This chapter considers two of the eight behavioral practices incorporated into the model of the life cycle of Roman pottery: manufacture and distribution. Because manufacture and distribution played only a limited role in governing the formation of the pottery record, the aim of this chapter is not to present a comprehensive discussion of these two practices, but rather the more limited goal of identifying and describing those aspects that are of interest in this regard.

Manufacture

As defined in Chapter 1, manufacture is the fabrication of a vessel from one or more raw materials. There were several more or less distinct modes for the manufacture of pottery in the Roman world, ranging from individual potters working on a part-time basis within the context of rural households turning out small amounts of cookwares and utilitarian wares both for domestic consumption and for sale on the market, to small urban, suburban, and rural workshops staffed by a few full-time craftsmen manufacturing a wide array of products, generally including cookwares, utilitarian wares, and tablewares for local markets, to giant urban and suburban workshops staffed by up to a few score highly specialized workers engaged in the intensive manufacture of high-end gloss-slipped tablewares or lamps for a mass market (Peacock 1982). In some cases, small rural workshops operated within the context of a large agricultural estate, with a significant portion of their output destined for consumption within the estate, rather than for sale on the market (Aubert 1994: 205–6).