Inscriptions on amphorae: a new contribution to the commercial history of Late Antiquity
Jean-Luc Fournet¹, Dominique Pieri²
¹Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, ²Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
Among the written materials supplied by the excavations, it is one that has long suffered from indifference: the notations appearing on the amphorae, commonly called tituli picti or dipinti. Unlike Latin tituli picti from the Roman Empire studied in the nineteenth century, those of the Eastern Mediterranean amphorae, written in Greek, have been neglected. The extreme difficulty of deciphering them explains why papyrologists and epigraphists let them away. Yet these entries allow, as a result of recent work, to propose for the first time to reconstruct the phases of the commercialization process of amphorae of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa during Late Antiquity. Observing a strict topographic organization on the amphora, the information obtained is very rich because they can indicate the names of producers and traders of agricultural property or securities of the content measured.
Ceramic contexts from Late Antiquity to Early Middle Ages (350 – 700), in rural settlements of Salamanca (Spain)
Enrique Ariño, Sarah Dahí
Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology of the University of Salamanca, Spain
The paper studies a whole series of ceramic contexts from six recently excavated sites in the territory of Northern Lusitania (nowadays the province of Salamanca, Spain). The pottery of this period in this part of the Iberian Peninsula has remained unknown and studies relating to its classification and chronology are barely beginning. The contexts of the studied sites of Salamanca province are dated between the late 4th century and the beginning of the 8th century and they present a significative number of pieces in stratified sequence.
The present study takes the ceramic context as the principal object of analysis, taking into account the formation and composition of each different stratigraphic unit (SU) in which these contexts appear, in order to obtain a full and not partial or distorted vision of the different fields. The archaeological record has been dated by the discovery of coins and by radiocarbon analysis and has been studied taking into account its relative chronology.
The ceramic contexts of the study period are dominated by the presence of common ware and common cooking ware, especially from the middle of the 6th century to the first years of the 8th century. However, it is possible to distinguish variations in the pottery record, with characteristic productions, types and decorations. The ceramic classification system can be applied to any kind of ceramic piece and it is based on what has been called a distinctive feature,which allows the formal evolution of different productions throughout the analysed period to be identified.
Empoli, a pottery production centre in the Arno valley (4th - 6th century) (Tuscany, Italy)
Federico Cantini, Giovanni Boschian, Marzia Gabriele
University of Pisa, Department of Archaeological Sciences, Italy
In this work we will illustrate the Late Antique production centre of Empoli, located in the middle of the Arno valley (Florence, Italy), along the Roman road that linked the cities of Pisa and Florence.
This area has a new development since the 4th century, when the zone belongs to the Tuscia Annonaria. In this moment new monumental villae are built, to organize the production of wine and other agricultural products, for the supply of Rome.
Old and more recent excavations in the centre of the town of Empoli led the archaeologists to discover the remains of pottery kilns that can be dated from the 4th century to the first half of the 6th century. In particular, this centre produced amphorae, of the type called “Empoli’s amphora”, red slipped ware (jugs, dishes, bowls and cups), painted ware (dishes and jugs) and fine ware (basins).
We will present the production markers, the typology of the amphorae and of the red slipped, painted and fine wares and the preliminary results of the analysis of their fabrics.
The pottery will be discussed in relation to the regional settings of production and distribution of wares, to understand the role of Empoli in Late Antique Tuscia.
Ceramic findings from the Early Byzantine church of Rhodiapolis (Turkey)
Özgü Çömezoğlu
Istanbul University, Turkey
Located at the province of Kumluca, western Antalya, Rhodiapolis is a middle-scale Roman settlement, survived in the Early Byzantine period. The ceramic findings from the Byzantine period range from the late 4th to the 9th century, with very few exceptions from the 11th and 12th centuries, which prove that the city was active until the 12th century. The Early Byzantine church, from where the content of this paper were unearthed, is located at the acropolis of the city. Excavation of the church has started and was conducted by Prof. Dr. Engin Akyürek since 2007. The first building phase of this three-aisled basilica can be dated to fifth or sixth centuries. Among the ceramic findings there are basins, cooking pots, bowls, flasks, lamps, pithoi, and some amphora fragments. The fabric is generally impure and on many fragments traces of light slip or paint are visible. Comparing with the neighbouring sites, most of these fragments can be dated from the fifth to te eighth/ninth centuries. The results of the excavations at the church indicate that ceramics were mainly used for daily purposes as storing or cooking. The aim of this study is to find the place of Rhodiapolis’ ceramic findings in Mediterranean and Lycia in terms of their forms and decorations.
Management and social significance of ceramic ware trade mechanisms in Late Antique Italy
Paolo De Vingo
University of Torino, Italy
The relationships between production system, organisation, distribution methods and social consequences of consumption in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages were initially studied by R. Hodges and D. Whitehouse, followed by C. Panella, J.P. Sodini, B. Ward Perkins, T. Loseby, M. McCormick, C. Wickham and S. Gelichi. Artisan activities were studied from both a general view and a more detailed perspective, using written sources wherever possible, while technological aspects were analysed with the aim of understanding the characteristics of the individual production systems and how they changed over the centuries. Instead, the distribution aspects were studied in a more simplified manner or through what are chiefly process-based analysis methods. Naturally, these issues generated different results also in relation to the periods examined. There are no doubts that, for the centuries that this conference intends on analysing, the research relative to Late Antiquity (5th - 6th centuries) is more significant than that conducted in relation to the subsequent period (7th - 10th centuries). While Sauro Gelichi’s recent analysis of the production and distribution of pottery in Italy in the early medieval centuries focuses mainly on production mechanisms rather than trade potential, his conclusions are an indispensable starting point for a more in-depth discussion of the real opportunity of using ceramic ware as an economic and social indicator between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.
Pottery, petrography and ethnos: an oil lamp from Yavneh-Yam (Israel) with a menorah decoration as case study
Moshe Fischer
TelAvivUniversity, Department & Institute of Archaeology, Israel
Yavneh-Yam was one of the anchorage places along the Palestinian coast representing the maritime gates of the Near East in general and ancient Israel in particular. Remains from the Bronze Age up to the Early Middle Ages occur at the site. Out of the big amount of pottery, one piece is presented here, namely an oil lamp of candlestick type, with a seven-branch menorah depicted on its rear part. Twofurther lamps of almost identical type are known from antique trade as originating in Yavneh-Yam, which makes it plausible to think of their use by a local Jewish population. Beside this, petrographic analysis of the clay seems to point to a local production intended for local Jewish customers during the fifth-sixth centuries AD. Worthmentioning is also the fact that such lamps are often decorated by a menorah-like palm-branch motif. The story of the relationship between the bishop Peter the Iberian living at Yavneh-Yam and a local Jewish fisherman as related by the bishop's vita adds some further religio-ethnic aspects to these finds.
Keywords:ethnoarchaeology, petrography.
Oral 5thsession “Regional contexts. East Mediterranean”
Amphores, céramiques culinaires et communes des niveaux omeyyades de Fustat – Istabl `Antar (le Caire, Egypte)
Roland-Pierre Gayraud, Jean-Christophe Tréglia
Université de Provence, Laboratoire d’Archéologie Médiévale Méditerranéenne, France
De 1985 à 2005, les fouilles de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale ont mis au jour des niveaux d’habitation depuis la fondation de la ville en 642 jusqu’à l’incendie de ces quartiers en 750. La chronologie des différents niveaux est établie d’après les très nombreuses monnaies et par des poids et sceaux de verre recueillis. Les datations des divers matériaux, dont la céramique, sont fiables et d’une grande précision.
L’étude du mobilier céramique en cours illustre pour cette période un approvisionnement où les productions régionales demeurent dominantes. La présence d’amphores peintes de type bag shaped et de petits unguentaria fusiformes révèle également, de façon discrète, l’entretien de liens marchands avec les rivages méridionaux du Levant. Par ailleurs, les conditions climatiques extrêmement arides du plateau d’Istabl Antar ont souvent permis la conservation remarquable de matières organiques associées à ces conteneurs. L’examen des céramiques culinaires et des céramiques communes montre que la batterie de cuisine, à l’image des vaisselles de table, puise encore largement, à cette date, dans l’attirail des ustensiles de tradition byzantine, commun à un grand nombre de régions du Proche-Orient, ici largement dominé par les formes ouvertes à anses horizontales et les plats à feu.
The Late Roman pottery of the Tall Zira’a in northern Jordan – common ware and trade material of a village in the area of influence of the Decapolis-cities Abila, Gadara, Gerasa and Pella
Frauke Kenkel
Institute of Archaeology of Cologne, Germany
Subject of the presented paper is the Late Roman pottery of the Tall Zira’a in north-western Jordan, based on the results of the excavations, which are taking place since 2003 within the “Gadara Region Project”. This project is studying the multifaceted cultures from over 5000 years of history in the Wadi al- ´Arab in northern Palestine. The Late Roman pottery (in particular the coarse ware, the cooking ware and the amphorae) is part of the author’s dissertation about the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine ceramic of the village Tall Zira’a, which will trace the development and the character of the settlement for the corresponding time.
The Wadi al-‘Arab is situated five kilometres southwest of the ancient Decapolis-city Gadara (today Umm Qais) and in the transition area between Palestine and the cultural region of Syria and was influenced from both regions, political and cultural.
The Tall Zira’a is the central and most convenient strategic place in the Wadi. With its 16 m thick cultural layers is the Tall until today the only place in northern Jordan, in which you can research the whole history of settlement from the early Bronze Age to the Islamic period continuously. The Late Roman pottery comes from two areas (Area I and Area II). While in Area I the main research goal lays on the residential architecture, it is in Area II on the administrative constructions. The biggest part of the Late Roman material makes the coarse ware, the cooking ware and the amphorae. We can record that some examples were imported and few are local productions. Especially the cooking ware is most likely from Gadara and amphorae of Egypt and Rhodes were proven. Therefore the trade connections are one of the main research questions to draw the picture of the Tall during the Late Roman period.
More than a rubbish pit. A 7th century pottery deposit from Ephesus (Turkey)
Sabine Ladstätter, Mag. Laura Rembart
Austrian Archaeological Institute, Wien, Austria
In 2006 a large rubbish pit was excavated close to the so-called Byzantine palace in Ephesus. The deposit contains a huge amount of kitchen and coarse pottery, amphorae, fine wares, glass vessels, animal bones and not at least more than 20 lead seals. It is doubtless the most important find complex of the later 7th century AD in Ephesus and bears a lot of new information about the typo-chronological development and the variety of several pottery classes. The lecture will focus on the coarse and cooking wares by using contextual, typo-chronological, statistical and petrographical methods.
LateRomancoarsewareandamphoraefromCirenaica (Libya): archaeometricalstudies, typologiesandproductions
Oliva Menozzi¹, Sonia Antonelli²
¹Chieti University, Dipartimento di Studi Classici, Italy, ²Chieti University, Department of Classical Studies and CAAM (Centro di Ateneo di Archeometria e Microanalisi), Italy
The archaeological mission of ChietiUniversity in Cyrenaica (Libya) has investigated, in the last 10 years, through intensive field surveys and excavations, several contexts of the Cyrenaican chora. The pottery finds from the different contexts and sites have been catalogued, both on the basis of their forms and typologies, as well as on the basis of their fabric and productions, in order to create a GIS project suitable for mapping their circulation and distribution in close relationship with their contexts of find, in order to understand also their locations and contexts. Among these numerous finds, the Late Roman coarse wares and amphorae are particularly numerous in specific villages and centres with a strong agricultural vocation, dating mainly to the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, with a long continuity of settlement and agricultural productions till the seventh century AD. Both through archaeometrical and archaeological studies is now possible to identify the main local productions, their inner circulation, as well as the markers of import-export of the amphorae and their contents. The methodologies employed for the identification of the fabrics have been based on a digital microscope scanning in situ (10X, 60X, 200X) for a preliminary selection of the samples, which have then been analysed with a RX Photo-Spectrometer, for reading the main chemical composition of the fabrics and to identify their main matrices, which are then analysed using SEM analysis in collaboration between archaeologists and geologists.
Functional and supply trends in the Late Roman coarseware of Ras el Bassit, Syria
PhilipMills¹, PaulReynolds²
¹University of Leicester, UK, ²University of Barcelona, ICREA Professor, ERAUB, Spain
Excavations of the church complex and surrounding settlement at Ras el Bassit have been proceeding since 2000. The settlement underwent a significant redevelopment in the fifth century. The church itself was adapted from an existing structure in the sixth century, with extensive remodelling in the later sixth century, before partial destruction in the early seventh century.
Bassit is a noted exporter of mortaria from the late third century. It also produced a number of other specialist products including a range of amphora, dolia and basins. This paper presents some preliminary suggestions about the development of the local industry in the transition to Late Antiquity, and some notes to a preliminary understanding of the morphological development of the basin/mortaria forms.
The paper will also present the range of amphora identified as made at Bassit including: Dressel 2-4 large thick walled types, a Koan type, a range of large and small flat bottomed amphora, and a late LRA1 copy.
How these discoveries relate to our understanding of the economic context of the late antique settlement will also be explored.
Pottery from the Eastern Marmarica (Egypt) - a semiarid region as producer and mediator
Heike Möller¹, Anna-Katharina Rieger²
¹Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg, Department of Classical Archaeology, Germany, ²University of Halle-Wittenberg, Department of Oriental Art and Archaeology, Germany
The ancient Marmarica (Northwestern Egypt), the area between the Cyrenaica and Mareotis, is archeologically almost unexplored and its material culture is therefore nearly unknown.
Yet, the deserted borderland of the Marmarica is a cultural rich area that played an important role, geographically as well as economically, as a mediator between east and west, north and south.
Archaeologists and geographers from the University of Halle-Wittenberg and Freiburg have examined the region for the last five years. During this time more than forty pottery production sites could be surveyed along the coast and around thirty more could be identified on the satellite image. The majority of the discovered sites show a local amphora production on a large scale dating from Ptolemaic times to the 4th century AD. Only one site stands out because it revealed vessels of the late 7th century AD. The identification of local amphorae close to waypoints of ancient trade routes, in particular on the south route to Siwa, provides the opportunity to track down the ancient exchange routes and the traded goods in Late Roman times.