The Roman Amphora and its Many Uses
Even though ancient Rome existed over two thousand years ago, historians today know an amazing amount about that society. This is due in large part to its geographical reach and the written materials that are needed to accommodate a state of that size.
However, like any ancient society, historians and archaeologists can learn a lot about day-to-day life in these cultures by studying the remains of the buildings they lived in and the tools that they used.
One example of this is the ubiquitous form of pottery known as the amphora.
What is an Amphora?
An amphora is a particular type of pottery used by the Romans and many other peoples in antiquity. It is a ceramic jar with a tapered bottom, a rimmed top, and two vertical handles near the top of the container. It is these handles which give the form its name, coming from the Greek amphi-phoreus, which roughly translates to 'carried on both sides'.
This shape was a practical choice because it meant that a great number of amphorae could be fit snugly and securely tied together in the cargo hold of a ship or a wagon.
While the exact shape and material would vary over time and in different locations, this rough pattern was always used due to its effectiveness.
In the time of ancient Rome, everyone from common people to the emperor's household would use an amphora to store and transport foodstuffs such as wine and olive oil, often sealing the top with resin or some other watertight material. They were also used to store dry goods like cereals and dried fish.
Some of these storage containers were as large as three feet tall, while others were small enough to sit on a table top for serving purposes. In Rome and other similarly opulent cultures, these serving amphorae could be decorated with vibrant paintings or other ornamentation.
Origin of the Amphora
Amphorae have been used all over the world since before recorded history. The earliest archaeological examples of them are from a Neolithic site in China that dates back to 4,800 BC. The earliest evidence of their usage in the Mediterranean world is from the Phoenician coast and dates back to about 3,500 BC.
From there, the use of these efficient storage containers spread throughout the region of classical antiquity throughout the Iron and Bronze Ages.
Like so many other things, the Romans borrowed the use of amphorae from the ancient Greeks, where they had become a form of high art, during the Hellenization that occurred in the early Roman Republic after generations of trade between the two cultures.
It was actually the Romans who standardized the name of the vessel in Latin using the Greek term. Also, like so many things, the Romans would go on to make the concept entirely their own.
Roman Amphorae
When the technology first came to ancient Rome in about the second century BC, it was merely as a utilitarian device that was useful for storage. The Roman amphorae were ceramic pots made from terracotta using a potter's wheel. They would be used to hold not only the usual wine and olive oil, but preserved fruits and a fish sauce called garum that were staples of the ancient Roman diet.
The Romans had a way of standardizing things such as weights and measures in their culture, and the Roman amphora was no different. Soon, it was common practice for all the pots that would contain wine to be one standard size, all the pots used to carry dried fish to be another standard size, and so on.
Over the course of many generations, these storage vessels took on a cultural significance to the Roman people that caused them to be used in other aspects of their lives, for purposes that were not strictly utilitarian. For example, residents in some parts of Rome's territory were known to bury infants and young children who had died by placing them in an amphora.
Another, less symbolic use for these storage containers that has been observed in the archaeological record is as construction materials. In ancient Rome, people would sometimes bury large jars in marshy land to act as a sort of crude foundational pillar that, in large numbers, could help support the building of a structure.
Perhaps the single greatest example of how prevalent the use of these vessels was in ancient Rome is the Monte Testaccio. This is a 115ft tall mound located on the River Tiber in the very southern part of Rome that is made almost entirely from the shards of over 53 million amphorae. The Monte Testaccio is located near the site of the Horrea Galbae, a large complex of warehouses that existed in ancient Roman times and housed their food reserves.
The huge mound is the product of the city's ravenous appetite for olive oil during those times, when it was the largest city in the world in terms of population.
The Use of Stamps
From early on in classical antiquity, the maker of an amphora would affix a stamp to it before it was fired. This stamp would tell people what workshop manufactured the piece.
Over time, these stamps came to bear a greater amount of information, such as a guaranteed volume along with the official who inspected it for this purpose. Amphorae filled with wine would have a stamp that indicated the year it was made and when it should be consumed by.
Government officials would also use them to determine importation duties and taxes that might be associated with certain goods coming from certain places.
The Romans took this practice a step farther and also included detailed labels that would be painted onto the jars, called tituli picti. In addition to information denoted by the traditional stamps, these labels would outline in great detail the contents, origin, destination, and even marketing slogans, not unlike the food labels that exist in the modern day.
These stamps and tituli picti are a trove of information for archaeologists and historians. Not only do they provide information about the diets of the ancient Romans, but they also show the extent of trade in the region by telling how far away a shipment of goods might have come from.
