Journal of Ancient History and Archeology No. 2.4/2015 90 Eugen S. Teodor Romanian National History Museum, esteo60@yahoo.co.uk ONE HUNDRED SHERDS. CHILIA-MILITARI CULTURE RELOADED. ALEXANDRIA POTTERY CASE Abstract: Preparing themselves for ield survey along Limes Transalutanus, the authors are looking for references – other than book descriptions and drawings – concerning the so-called Chilia-Militari culture, laying on the both sides of the Roman frontier, stretching from the second half of the second century up to the late third (or early fourth) century. After several attempts with pottery contained in exhibitions, they inally reached an unprocessed lot of pot sherds from a recent digging on the by-pass route north of Alexandria city. Interested irst of all in fabrication issues, in order to successfully deal with fragmentary pottery, they ill a database with notes, photos and drawings, and make a typology sustained by petrography. he distribution of artefacts on functional types – as uncertain as it is – shows a society thinking and living ‘big’, speaking either of tableware, liquid containers or storage vessels. Beyond shrds, shapes, colours and sizes, there is a lagrant ambiguity of a ‘barbarian’ culture born at the fringes of the empire, part inside and part outside, cooking Roman but drinking as Dacians did, setting the table for the Gothic feast. Keywords: pottery, fabrication, ine ware, coarse pottery, storage containers. THE FRAME T he state of art of the so-called Chilia-Militari Culture lays today about where it was three decades earlier, when Gheorghe Bichir was publishing his monograph (1984). Most of the literature is in Romanian language, thus almost not known abroad, fact which enforces a larger introduction, in order to enable the reader to follow the debate 1 . he reference geographic area is comprised between the outskirts of Bucharest city in east and Olt River in west (185 km), and between the Lower Danube and the crests of Meridional Carpathian Mountains (200 km), or an area of 37,000 square km. his territory is cut in unequal parts by the Roman frontier know as Limes Transalutanus, from the irst half of the third century, delineated approximately south-north, between the harbour fort Flămânda and the fortlet from Drumu Carului, the last made at an altitude of 1200 m, in the pass Bran. he limes is located only 15 km afar from the mouth 1 From the long list of Bichir’s publications one can pick only some titles in international languages; most of them deal with the culture at stake under the much larger umbrella of ‘Free Dacians’ (BICHIR 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1982), only one being centred on our subject (BICHIR 1980), detailing yet more chronological issues and less about pottery. he monograph from 1984 (in Romanian) remains the only reliable source for the last. Alexandru Bădescu Romanian National History Museum, alex_bades@yahoo.com Constantin Haită Romanian National History Museum, costel_haita@yahoo.com