Roman Transport Amphoras

Η εργασία αυτή, διδακτορική διατριβή του Σωτήρη Ραπτόπουλου εξετάζει ζητήματα οικονομικής ιστορίας των Κυκλάδων, μέσω της επαναξιολόγησης των παλαιότερων ερευνών και της παρουσίασης νέων. Στόχος είναι η εύρεση των βασικών στοιχείων των οικονομιών των Κυκλάδων –αλλά και οι διαφοροποιήσεις που τα συστήματα αυτά υφίστανται κατά το πέρασμα από τους ελληνιστικούς στους ρωμαϊκούς χρόνους.

Le anfore vinarie Dressel 6A sono frequentemente contraddistinte da marchi, che, attraverso l'analisi onomastica e proso-pografica coniugata alla disanima delle caratteristiche morfologiche, hanno permesso di riconoscere numerosi personaggi coinvolti nella produzione del vino e di collegarli a precise aree di provenienza, ipotesi confermate anche dalle indagini archeometriche degli impasti. A tali aree corrispondono anche le diverse qualità di vino contenute nelle Dressel 6A e commercializzate in Cisalpina, a Roma, nella Raetia e nel Noricum, in Oriente e in Grecia. L'analisi delle anfore ritrovate numerose in contesti datati in alcune città della Venetia permette di creare una sequenza cronologica delle presenze delle Dressel 6A, evidenziandone le caratteristiche morfologiche, epigrafiche e degli impasti, a partire dall'età augustea e con-sentono di formulare nuove ipotesi sulla provenienza e sulla cronologia finale, prolungando la loro diffusione almeno fino agli anni immediatamente successivi al 78/80 d.C.

In the last years, the use of geographical information systems has been common in many historical and geographical studies. Perhaps one of the least known applications is network analysis, a series of functions related to hydrology and mobility. Since 1994, researchers have used network analyses to understand costs and time expenditure in transportation in Roman times, with the aim of modeling commercial routes. Archaeological objects were employed to confirm those commercial distributions whose quantities were related basically to transport costs. The present articles go far beyond and attempt to understand decisions in building a transport network based on time series. It seems that not all Roman decisions in transport infrastructure were due to economic reasons; some parts of Roman roads were built basically for political reasons and affected later developments.

Die Versorgung der Metropolis Asiae wurde durch ein umfassendes ökonomisches System gewährleistet, dessen Grundelemente die Landwirtschaft, der Handel und das Handwerk darstellten. Das Thema des Vortrags am Institut für Klassische Archäologie und Kulturanthropologie in Bonn ist die Erschließung der in der Stadt verfügbaren Waren und deren Erzeuger, wodurch ein möglichst vielschichtiges Bild der ökonomischen Strukturen sowie der Lebensgrundlagen des antiken Ephesos präsentiert werden kann. Der Vortrag findet am Donnerstag, den 20. Januar 2022 um 18.00 c.t. statt.

In the following, I will discuss new evidence for a central Dalmatian production of the main types of Adriatic wine amphorae, mainly the Greco-Italic, Lamboglia 2 (L2) and Dressel 6A (Dr 6A) types, produced from the 3rd century B. C. to the 1st century A. D. Through xrf-analysis of amphora finds from the Dalmatian and Italian coasts, a case for a central Dalmatian
production of these wine amphorae, situated on the island of Vis (Issa), is presented.

Here are the first results of the rescue excavation for the construction of the port of Puntone di Scarlino (Tuscany). The joint work of underwater prospecting and ground control of the excavated sediments has made it possible to circumscribe some areas where excavation tests have been carried out. The excavations  allowed to reconstruct the stratigraphy sequence of the port basin from the end of the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD and brought to light the remains of a roman wooden hull, two probable shipwrecks, one of the II-I century BC, an imperial one and an area of homogeneous materials from the end of III-beginning II century BC, interpreted as the result of a cleaning of the hold of a commercial ship.

Πρόκειται για το τεύχος Περιλήψεων μιας έκδοσης που δεν ολοκληρώθηκε.  Παρουσιάζονται εδώ για να μην μείνει αμάρτυρο το εγχείρημα και να διατηρηθεί η βασική αρχαιολογική πληροφορία.  Οι περιλήψεις αφορούν σε Χαναανίτικους αμφορείς των Μυκηνών (Ε.Παλαιολόγου), αμφορείς από την Εύβοια (Α.Καραπασχαλίδου), αμφορείς από την Λευκάδα (Γ. Νάκας), αμφορείς από την Κασσάνδρα (Ι.Παπάγγελος), αμφορείς από την Σπάρτη (Χ. Κακούρου), αμφορείς από το Γύθειο (Χ. Γιαννακάκη), αμφορείς από την Κύμη Κάτω Ιταλίας (Sv. Savelli), αμφορείς από την Μένδη (Ε. Χίτσιου), αμφορείς από τον Πειραιά (Σ.Ραπτόπουλος), αμφορείς από την Μήλο (Σ. Ραπτόπουλος), αμφορείς  LR1 από την Ελλάδα (Σ.Δεμέστιχα), Κερκυραϊκούς αμφορείς (Δ.Κουρκουμέλης).
Επιμέλεια Πάνος Βούζας.

The recent excavations in the building commonly known as the ‘Terme di Elagabalo’ in Rome (held by the ‘Scienze dell’Antichità’ Department of the ‘Sapienza’ - University of Rome from 2007 to 2013) revealed large amounts of unpublished pottery fragments. The analysis of all the amphorae coming from the Middle Imperial ceramic assemblages from this site (dating from the 2nd to the early 3rd centuries AD) and the commonly accepted chronologies for the forms identified led to some reflections upon a few ancient economic themes. The Italian wine, after having created a hegemony for at least two or three centuries, with remains of containers for this good found all over the Mediterranean (and even beyond), seems to have had a constant decay, substituted by provincial ones during the 2nd century AD. This discontinuity, recognised since the 1970s by the scholarship, is called in literature the ‘2nd century AD crisis’ of Italian productions. The data concerning remains of wine-amphorae from this significant site, Rome, and Ostia brought to ponder over this scholarship, offering a few hypotheses and a slight refinement about this ‘crisis’.

Κύρια εργασία Μ.Τ.Σ./ στο Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο, 1990. Επόπτης: κ. Μ.Τιβέριος.
Στο τελευταίο μέρος των πινάκων χρησιμοποιήθηκαν τα σχέδια και τα διαγράματα XRD με την μεταγενέστερη, επεξεργασμένη μορφή τους.
Κάποιες από τις απόψεις του συγγραφέα έχουν έκτοτε διαφοροποιηθεί. Βλ.,π.χ., στην ανάρτηση "Κυκλάδες νήσοι" την τροποποιημένη άποψή μου για τους Ιουδαίους της Μήλου.
Η ανάλυσή μου για την Μηλιακή Στυπτηρία (alumen) βρίσκεται, εδώ, στην πληρέστερη ανάπτυξή της.

In the last decade, numerous papers have been delivered on the potential of portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) in archaeological ceramics. Additionally, new chemometric methods have been proposed to manage chemical dataset and facilitate the use of geochemical discrimination for provenance classification of ancient ceramics. In this contribute, the potential of portable Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) analysis and chemical data processing by Graph Clustering is evaluated for provenance classification of archaeological potteries, discussing possible merits and limits of the employed routine. A ceramic assemblage represented by seventy-three transport amphorae classified by typological analysis have been used as testing materials; spectra have been collected on samples simulating in situ analysis conditions (e.g. on fresh cut surfaces without any preparation) and Graph Clustering method has been applied in chemical data processing; comparison with classical Cluster Analysis (CA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is also evaluated. The obtained results favor the use of Graph Clustering for a preliminary classification of ceramics, which can be chemically analyzed in easy, fast and non-destructive way. With a 75.35% of correct attribution, the study shows the suitability of portable ED-XRF in rapid screening of a large number of ceramic samples usually recovered in the framework of archaeological excavation. Misclassifications have been mostly verified for samples exhibiting a coarse-grained clay paste, suggesting that the method is particularly suitable for fine-grained ceramic materials.

Μετά από τις τρεις πρόσφατες εκδόσεις που αφορούν στην οικονομία των Κυκλάδων και ειδικότερα της Μήλου κατά την αρχαιότητα-του ΢ωτήρη Ραπτόπουλου («Κυκλάδες νήσοι – ΢υμβολή στην οικονομική τους ιστορία κατά την Ελληνιστική και Αυτοκρατορική εποχή», Σρίπολις 2014), της Ε. LE QUÉRÉ («Les Cyclades sous l'Empire romain. Histoire d'une renaissance», Paris 2015) και των Ε. Photos-Jones – A. Hall (" Eros, Mercator and the Cultural Landscape of Melos in Antiquity " , Glasgow 2014), κρίνω ότι έφθασε η στιγμή να δώσω στη δημοσιότητα αυτούσιο ένα κείμενο που διεσκεύασα πολλές φορές μέχρι σήμερα, και παρουσίασα σε συντετμημένη μορφή, δίχως τους αναλυτικούς πίνακες που το συνόδευαν στην αρχή. Ακολουθούν, στο ίδιο pdf, οι σχετικές μου ανακοινώσεις από το 1997 μέχρι σήμερα, μαζί και η ανέκδοτη ανακοίνωσή μου στο συνέδριο X-RAY ARCHAEOMETRY, Tokyo 2002.