Roman Amphorae: a digital resource
University of Southampton, 2005
(updated 2014)
(updated 2014)
The aim of this website is to provide an online
introductory resource for the study of Roman amphorae. In the Roman empire
amphorae were pottery containers used for the non-local transport of
agricultural products. Their fragments litter archaeological sites of all kinds
on land and at sea and have been a subject of serious study for over 100 years.
They are crucially important to archaeologists in providing direct evidence for
inter-regional and long-distance movement of agricultural products within the
empire, and have been an important source of data in the increasingly
sophisticated debates about the scale and structure of the Roman economy over
the last thirty years. While the study of amphorae also encompasses the stamps,
painted inscriptions ( tituli picti) and production sites, this website
concentrates upon the containers alone.
- Aims of the website
- The Significance of Roman Amphorae
- The Development of Amphora Studies
- Development of the Roman amphora tradition
- Amphorae and Trade within the Roman empire
- Amphorae and Trade beyond the Roman empire
- Characterization of amphorae