Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología

Current research trends on the material culture in
the province of Hispania Ulterior in the late republic and the
early years of the Augustean reign, make any systematisation
of amphorae in the Guadalquivir valley (in a wide sense) liable
to be soon superseded by new finds and evidence. The
present work aims at reviewing the state of the question of
1st century b. C. amphorae, not exhaustively but taken as
many contexts into account as possible, including production
and consumption areas. Starting with the material evidence,
we propose a typology divided in seventeen regional
amphora types in four groups, according to ‘commercial sucess’
and the duration of the type. The morphological analysis,
which includes new proposals on the origin and development
of types such as Haltern 70, Oberaden 83 and Urceus,
is offered along a historic-economic contextualisation
and the comparison with other coeval amphoric repertoires in
the Iberian Peninsula. The result is a complex typological and
functional proposal which, in our opinion, responds better to
the archaeological record for the chronology and geographical
context in hand. Obviously, the proposal aims at becoming
the base for further discussion in the future.

Keywords: Amphorae, Guadalquivir Valley, Roman Republic,
1st. century B.C., tipology

La Caleta (Cadiz) has been addressed in the last decades as part of the port facilities of the ancient city of Gadir/Gades. The research in the area has provided interesting data regarding the distribu- tion of amphorae on the basis of the study of a heterogeneous set of evidence from archaeological campaigns or from museum collections. The role of La Caleta and its surrounding shoals as anchor- age and commercial port should have been very important in Antiquity, at least from the Phoeni- cian period to the Late Roman Empire. Therefore, the analysis of the ceramic evidence from the site is quite relevant not only to contribute to a better un- derstanding of the use of this coastal area but also to study the features of the local maritime trade and the reception of foreign commodities. The main goal of the paper is to present some unpub- lished amphorae discovered in underwater contexts of the area of La Caleta in the 70’s. After a brief historiographic introduction we present the study of 36 amphorae individuals, and on the basis of the available data we will propose some ideas about the commercial  uxes from/to Gadir/Gades between the 5th century BC and the 2nd century AD.

Recent underwater archaeological surveys (2008-2010) carried out in La Caleta area brought to light interesting material from different historical phases of the Bay of Cadiz. Some small amphorae produced in the Hinterland of Ephesus are studied in this paper, all of them found in La Caleta, as first evidence of imports from the Aegean metropolis in Cádiz. Those Ephesian individuals could bea representative example of the long distance commerce and the high quality products consumed by the Gaditan elites during the Roman period and the Late Antiquity.To achieve this we will also refer to the Ephesian agricultural production, and particularly wine and the production and commercial structures of the Aegean metropolis.

Panels I-IV at the Leeds International Medieval Congress 2019, sessions 1012, 1112, 1212, 1312, Wed. 03 July - 09.00-18.00

Sponsored by the ERC Project CONNEC 'Connected Clerics: Building a Universal Church in the Late Antique West' and Royal Holloway, University of London. Organised by Victoria Leonard, Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London and David Natal Villazala.

The production of amphorae and the export of commodities transported in them was a key activity for the Mediterranean world in Antiquity. Consequently, their study is of enormous value for analysing the agricultural and fishing economy, and also the commercial mechanism of that period. Through the typological and chronological analysis of these ceramic containers, a high degree of knowledge has been achieved, especially for the production of the different Mediterranean societies from the second millennium BC to the Middle Ages.

In The Ovoid Amphorae in the Central and Western Mediterranean between the last two centuries of the Republic and the early days of the Roman Empire, several series of amphorae created in the Late Republican Roman period (2nd and 1st centuries BC) have been studied – a group of material until now little studied. All of these groups of containers share a common feature in the shape of their bodies which is generally ovoid. The fact that they were conceived and developed in the economic and political context in which Rome expanded throughout the Mediterranean, transferring to its new territories its production and commercialization procedures, bears witness to the almost total integration of the Mediterranean markets.

This publication is based on the proceedings of the workshop held at Seville University in December 2015. The book brings together contributions on the main production areas of these ovoid amphorae from the Atlantic to the Greek mainland / North Peloponnese, analysing in detail the origins, evolution and disappearance of their main series. It also includes case studies that are particularly relevant in relation to their distribution, consumption patterns, contents and relationship with other groups of amphorae manufactured in the Roman Imperial era. The aim of this publication has been to present an updated and complete synthesis of the so-called ovoid amphorae, from an interdisciplinary, international and diachronic standpoint.

Dealing with the ‘big family’ that ovoid transport containers comprise, and finding a definition that can encapsulate their many formal, geographical and cultural variations, was never going to be a straightforward or trouble-free matter. The concept of the ovoid form embraces a huge and diversified range of actual vessels. Traditionally, it includes such shapes as: 1) the so-called Brindisian amphorae, which were probably inspired by Corinthian and north Peloponnesian ovoid prototypes; 2) the little-known ovoid amphorae from the central and northern Italian Adriatic; 3) the also poorly systematised Campania-Lazio ovoid amphorae; 4) the early African amphorae from the Proconsularis, previously known as ‘Ancient Tripolitanian’ and recently renamed as ‘Ancient African’ type; 5) the ovoid amphorae from Tingitania – western north Africa; 6) the amphorae from several production areas of Hispania, each of them with its own specific repertoire, including four main and extensive regions – the Bay of Cadiz and the Mediterranean coastal area of Hispania Ulterior, the Guadalquivir valley also in Hispania Ulterior, the eastern costal area of Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis, and finally the western Atlantic façade of Hispania Ulterior, later Lusitania.