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Dr
David
Williams
Dept of Archaeology
University of Southampton
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Highfield
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Distinctive FeaturesThis type of amphora is known to have been produced at a late Roman farm at Teliţa-valea Morilor.Variant 1: The mouth is quite large while the rim is thick, slightly rounded inside and flattened on the external side, with a slightly truncated cone neck with a slight concavity, and an ovoid body ending in a hollow basal knob. The zone of handle attachment is marked on the neck and the shoulder by sets of two horizontal grooves (Baumann, 1995: 421, Type 3, Pl.IX.2-5). Variant 2:The mouth is also quite large (c. 10 cm), with a thick, rectangular rim; the neck is more bulbous than the previous variant and narrowed toward the junction with shoulders. Horizontal grooves mark the area of the upper attachment of the handles. Other grooves occurr on the shoulder-body area, being made, probably, by a string that held together those two parts of the amphora during the drying period. Although we don’t know the lower part of the body it seems to be also ovoid, with the maximum diameter (26 cm) at the upper part of the body. See characteristics | ||
Date RangeFourth century only.Search: [1st century AD] [2nd century AD] [3rd century AD] [4th century AD] | ||
OriginThe production of this amphora in the province of Scythia was until recently quite obscure. The recent discovery of a late Roman farm at Teliţa-Valea Morilor, which specialized in ceramic production, sheds new light on the economy of the province of Scythia (Baumann, 1995: 269-437). This centre, concentrated not only on production of kitchen and table ceramics, but also on amphorae.Parallels for Variant 1 are still not known, but its general shape seems to suggest a Pontic influence. Search: [Black Sea] | ||
DistributionScythia.Search: [Black Sea] | ||
ContentsProbably wine, based on the representation of this type on the funerary stela of a wine merchant.Capacity of Variant 1 is around 20.5 litres up to the rim, 19 litres up to the middle of the shoulder (the lower attachment of the handle). Variant 2 could be half this capacity. Search: [Wine] | ||
CommentsPrincipal contributor: Andrei Opaiţ |