VARIA ANATOLICA XXI PATABS I PRODUCTION AND TRADE OF AMPHORAE IN THE BLACK SEA Actes de la Table Ronde internationale de Batoumi et Trabzon, 27-29 Avril 2006 éqités par Dominique KASSAB TEZ.GOR et Nino INAISHVILI INSTITUT FRANCAIS D’ETUDES ANATOLIENNES-GEORGES DUMEZIL DE BOCCARD Edition-Diffusion AL, ruc de Médicis 75006 Paris 2010Michael VICKERS* AMPHORA STUDIES: IS THERE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? [is an honour to have been asked to speak at the Table-Ronde “Proditetion and trade of amphorae {in the Black Sea”, but even as L begin to speak I do not know how T have eamed it. If have any rep- lation at all ia the atea of ancient ceramics, itis - so to speak ~ as a ceramoclast. This is not to say that I have left behind me in Oxford a Monte Testaccio of Sir John Beazley’s favourite red-figure ‘vases, but that I take a sceptical view of some of the claims made in the name of ancient ceramics. T well recall how diverting it was when some years ago my colleague David Gill and I were able to show that pottery alone was never the prime trading commodity in any civilisation, and that a vast quantity of decorated pottery would have to be sold in order to pay for even a modest amount of what ‘we might call serious trading goods, For example, the porcelain that has survived in significant ’sev- enteenth century wrecks will, judging by the records of the Bast India Company, have barely fighred in the overall statistics. Real irade was conducted in textiles, furniture and tea’, Similarly, it would seem that all the Athenian painted pottery vessels recorded by the Beazley Archive in Oxford, some 25,000 of taem when I last asked, will scarcely have paid for a single shipment of grain to a city whose annual requirement was between 100 and 200 such shipments, and that the proceeds of all the 50,000 Attic black- and red-figured pots unearthed to date, if they were sold in antiquity, would have paid the wages of the crew ofa single trireme for seven months’, and we know that there were hun- reds of triremes active for years at a time, Again, trade in ceramics will have been secondary to ‘major export items, in the case of Athens secondary to oil, and especially to the shipping of silver from Laurium. Gill and Ihave argued that the fine wares shipped in such quantities from Athens were cheap, down-market, versions of the silverware, much of it decorated with gold-figure decoration, that was to be seen in the tables of the rich, whether in Athens or Etruria’ Lused to bea céramofogue of the traditional sort myself, and believed and even taught the nonsense still tobe found in handbooks on Greeks ceramics. used to smile at the aneedote told about the eigh= teenth century Turkish Governor of Corinth who, when he was told that two Englishmen were col- Jecting fragments of pottery scattered amongst the ruins of the ancient city, “sent For them and enquired rather sharply who they were”. “English gentlemen”, was the answer. “Gentlemen”, he repeated, “and is it like gentlemen to be seen picking up pieces of broken pots and groping among heaps of rubbish?”*. But now T can see how essentially sound was the Turkish Govemor's point of view. At any rate, it was closer to that of the ancients whose civilisation I have chosen to study, in that the an= cients placed considerably more weight on precious materials than on ceramic, ‘There is one weakness in my position as I have described it. I mentioned trade in “major export items, such as oil”. Liquids are difficult to carry without appropriate containers, and this is where am *) University of Oxford, 14. Kithiithataby-Wells, The British Best Sumatran Presidency 1760-1785: Problems of Barly Colonial Enterprise Kuala Lumpur, 1977: 220; Viekers, Gill 1996; 91-92, 2) Information kinally supplied by Dr Thomas Manaack of the Beazley Archive at Oxted, 3) M. Beard, “Adopting an approach”, in T. Rasmussen and N. Spivey, Looking at Greek Vases, Camnotidge, 1991: LS, 4) D.W.. Gill and M. Vickess, “They were expendable: Greek vases in the Eteusean tomb", in Fatselle mdullique vaisselle éramique, Actes dela Tabte Ronde, Nantes, 1994, REA 97 (1995): 225-249. 5) Vickers, Gill 1996; ef. M. Viekers, Skeuomorphismus, oder die Kunst aus wenig vel 2u machen, 16, Tierer Winck hmariasprogrannn 1998, Mainz, 199; d., "*Materialwerte gestom und heute-eine Kleine Geschichte fiber don Stellenwer: eriechischer Keramik”, Antike Welt 35 (2004): 63-9; id, “Art ot Kitsch?”, Apollo Margacine (lanuary 2007) 114-115, 6) Quoted in C.P. Bracken, Antiquities Acquired” the Spollaion of Greece, Newton Abbot, 1975: AL14 MICHAEL VICKERS 1006. Thanks to research results announced towards the end of 2007, it there are now promising avenues of research thet shell place amphorae studies on a new footing, and allow their practitioners to speak with a new authority ‘nti recently, the situation was as much as described by Brendan Foley in a telling analogy. “Imag- ine if you were asked to analyze the American economy just by looking at the empty sheils of 40- {Got shipping containers", he seid. “You could sey something, but not much" Citlen showed shoe Gren the dats relating to ancient amphorse thentseives are open to debate, Problenis sbousd vie Stamped amphorae, before we get around to discussing unstamped ones, tis easier to erente statistics, {ociassify and to date the stamped amphoree, which are known mosty from thelr stamps alone the survival pattern depends largely on where there happen to have been archaeological ‘excavations, ‘hich is not always a elle guide to ancient reality. Garin reflected onthe probiems arising from Sroker stamps — more likely to occur when stamps were comparatively large, as on amphorae of Sinope and Heraclea He notes ioo that there may be tendency on the pat of excavators tearees bre amps on handles more readily than stamps on necks, which are often more difficult 10 recognise, [ais may, he suggests, be why many Sinopian handle-stamps have been found at Athens: whale Hee clean neck stamped ones are absent, forall that citizens of Heraclea are attested much mace far Guecaly inthe epigraphic record. IT might interject a personal note here: we must avoid the navicg that pots equal people, and this analysis comes dangerously close, Room should be given to middle- zen, for trans-shipment, Finds of Sinopian amphorae at Athens might in themselves explain the pres- aoe pratactean merchants, but then it just as easly might not, Zor these things are amposciee to prove. But Ifso much uncertainty reigns in a comparatively well-documented area, wher oe ye ty make of the rest, where there are so manty imponderables? Jip fludy of amphora stamps has led to an understanding ofthe sources and dates of the vessels which they once adorned, Although even here, a small percentage remains unidest ied, and any chronological data are relative, rather than absolute. But even the most refined analysis is incapable of Biving us reliable statistics concerning the total number of amphorse imported ftom « given centre phorae in different workshops carried stamps: Bs Pektls oF amphorae in commercial use on Thasos, the figures varied between 26°), 12.599 oni 80%, And this is before the vessels have been shipped abroad to be found in siles aroond tre, Black should be # reason for concern for amphorologists, Garitn mentions the possibilty that araphorae may have been shipped empty as containers in their cia ht. "The suggestion has been made io ordero explain the abundance of exported Ridin ase Bhorae: fo many, some think, by likely Rhodian exports of their contents, Gatfan, ily, T think, FB Gute Fez sur ecommerce dee smphoresgreoques en mer Noire in Carl (ed) 1999: 131-142 *S} Quoted nD. Chandler, “Cask from the pst Team {Dsancent eso rom DNA MIP Nis Cooked 36s,AMPHORA STUDIES: IS THERE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL? 15 distances himself from this view, and 1 am reminded of the only account I have ever found of pottery being traded in its own right, as the major element in a cargo, in either antiquity or modem times, This was in Syria in the 1930s, when farmers travelled by sea for some 240 km in order to acquire new amphorae at a rate of two vessels for one donkey load of sheep dung’. Garlan, and again | am sure that he is right, gives plenty of scope for the re-utiisation of old amphoree, but this again con- tributes to the uncertainties with which the study of amphorae is beset. Then, the apparent need to imbue the data with a significance it probably cannot bear led one scholar to suggest that ancient consumers might distinguish “Sweet Rhodian” from “Dry Rhodian” ‘by means of the month mentioned on the amphora handle-stamp, and he had his followers, It ig true that the hypothesis is wholly sane compared with the flights of fancy that prevail in the study of Greek painted ceramics — for example, the view of Beazley and others that potters might have been enter- tained to dinner by Athenian aristocrats, and that they even retumed such hospitality”, Just as man- made fibres can be very hard-wearing, the same applies to man-made facts, Thankfully, the Sweet and Dry Rhodian hypothesis has bit the dust, but we should be on our guard against the tendency 10 ‘employ rose-tinted spectacles when we survey the evidence. Tt may, as Garlan has suggested, be possible to use the data that can be extracted from the archae- ological record with reasonable certainty in otder to attempt to establish trade routes, but T cannot help asking myself whether I really am any the wiser if am told that there are fewer Rhodian ampliora stamps at Panticapaeum than at Phanagoria, of that there are more Heraclean stamps on the European side of the Cimmerian Bosphorus than the Asiatic side. One turns with relief to the private speeches of Demosthenes (or his imitators) and learns more certain facts in a couple of paragraphs about wine shipped in amphorae than might be produced in a dozen conferences, One thinks in particular of the speech Against Lacritus, where we learn about the supposed shipment of 3000 amphorae (or keramia) of Mendean wine to destinations on the Black Sea (in fact only 450 went), of of a vessel oa its retwm journey to Athens wrecked while coasting from Pantieapacum to Theodosia carrying salt fish and 80 amphorae (stamnoi in fact) of Coan wine that had gone sour!, No matter how hard we try, We can never produce this kind of information I'm sorry to be so negative, but have relied heavily on Garlan’s 1994 contribution, which he him self described es “[une} intervention de fagon trop pessimiste, voire un peu aibiliste”, Reading and cereading his paper, one inevitably has thoughts of one’s own. An observation Garlan makes about the possibility that imported wine might have been transferred from amphorae to wine-skins for car riage upeountry reminded me of the world beyond pottery. Nearly all the goods made from organic materials in antiquity have disappeared from view, and we can only reconstruct then indirectly, Fre~ quently, we only have ceramic versions, and these have tended to become the totality of the ancient reality in most people’s minds. One thinks, for example, of ostraka. And we all think we know what ‘an ostrakon is (or was): one of those potsherds with the name of an Athenian destined for exile, or ostracism, scratched on it, But the original meaning of ostrakon is ceratinaceous tissue, and in partic ular tortoiseshell™, A single tortoise would have given up dozens of osiraka, and it is ty hunch that there were far more organic osiraka in use in ancient Athens than pottery ones". Wine skins, not to mention barrels, will have been extremely common, but because they were made of perishable ma- {orial, they have vanished from the archaeological record and sometimes from the imaginations of scholars charged with the reconstruction of the ancient wine-trade, Something similar happened with gold, ivory and silver vessels, and all we are left with are ceramic analogues. ‘This ig all by way of 9) MLL. Mallowan, “Phoenigian carying tade: Syria”, Amtigugy 13 (1939): 86-87 10) Most recently: G, Griown, “Der schine Leagros oder Tyratnenmider, Kinstes, wad Bansusen ies apitarchaischen ‘Athen, Antike Welt 32 (2001); 179-195, i) Demosthenes, 25, 10, 32 £12) LSI sy, astraton, (6a FAD. Francia and M. Vickers, “Tho Agora revisited: Athonian chronology c, 800-850 B.C.", ABSA 83 (LURR): 145-16 MICHAEL VICKERS {ying that the ancient world was fur more complex than we Sometimes give it credit for, and that we should be open and alet to factors beyond, but Potentially ditectly relevant to, our field of study whet. ever that may be. But all is not gloom, and there are positive developments in amphora studies. Since Galan wrote fis Pessimistic assessment, Mark Laval, for example hee demonstrated how usefull amphorae can be in chronological studies#, But itis in the area of residue studies that the greatest progress has bean trade; Wien Garlan wrote in 1999, i did not seem poseibie ik be certain what most amphorae actually Sontained (surviving olive pts indicates the original conten of a few). He was extremely candid, And cited Sinope as a site where caution should be exercised, for while Sinope was noted by Strabo for its olive production and forthe salting Of tunny fish, its amphora stamps frequently berg grapes pr vessels for the consumption of wine. Residue studi sy ® however, an area of amphorology that G38 recently produced many useful results, whether et bk of the analysis of storage jars from Shulaveri in eastern Georgia that showed they ones Contained resinated red wine, the earliest known Tn Bagmila Pere! Othe traces of pistecie resin incense that hhee hen found in Canaanite amphorae in Beypt®, But even here,a note of caution needs to be ure ‘We know for example that salted meat carried in Rea some Punic amphorae, and the suggestion has been owt that it may also have been coca Roman amphorae as well. If; however fish or mest een shipped in brine or olive oil, ot in residing ah woul be —2s Andvew Wilson has wisely noted sn ‘ain “potential for confusion Ore alates aiming to identify contents from the presence oy absence of pitch finings or traces of oil related fatty acids"? The really important development which ~ ifthe brognostications are right ~ will revolutionize amphora studies, is the discovery that DNA molecule, scraped from the insides of amphorac newly sani Hom sea might supply the missing evidence, Only tw vessels have so far been analysed: trade Amphorae from a shipwreck ofthe fouth century Bic lying at a depth of some 70 metres off the Acgean island of Chios, The wreck had been found in 2004; and was surveyed in 2005" In the autumn 02007, a paper appeared in the Journal (Lplrchacological Science showing that “deep water akan logical artifacts that contain no apparent physical ehoc, an still retain genetic traces of their orig inal contents” these traces can be easily detected an amplified using modern DNA techniques”. One of the amphorae studied, agninst all appearances, soccoca ‘0 have contained olive oil with strong the amor an for flavouring or preservative punposes (or both) “Against ail appearances", because the amphora in question was of a kind shown on Chg Coins and usually thought of as a wine con, tainer!”. The other amphora, of hitherto uncertain (out Aegean) origin, was shown to have come fren Chios or its neighbourhood on account of the mastie fesidues found in it, But whether it originally céntained mastic alone, o wine flavoured with mastic Amncertain, For wine traces were absent, prob. bly because they are more fugitive in subaquatic condita ee Further analysis is now being carried enn more amphorae, and ifthe technique proves successful it promises to put the study of amphorae on a new plane, 4) M. Lawal, “Negotiating chronoto Hannestad (eds) 2005: 4168, 15)"8.000.yearold wine uncarthed in Ge cin Hanes 28 December 200 ~ upvurustonenagss cominenss SEMMEMOOIRS hen: soc also . MeGovern, scion Wine The es far the Origins of Viniculture, Princeton 260s Bann, Sova PE, MeGovem eral, "Evidence v6 earn fermentations in ancient wine”, Journal of Moleeain: volutlon 57 (2003): 226 sullucefeanganite shim, 16) hitlamamnaprojeetc pare Cy Busnes: Roman explosion afm ee ‘JRA 19,2 (2006), JOP. Foley K. Dells Pona, D, Sakellinov, B Baghanrt {guilt R Bosc. D Evapeisi, V. Fearn K, Katsaros, pihurkousels A. Males P Mich, D. Mina Cee Ce ah, D. Switzet, and T, Theodoulou, “The 2005 Chie: OD es UNCY: ne methods forunderwatrarcacolggs Hesperia (n press). reoar pein. “Chios in the Athenian Empi' in Beene ee ‘Vephopoulou-Richacdsom (es), Chios: A Con Jerenee atthe Honereion n Chan 1984. Onturh. 19k 40 SMC: Hansson, B.P. Foley, “Ancient DNA fregatots rig’ Classi! Greckarphora reveal cargo of 2400-year old Shipwree 2f Archaeological Science 26 (2609). Th °F Aegean auphora research, Thesian chronology, and Pry Il", n Stolba, ee