Samian pottery styles.

There are a vast number of styles of Samian ware. A number of archaeologists have classified them, so now the convention is that each style is given a number and the name of the relevant archaeologist (1). The great systematic classification was carried out by german archaeologist Hans Dragendorff at the end of the 19th Century. Often a classification will be abbreviated so you could see Dragendorff 18, Drag 18 or Dr 18 to denote the shallow bowl pictured below.

Dragendorff 18 bowl (above) dated to approx 100 AD.

Curle 11 bowl (above) approx 140 AD was 22 inches across

Samian clay was used for the manufacture of all sorts of vessels, including cups, dishes, inkwells, jars, mortaria, plates, beakers and other bowls.(3)

Curle 21 mortar (above)

A key feature of Samian pottery, not shown in any of the examples above, was that as it was generally press moulded, there was the possibility to add intricate surface moulded decoration to the pottery.

Sources

(1, 3) http://www.potsherd.uklinux.net/atlas/

All illustrations on this page by Chris Brown, copyright www.newarchaeology.com