Today we see Roman pottery as an extraordinary industry with a huge production and a wide variety of shapes and types, designed to satisfy a commercial demand and to compete both with other ceramics and with objects manufactured of different materials, such as metal and glass. Pottery is the most important "fossil guide" of Tarraco archaeological excavations and from it we can trace the broad lines of its development. In this way, we can learn in detail of some of the aspects of the trading relations and economic panorama of our territory. We begin with the black glaze and pre-terra sigillata pottery from the final centuries of the Roman republic and continue through the reign of Augustus (Italian terra sigillata ) to the first centuries of the Empire (fine-walled glasses and Gaulish and Hispanic terra sigillata), or the African red slip ware from the later centuries, concurrent with late-Hispanic production. From these glasses, the lamps and the so-called table and kitchenware ceramics (very common and found in large amounts during excavations), we get a good idea of the instrumentum domesticum of Roman times. Other containers for the transport of merchandise, such as amphoras, are the most useful source of information about the exchange of certain kinds of foodstuffs. So far fewer studies have been made of ceramics used in the construction and decoration of buildings. These include bricks, tiles, antefixes, plates or Campana flagstones and other smaller decorative items such as small figurines, earthenware toys or terracottas.

Unfortunately, researchers have only begun to study the peculiarities of ceramic production centres and the circumstances surrounding the work prior to firing in the kiln, such as the extraction, preparation and mixing of the clay. Archaeological research has traditionally centred on the study of the finished item and has looked little further than the structural analysis of the few remains of kilns found. Nevertheless, we know that in the Tarraco area there were various ceramic workshops. They mainly specialized in amphoras and other receptacles, although they also produced decorative items for buildings (including antefixes), and large amounts of common pottery items such as lamps and local varieties of a terra sigillata.