The Jerusalem Legio X Fretensis Kilnworks: Contextualizing Ceramic Manufacture and ‘Legionary Wares’

The Legio X Fretensis Kilnworks at Binyanei Ha’uma (Jerusalem) is one of the few such legionary production sites to be excavated in recent decades and the only legionary kilnworks to be found in the Near East and Asia Minor to date. The study of its production-related material therefore offers a necessary complement to consumer-focused discussions of so-called ‘legionary wares’ by providing a more refined contextualization of ceramic manufacturing within a military context. Detailed analyses of production techniques and technologies, as well as comparative study of contemporaneous legionary kilnworks in other regions and other ceramic production sites from the eastern provinces, serve to contextualize the Jerusalem site and offer new perspectives on the technological choices that were made in such settings. These technological choices demonstrate a balance between some commonly shared structural features of production and labour organizations, with locally specific circumstances of raw material availability and technological knowledge.