From the 1st to the 3rd c. AD, the territory of Istria (present-day Croatia) was a promi-nent area of olive oil production, famous throughout the Roman world. Olive oil was exportedin the so-called Dressel 6B amphorae to northern Italy and the Danubian provinces. Theproduction of these containers was carried out in several workshops established along theIstrian coast. During the 1st century, the main manufacturers were the workshops of Fazanaand Loron. Both were remarkable for their exceptional size and ownership history. Con-trolled at rst by aristocratic families, they became part of the imperial domain at the endof the 1st century.Although amphorae of this kind are frequently studied as proxies for ancient trade patterns,little attention is given to the actual production process. Nevertheless those vessels are,rst and foremost, manufactured artefacts, produced in notable quantities and designed fora specic purpose. While archaeological evidence of the workshops and the ceramic vesselsthemselves testify to the intensity of the production and its considerable output, they are oflittle use in reconstructing production strategies and the full sequence of operations under-taken in the manufacturing of amphorae. Most remarkable is the lack of information aboutraw materials collection and preparation. In a local context where appropriate geologicalresources for large-scale production are scarce, the management of raw materials collectionand their transformation into a paste of consistent quality and properties are however ofutmost importance.Combining already available sources of information with newly acquired mineralogical andgeochemical data on ceramic bodies and local clay samples, the present study aims to shednew light on those issues and their evolution over 300 years of history of activity. The re-sults help us reconsider natural resources' management and production strategies in largeamphorae workshops over a long duration.Read less <