Editing Terra sigillata (section)

===Forerunners===
[[File:Campanian ware phiale with relief decoration.JPG|thumb|A Campanian ware ''phiale'' (libation bowl) with mould-made relief decoration. c. 300 BC.]]
[[File:Megarian bowl.JPG#Summary|thumb|A black Megarian bowl, 2nd century BC]]

Arretine ware, in spite of its very distinctive appearance, was an integral part of the wider picture of fine ceramic tablewares in the Graeco-Roman world of the [[Hellenistic]] and early Roman period.  That picture must itself be seen in relation to the luxury tablewares made of silver.  Centuries before Italian  terra sigillata was made, [[Black-figure pottery|Attic painted vases]], and later their regional variants made in Italy, involved the preparation of a very fine clay body covered with a slip that fired to a glossy surface without the need for any polishing or burnishing.  Greek painted wares also involved the precise understanding and control of firing conditions to achieve the contrasts of black and red.<ref>Noble 1965</ref>

Glossy-slipped black pottery made in [[Etruria]] and [[Campania]] continued this technological tradition, though painted decoration gave way to simpler stamped motifs and in some cases, to applied motifs moulded in relief.<ref>Hayes 1997, pp. 37-40</ref>  The tradition of decorating entire vessels in low relief was also well established in Greece and Asia Minor by the time the Arretine industry began to expand in the middle of the 1st century BC, and examples were imported into Italy.  Relief-decorated cups, some in lead-glazed wares, were produced at several eastern centres, and undoubtedly played a part in the technical and stylistic evolution of decorated Arretine, but Megarian bowls, made chiefly in Greece and Asia Minor, are usually seen as the most direct inspiration.<ref>Garbsch 1982, pp.30-33</ref>  These are small, hemispherical bowls without foot-rings, and their decoration is frequently very reminiscent of contemporary silver bowls, with formalised, radiating patterns of leaves and flowers.<ref>Hayes 1997, pp.40-41:  Garbsch 1982, pp. 26-30</ref>  The crisp and precisely profiled forms of the plain dishes and cups were also part of a natural evolution of taste and fashion in the Mediterranean world of the 1st century BC.