettes (pl. IV, nos. 1 and 2). In the first panel there is a medallion of ‘cog-wheel’ pattern with inner concentric ring; it encloses a bird (to right) with upstretched wings, similar to Déch. 1010, but slightly smaller. This bird was first used at Lezoux by the Trajanic potters LIBERTVS and BVTRIO and later by the Hadrian-Antonine potters ALBVCIVS, ADVOCISVS, MERCATOR (not the South Gaulish potter of this name), PAVLLVS, PATERNVS, SERVVS and CINNAMVS; in its smaller form it occurs on a bowl by MAPILLVS (37 MAPILL OF at Corbridge).