Roman Amphorae

The wrecks of merchant ships transporting amphorae with wine and oil represent
an important source of information for the reconstructions of antique economy
in the western part of the Mediterranean. Following the analysis of submerged finds,
it was possible to validate the findings obtained at land sites, create a classification of
Roman amphorae and verify their chronology, which proved particularly important
in the case of Greek-Italian amphorae, i.e. Dressel 1, Pascual 1 and Dressel 2-4 (for
wine) and Dressel 20 (for oil), as well as reconstruct trade routes and the distribution
of wine and oil production centres in particular areas of the Roman Empire during
the Republican and Imperial periods.

From the Contents:
François Salviat, Le vin de Thasos. Amphores, vin et sources écrites; François Salviat, Vignes et vins anciens de Maronée à Mende; François Salviat, Le vin de Rhodes et les plantations du Dème d' Amos; François Salviat, Origine orientale et diffusion des cépages grecs; André Tchernia, Le vin et l' honneur; André Tchernia, Les dimensions de quelques vignobles romains; André Tchernia, Maesanius Celsius et Caedicia Victrix surdes amphores de campanie; André Tchernia, Le cercle de L. Licinius Crassus et la naissance de la hiérarchie des vins à Rome; André Tchernia, Acre Falernum: Juvenal, XIII, 213-216; Archéologie expérimentale et got du vin romain: la valorisation du got de madérisé; François Salviat, André Tchernia, Les appellations d' origine dans l' antiquité grecque et romaine; André Tchernia, La formule pane et vino adjecto et l' inscription du college d' Esculape et d' Hygie (CIL, VI, 10234)

The Story of Garum recounts the convoluted journey of that notorious Roman fish sauce, known as garum, from a smelly Greek fish paste to an expensive luxury at the heart of Roman cuisine and back to obscurity as the Roman empire declines. This book is a unique attempt to meld the very disparate disciplines of ancient history, classical literature, archaeology, zooarchaeology, experimental archaeology, ethnographic studies and modern sciences to illuminate this little understood commodity. Currently Roman fish sauce has many identities depending on which discipline engages with it, in what era and at what level. These identities are often contradictory and confused and as yet no one has attempted a holistic approach where fish sauce has been given centre stage. Roman fish sauce, along with oil and wine, formed a triad of commodities which dominated Mediterranean trade and while oil and wine can be understood, fish sauce was until now a mystery. Students and specialists in the archaeology of ancient Mediterranean trade whether through amphora studies, shipwrecks or zooarchaeology will find this invaluable. Scholars of ancient history and classics wishing to understand the nuances of Roman dining literature and the wider food history discipline will also benefit from this volume. Sally Grainger is an independent scholar with degrees in ancient history and archaeology. She is a food historian, chef and experimental archaeologist. She has worked with many university institutions and museums helping to interpret the foodways of ancient societies. She has published widely in food history, and jointly with Andrew Dalby she wrote the acclaimed Classical Cook Book, and with her husband Dr Christopher Grocock she edited and translated the recipe text known as Apicius. She continues to collaborate with archaeologist in research into the various ways in which ancient fish sauces were made, traded and consumed.

The EPNet project aims to examine the framework of the Roman economic organisation and its networks by analysing epigraphical data from amphorae. This aim is to be realised through complex network analysis, model building and computer simulation. The objective is to create an experimental laboratory for the exploration, validation and refutation of historical theories, and the formulation of new ones.

Desde que se iniciaron los estudios cliométricos, el interés por encontrar fórmulas y modelos que nos ayuden a entender la historia, particularmente la historia económica y social, han atraído la atención de muchos investigadores. Desde nuestra perspectiva, hemos prestado particular atención al estudio de datos concretos, pues nos hemos centrado en el estudio de las ánforas que contuvieron alimentos, sobre todo vino, aceite y conservas de pescado y su epigrafía y, a través de ellas, estudiar la dirección de los intercambios entre las diversas regiones del imperio romano y el papel que el estado jugó en dichas relaciones, en última instancia, la relación entre política y economía. En las últimas décadas, en relación directa con el progreso de los estudios sobre tipologías cerámicas, se ha avanzado notablemente en el desarrollo de los procedimientos de cuantificación. Este interés se integra en una preocupación más amplia por la cultura material romana, en particular las vajillas y los contenedores de alimentos, como instrumento para profundizar en el conocimiento de las formas de producción, distribución y consumo de productos manufacturados y de alimentos líquidos o semilíquidos que tuvieron gran importancia en la dieta romana. Así mismo, y gracias a un mejor conocimiento arqueológico de ciertas regiones del Mediterráneo, la cuantificación se ha convertido en una herramienta fundamental en la construcción de modelos explicativos sobre la producción agrícola y artesanal, y sobre las estructuras de distribución y consumo. El objetivo último es mejorar el conocimiento de la organización y dinámicas de la economía romana y proponer, en consecuencia, un marco interpretativo para definir la naturaleza de la misma.

First International Conference "New Discoveries between the Alps and the Black Sea", Ptuj (Slovenja)-8th-9th October 2015. Forthcoming.

The archaeological excavations conduced in the past in the Po Delta gave back important informations on the presence and diffusion of Aegean and Oriental amphorae: are well known the findings from Valle Ponti shipwreck, from Ostellato and Voghenza.
The territory of  Mesola gives new and significant evidences; nearby the amphorae produced in the Adriatic area, in the centre of Italy and in Romagna, typical of the period between the I century B.C. and the III century A.D. and diffused in the Regiones VIII and X, stand out the ones from Creta, from Rodhos and from the Pontic Area. The commercial amphorae from Ariano Ferrarese contribute to outline the circulation of goods in the North of Italy and the importance of trade with Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions.

This paper deals with the theoretical aspects of the manufacturing of study models through computer database programs for the instrumentum domesticum, especially in the field of Roman amphora stamps epigraphy.

The stamps from the Dressel 20 amphora (Spanish olive-oil typology), of which we have thousands of examples spread principally over Rome and Western Europe, have been used as documentary information to compose the theoretical criteria.

The proposed concepts for the study of stamps are the following: the "concept structure", which serves to codify and group the stamps according to their graphical image; the "concept codex" aims to codify and analyse the present elements on every stamp; the "concept family of stamps" allows to relate family groups of stamps (like variants of individuals, a workshop, or a production region).

The proposed model can be used for every type of amphora stamp. We, however, recommend to principally use it on the information obtained from workshop regions, the only site from which we can decipher the complex meaning of the stamp text.

[EN] This note intends to provide a preliminary overview of the spectacular late Roman coin hoard recently found at Tomares in Spain. The report considers general information released by the City Council of Tomares and the archaeological Museum of Seville (depository institution of the treasure), i.e. archaeological context of the find, type of the amphorae containing the coins, and chronology of the most relevant numismatic specimens. Furthermore, it provides an important parallel with the largest coin hoard of Antiquity, the so-called Treasure of Misurata (Libia).

On 2012, two of the authors conducted research in the amphora collection of the National Museum of Roman Art (Museo Nacional de Arte Romano/MNAR) in Mérida (Spain). Their attention was attracted by one of the museum's finds. It was an almost complete Beltrán 72 amphora, the fabric of which showed its production place to have been within the Cadiz Bay area (Spain). It bore a red-ink inscription on the neck and upper part of the body. Taking a good graphic copy of the inscription, the authors discussed it with several epigraphic and linguistic specialists, arriving at the conclusion that it was written using two alphabets, a Semitic one for the two upper lines, and Latin for the lowest one.

Because of this exceptional piece, already presented to the general public in the exhibition catalogue Ars Scribendi (Almeida 2014), the authors decided to conduct a closer examination of this amphora typology, Hebrew inscriptions found on amphorae and known to them, and to establish the context of this find within the important Roman and late antique Jewish community of Augusta Emerita and the Iberian Peninsula

This paper is based on a lecture given in February 2013, in the Museum of Cycladic Art, in Athens, during a series of lectures on the work conducted by the Ephorates of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Athens. It is an overview of the research that has been done on the pottery material from a late roman house-well (“Well 114” of the “House A”), which was excavated during the Excavation for the New Acropolis Museum  in the Makrygianni plot, in Athens. The well was a closed deposit that comprised pottery of the 2nd to the 5th century AD, basically coarse wares and amphorae, both fragmentary and intact. The paper classifies the pottery into three chronological groups according to the periods of use of the well (Group A: late 2nd to late 3rd cent. AD, Group B: 4th cent. AD, Group C: late 4th to early 5th cent. AD). The amphorae of the groups are also presented, as well as a raw statistical analysis of the amphorae fragments and a short review of their provenance and use.

This book includes the scientific outcome of several years of predoctoral training as a member of the research group CEIPAC (Centro para el Estudio de la Interdependencia Provincial en la Antigüedad Clásica) of the University of Barcelona (http://ceipac.ub.edu).This group, headed by José Remesal (Professor of Ancient History), concentrates on the study of foodstuff production and commercialization during the early and mid Roman periods. The work aims at two aspects: First it provides a synthesis of previous and current research on Baetican oil amphorae and their long morphological evolution, including changes in the epigraphic habit. The Baetican oil amphorae are re-valued as a chrono-stratigraphic fossil director based on their morphology and epigraphy. The chronological development is confirmed by the comparison with stratified amphorae from Monte Testaccio in Rome. The second aspect refers to the study of Baetican oil consumption in the eastern part of the province of Hispania Tarraconensis based on the amphora finds. In this part various problems are discussed such as the mechanisms of oil trade in this region and the role of the province of Tarraconensis regarding the distribution and consumtion of these amphorae. The book was reviewed in both national (Pyrenae, 29; Geryon, 16; Gallaecia, 19) and international journals (Sehepunkte 7, No. 1).

The human settlement of the Pelagie Islands is marked by discontinuity from the prehistory to the modern era.
The location of the islands in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea gives them a strategic relevance as a landing point along the maritime trading routes but at the same time both the geographic isolation and the exiguity of the resources severely interfere with a durable settlement.
Every time that the archaeological research confirmed the human presence on the islands, it can be always connected to the broader events affecting more generally the Mediterranean basin. So it is in the prehistory, when the islands are involved in the Mediterranean overseas trade earlier for obsidian and later for metal supply or during the Roman Empire, when the marine resources were exploited on large scale, or even in the Late Antiquity when a whole community in disagreement with the central power for religion and politics exiled itself to the border of the Vandalic Reign.

Berni Millet, P. (2019). "Calendar graffiti on Dressel 20 amphorae. Asiaticus: another paradigmatic case with a new find from Brijuni". Amphora Research in Castrum Villa on Brijuni Island. Bezeczky Tamás (ed.). Archäologische Forschungen, Band: 29. Wien: 125-145.

Dressel 20 globular amphorae from Baetica usually preserve different types of inscriptions, among which the best known are ante cocturam graffiti, stamps, painted inscriptions (tituli picti) and post cocturam graffiti.2 All were added at different times by different hands using diverse writing techniques. Their purpose had to do with each of the stages in the life cycle of these olive oil amphorae: the manufacture of the pottery object, its filling with olive oil, its marketing, transportation and distribution, sale and consumption, and finally, its possible reuse for a completely different purpose.

El consum del peix i especialment del peix salat i les salaons va gaudir de gran popularitat arreu del món romà. Aquests foren uns productes molt apreciats per condimentar la taula, a la vegada que aportaven un suplement molt nutritiu a la dieta.

This paper presents the results of the analysis of the Roman pottery from Voorburg-Arentsburg (the harbour Forum Hadriani, Civitas Cananefatium). The pottery is imported along the river Rhine from the Lower Rhine region and the Mosel region. There are many similarities with the pottery from later forts at the Obergermanisch-Raetische Limes. Striking are the special (ritual) depositions in the gully.