MATERIALE ŞI CERCETĂRI ARHEOLOGICE (serie nouă), XI, 2015, p. 193– 208 ORIENTAL AMPHORAE DISCOVERED AT HISTRIA IN THE ACROPOLIS CENTRE-SOUTH SECTOR (2014)

ALEXANDRU BĂDESCU*, ALEXANDRA BIVOLARU**

Abstract

Abstract

* * * For the description of the archaeological context of the pottery analyzed in this contribution see Bottez et alii 2015 (present volume). * * *

Amphorae

As it happens in the case of important civilisations, such as the Roman one “ the function can be deduced from the shape, because important civilizations produce specializations – of words, of jobs, of buildings, of weapons and soldiers” 1. Even for the Roman world, there are often doubts on the specific use of an amphora – for storage, transport or as tableware. Amphorae represent a special, very important category of pottery, as they best reflect trade relations with other provinces of the Roman Empire. The information they provide, doubled or not by written sources, allow us to obtain well delimited regional and chronological “ X-rays” that can be related to historical events. Another advantage provided by the study of amphorae is the “ survival” of certain shapes from the Greek down to the Roman or even Roman-Byzantine periods. The disadvantages for the Roman-Byzantine amphorae are represented by the “ dilution” of the merchandize – shape relation, which for the Greek-Roman period was a quasi-permanent reality. As the pots could be used for several transports, in many cases a type of amphora was used for transporting different products. The analysis of organic matter on the walls of Late Roman amphorae confirmed this fact2. In this situation it is clear that one of the criteria used in classifying the transport amphorae, namely according to the transported product, must be used considering this fact. Another criterion for classifying the amphorae is the production centre, used especially for the Greek amphorae. Typological and chronological analyses become more difficult in the case of Roman and Roman-Byzantine amphorae that have highly varied variants. And, to make matters more complicated, very often the same type of amphora was produced in several centres.

I. Oriental amphorae

I. 1. Berenice LRA 1 ; Carthage LRA 1 ; British B II ; Rădulescu 1976, type 10 ; Scorpan 1976, type VIII B ; Egloff 1977, no. 169, 164, 166 ; Böttger 1982, type II/ 1 ; Peacock 1984 shape 2 ; Keay 1984, type LIII ; Kuzmanov 1985, type XIII-XIV ; Peacock, Williams 1986, type 44 ; Hayes 1992, type 5 ; Kuzmanov, Salkin 1992, type 26 ; Sazanov 1997, type 1 ; Opaiţ 1991a, D I ; Papadopoulos 1989, type 2