The scale of Sagalassos red slip ware production.Reconstructions of local need and production output of Roman Imperial tableware

lated during the past decades through archaeological research 1 . The tableware produced here (Sagalassos Red Slip Ware or SRSW), was found on sites both in and around the territory of the ancient town, at a range of inner Anatolian sites, but also as far away as Aquileia (Italy), Carthage (Tunisia), Lepcis Magna (Libya), Hermopolis Magna (Egypt), Hama (Syria) and Tel Anafa (Israel) 2 . The scale and importance of this export of SRSW to these faraway (but also closer) markets are hitherto difficult to define due to a lack of quantified data on ceramic assemblages. Yet, judging from the representation of production infrastructure in the townscape, the scale of the ceramic production at Sagalassos seems substantial for a town of relatively modest size. Therefore, we need to wonder: why did Sagalassos initiate production in Roman Imperial times beyond the Hellenistic local scale; why was it apparently necessary to devote a large area within eastern suburbium to the production of mainly SRSW; and did this production play a significant role for the local economy and thereby contributed to the development of Sagalassos as a monumentalised city? 3 . Previously, the introduction of SRSW production was tentatively linked to wider effects of the founding of a string of official, Augustan coloniae in the wider region, possibly invoking a growth in demand for tableware in the region of Pisidia and/or linked to a pattern of associated regional demographic growth 4 . In the same early Imperial period, new parts could have been added to the territory of Sagalassos, thereby