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Roman Amphorae and the Ager Falernus under the Empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Paul Arthur
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Anfore romane e ager falernus sotto l'impero

L'articolo illustra alcune forme di anfore fino ad ora sconosciute trovate nell'Ager Falernus in siti provvisti di fornaci. La loro identificazione è particolarmente importante, in quanto sembrano postdatare l'anfora forma Dressel 2–4, il tipico contenitore commerciale di vino del primo periodo imperiale prodotto in questa zona. Se le nuove anfore erano destinate al trasporto del vino dagli inizi del secondo secolo d.C. in poi, ciò costituirebbe una valida evidenza archeologica a sostegno dell'impressione ricavata dalle fonti di una produzione ed esportazione continua del vino falerno fino agli inizi del quarto secolo almeno.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 50 , November 1982 , pp. 22 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1982

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References

I should like to thank Prof. Fausto Zevi and Dott. Giuliana Tocco, of the Soprintendenza Archeologica delle provincie di Napoli e Caserta, for the welcome that they have given to field survey in the ager Falernus and for permission to export pottery samples for analysis. Dott. Giuliana Miraglia was of great assistance during the 1980 survey season when the kiln sites were first examined, whilst Prof. André Tchernia and Dr. Antoinette Hesnard have discussed some of the problems of the area with me. This paper owes much to Dr. David Williams who, with his customary kindness, has examined and commented on samples of the pottery in thin-section.

1 D'Arms, J. H. and Kopff, E. C. (Eds.), Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome XXXVI (Rome, 1980)Google Scholar.

2 A. Tchernia, ‘Quelques remarques sur le commerce du vin et les amphores’, ibid., 305–12, and C. Panella, ‘Retroterra, porti e mercati; l'esempio dell'ager Falernus’, ibid., 251–9.

3 The exportation of Italian wine amphorae seems already to have declined sharply by the middle of the first century A.D., although production of the Dressel form 2–4 continued into the second century. If one examines the Italian wine amphorae found in Britain, which was annexed in A.D. 43, the majority appear to have been pre-Roman imports. True Italian Dressel 2–4s are very scarce and may numerically be no more apparent than Koan and Rhodian amphorae, the bulk of wine consumption being satisfied by importation from southern France.

4 Kuhn, C. G. (ed.), Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia (repr. Hildesheim, 1964–1965), XIV, 24–6Google Scholar; ἔγωγά τοι τῶν οἲνων τῶ Φαλερὶνων έκάστον τήν ήλικίαν άναγιώακων έπιγεγραμμένην τοῐς κεραμίοις, εἲχόμην τῆς γεύσεως, ὃσοι πλειόνων έτῶν ἧσαν εἴκοσι, προερχὸμενος άπ, αὐτῶν ἂχρι τῶν ούδὲν ὑπόπικρον ἐχόντων.

5 Peacock, D. P. S., ‘Recent Discoveries of Roman Amphora Kilns in Italy’, Ant.J. LVII (1977), 262–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and C. Panella, op. cit. The site was first recognised by Uenze, O., Frührömische Amphoren als Zeitmarken im Spätlatene (Marburg, 1958)Google Scholar.

6 The results of Hesnard's survey are presented in the important paper Hesnard, A. and Lemoine, Ch., ‘Les Amphores du Cécube et du Falerne, Prospections, Typologie, Analyses’, MelEFR 93 (1981), 243–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 C. Panella, op. cit., 253. Johannowsky, W., ‘Problemi Archeologici Campani’, RAccArchNap L (1975), 3–38Google Scholar.

8 W. Johannowsky, op. cit., 36.

9 Hayes, J. W., Late Roman Pottery, A Catalogue of Roman Fine Wares (London, 1972)Google Scholar.

10 Mattingly, H. and Sydenham, E. A., Roman Imperial Coinage VGoogle Scholar, Pt. 2, Probus 196.

11 Johannowsky, op. cit. Prof. André Tchernia informs me that he too has searched for the site, but to no avail.

12 The passages in inverted commas are the results obtained through the examination of pottery in thin-section by Dr. David Williams, of the University of Southampton, with the aid of a petrological microscope.

13 Some idea of the range of Dressel 2–4 stub variation may be obtained from illustrations in the published conference papers Mèthodes Classiques et Méthodes Formelles dans l'Etude des Amphores (Rome, 1978)Google Scholar.

14 Production of Graeco-Italic amphorae is already attested in Campania at Monte Vico, Ischia, where excavations by G. Buchner have revealed kiln waste including stamped amphorae of Tr. Loisius and M. Anterius. Cf. Lepore, E., ‘Per la storia economico-sociale di Neapolis’, Parola del Passato (1952), 312–13Google Scholar; ibid., Storia di Napoli 1 (Naples, 1967), 270; Monti, P., Ischia, Archeologia e Storia (Naples, 1980), 145–7Google Scholar. An example of the stamp TR.LOISIO was found at Pompeii in a mid second century context during recent excavations conducted by the writer.

15 In 1980 the writer picked up a stamped Dressel IB rim sherd from a kiln site at Sinuessa. The stamp reads L.M in a small rectangular cartouche and is paralleled by another such stamp from Sinuessa in private possession (Inf. from Dott. Mario Pagano). The stamp was known to Callender, M. H., Roman Amphorae with Index of Stamps (London, 1965), 161Google Scholar, no. 886, where he cites examples from Mt. Beuvray, Oberaden and Perigueux. A further unpublished example was found at Enserune in southern France (Inf. from Dr. Michel Feugere).

Johannowsky, op. cit., 24, has suggested that the amphorae stamped CAEDICIAE M.F. VICTRIX (Callender, op. cit., 86, no. 218) which have been found at Rome, Florence, Terracina and Carthage may also have originated from the area of Sinuessa. Panella, op. cit., 255, follows up the hypothesis, advancing also the possibility that the Spargi wreck, off northern Sardinia, could have come from Sinuessa.

16 The villa is briefly described by Villucci, A. M., ‘Note di presenza romana nell'agro di Suessa Aurunca’, Studia Suessana I (1979), 41–59Google Scholar. It has been the subject of two seasons of rescue excavation by the writer in 1979 and 1980 for the Soprintendenza Archeologica delle provincie di Napoli e Caserta.

17 For portus Cosanus see Will, E. Lyding, ‘The Sestius Amphoras; A Reappraisal’, Journ. Field Arch. 6, 3 (1979), 339–50Google Scholar, and Manacorda, D., ‘The Ager Cosanus and the Production of the Amphorae of Sestius; New Evidence and a Reassessment’, JRS 68 (1978), 122–31Google Scholar.

18 I am grateful to Dr. John Hayes for this information.

19 Jashemski, W. F., The Gardens of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the villas destroyed by Vesuvius (New York, 1979), 224Google Scholar, fig. 326, for a depiction of a wine skin on a cart from Pompeii, , Regio VI.x.IGoogle Scholar.

20 Johannowsky, op. cit., fig. 1.

21 Carandini, A. and Settis, S., Schiavi e Padroni nell'Etruria Romano, La villa di Settefinestre dallo scavo alla mostra (Bari, 1979)Google Scholar, tabella 39.

22 See note 4.

23 Brouette, E., ‘ “Vinum Falernum”, Contribution a l'etude de la semantique latine au haut moyen-age’, Classica et Mediaevalia X (1949), 263–73Google Scholar.