Dish

Fragment of the bottom of a cup made of Italic terra sigillata. The coating on the piece is adherent and dense, quite covering, of optimal quality, intense red color (2.5 YR 4/8 from the Munsell Soil Chart table) and medium gloss. The ceramic paste is light beige in color, very fine and well refined and compact.

It has a central interior seal with the sole signature of the nomen in the genitive ATEI. The letters are made with large and rough characters of an irregular type (6 x 2 mm, 5 x 2 mm), framed by a rectangular trend cartouche of 1.1 x 0.7 cm.

On the outer bottom of the container there is a graphite with irregular letters (+ 9 x 6 mm) that show the spelling SAF.

It belongs to the typological variant Consp 13.2-3: cups with a flat bottom and a protruding hanging edge, the shape of which corresponds to bottoms like this one, with a carinated transition type Consp B 3.1-3. The seal is a company mark that indicates that it is an Aretine manufacture from the Cn workshop. Ateius. Regarding the inscription, the reading of the spelling SAF could be SAVF[eius], since a ligature of "auf" is made.