Cypriot pottery from this period is part of what could be called the culture of the "Roman Commonwealth". Pottery is very similar all over the empire and the shapes are fairly standard. Recent research therefore uses analyses of the composition of the clay in order to establish origins. It seems that pottery from Cyprus is particularly common in northern Egypt. This situation is probably linked to the grain trade, as large convoys of heavy grain transports stopped at Cyprus on their way to and from the imperial capital at Constantinople. The Sackler Gallery of Egyptian Antiquities (no. 6) on the ground floor of the museum contains several objects made on Cyprus that were found in Egypt.

FURTHER READING

On Roman pottery fabrication and types:

• Strong, D. & Brown, D. (eds.) 1976. Roman Crafts (Duckworth, London).
• Atlas of Roman Pottery

On the tradition of ceramics imitating metal forms in antiquity:

• Vickers, M., Impey, O. and Allen, J. 1986. From Silver to Ceramics: the potters debt to metalworking in the Graeco-Roman, Oriental and Islamic Worlds (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)