A ROMAN TERRA SIGILLATA DISH FROM , IN LEYDEN

BY

J. H. C. KERN

The Roman terra sigillata dish reproduced on Plate I, was acquired by the Leyden Antiquities Museum as early as The piece is definitely known to come from Tunisia, where it was picked up, together with a large haul of other Roman ceramics, I by the Dutch colonel J. E. Humbert, when the latter was working in the service of the Bey of Tunis, in the years 1822-1823. From a rapid conspectus of the enormous wealth of Humbert's manuscripts and files on Tunisia which are kept in the archives of the Leyden Museum, it appears beyond doubt that a large number of Roman ceramics, including our dish, were found in the course of occasional diggings practised by Humbert at one well- defined place in the kingdom of the Bey. This locality is given by Humbert as Sursef, with the appended identification-equally Humbert's-that this is the ancient Sarsura. The Sursef locale certainly has a good deal of problems in store for present-day research. However, Humbert defined the area of Sursef as being situated between Sousse (ancient ) and (ancient Taparura), i.e., towns at 144 and 320 km. due south of Tunis respectively. That leaves us with at least some means for narrowing down the actual find-spot from the given sources. My own guess is that Sursef stands for modern Ksour Es Saf, the latter being described as a sizable village situated 30 km. north-east of El Djem (ancient ) 2). El Djem, with the 1) Leyden, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden acc. no. HNN 180. L. J. F. Janssen, Catalogus (1848) II 2347 on p. 2o8; J. H. Holwerda, Catalogus (1905) XXVIII 98 on p. 144; J. H. Holwerda, Gebruiksaardewerk (1936), No. 687 on p. 49, with fig. 16,687 on the same page: side-view of the piece, standing in a propped-up position. The finding-spot of our dish is not accurately given in any of these three publications. Our illustration is from a new photograph by Mr. F. G. van Veen at Leyden. 2) Les Guides Bleues. Algérie, Tunisie (1950), p. 537 : Ksour Es Saf, and pp. 533-534: El Djem. See also the excellent map of Tunisia at the end of the volume. Leyden acc. no. HNN 180. Roman terra sigillata dish from Tunisia: a side-view; b interior.