Teracote din așezarea civilă de la Ostrov (Durostorum), județul Constanța (VI)
Teracottas from the civil settlement of Ostrov (Durostorum), Constanța county (VI)

Summary/Abstract: The present study concludes the series of papers dedicated to terracottas found out through systematic archaeological research, between the years 1998 and 2016, in the site of Ostrov (Durostorum), Constanța County. 239 pieces have been introduced in this catalogue, but, although their number is impressive, only a small part could be integrated into a typology, both due to their state of preservation (being very fragmentary) and the details preserved, which prevents them from being “decoded”. However, we consider it necessary to publish them, both to complete the typology of terracottas from Ostrov, but also due to the fact that this is the only way to get an overview of this craft practiced in these workshops. The terracottas of this paper were catalogued into five categories: architectural pieces, plaques, ensembles, appliqués, and uncertain, categories that complement the previous typology (human characters, deities on the throne, animal statuettes, pedestals and bases). The most interesting category is that of architectural elements (26), which by the complexity of the unearthed pieces, indicate a variety of finished pieces, which could be used both in the domestic space and in sacred areas. The catalogued appliqués are most often used to decorate vessels, but the most numerous (14) are for the decoration of the lamps handles. The plaques (9) and the parts that make up the ensembles (7) come to complete the scale of the terracottas production of these workshops, both by the variety of parts made and by the large number of finished parts (514 catalogued so far). The diversity of the decoration, the variety of shapes, the types made and the attention to detail speak of the craftsmen’s mastery, which imposes the hypothesis of their specialization in this craft. Given the fact that such pieces were used both in consecrated spaces (temples, funerary areas) and in domestic spaces, it explains, to a large extent, the large number of terracottas found out. On the other hand, this also requires the hypothesis that the production of the workshops comes to satisfy a larger market, spatially speaking, for the entire period of existence (second century – end of the third century AD).

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