ateliers de céramique de la Byzacène du Sud-Ouest

The result of more than three decades of research, this work focuses on the study of ceramic workshop dumps in the South-West Byzacena region. During this period, we had the opportunity to uncover the remains of seven workshops, three of which are still unpublished. Our research is marked by two main phases: the first aimed to locate, identify, and distinguish between local and imported productions in the region, especially those considered "classical"; while during the second phase, our efforts were more focused on the detection, exploration, and survey of new production centers, as well as on the typological, mineralogical, and petrographic study of their different products, in order to differentiate the regional productions from one another and to delineate the areas of their distribution. The task is far from straightforward, particularly due to the sometimes very pronounced similarities in both the clays used and the shapes formed. But beyond this purely technical aspect (pastes, slips, shapes, typologies, motifs, and decorative styles), our work stands out through a diachronic approach aimed at revealing the historical factors, including economic and political ones, that contributed to the emergence, development, and disappearance of these workshops. Furthermore, the study of waste from the eight ceramic workshops, the subject of this work, revealed an east/west spatial distribution, with a catchment area for each production center, and a categorical distribution. Chronologically, our research uncovered a synchronism regarding the emergence and decline of these workshops, with a peak period of activity or production.