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MOB 3. Mobile artifact. (Amphora).
Amphora-type: Kapitän II / Augst 54 / Peacock & Williams Class 47 / Niederbieber 77 /
Berenice MRA 7 / Robinson M237 / Ostia Form VI / Keay Type XII
Present location: Naval Museum, Capo Colonna.
Description: Two vertical handles, almost oval in section, stretch from the nearly flat
shoulder to the top of the neck. They arch at the level of the rim, which is narrow with a
sharp flange. The neck is tall and decorated with broad wheel-ridging. In the intact
examples the body tapers to a hollow, tubular toe. The total height of the known, intact
specimens is between 0.75 and 0.80 m, and seems to decrease throughout time. An
example of the fifth century A.D., from Athens, is only 0.43 m high. 363 The inner capacity
seems to have been of ca. 9 l. 364
Origin: There is no direct evidence, since not one of the amphoras bore stamps or tituli
picti. Based on distribution patterns, the place of origin seems to be the Aegean Sea. The
texture of the fabric is closely connected with amphoras produced at Kos, and according to
S. J. Keay it is possible that these amphoras were manufactured there. 365
275
Geographical Distribution: While it is most common in the eastern Mediterranean and
Ostia, some examples have also been found in Germany, Britain, Greece, Spain, Romania,
Iraq, Nubia, and south Russia. 366
Content: Based on traces of pitch, wine has been suggested. 367
Date range: Excavations in Ostia show that the production of this amphora type began in
the second half of the second century A.D. 368 The production peaked in the third century
A.D., and continued until the beginning of the fifth century A.D., as several amphoras
from Athens and Corinth testify. 369
Fabric: Bright orange in color, with inclusions of big grains of quartz.
otes: Discovered in 1983, during the Aquarius’ excavation
Bibliography: unpublished.
363 Opaiţ 2004, 13.
364 Opaiţ 2004, 13.
365 Keay 1984, 137.
366 Peacock-Williams 1986, 193; Keay 1984, 137; Opaiţ 2004, 13.
367 Kapitan 1971, 303; Keay 1984, 137.
368 Panella 1973, 596-7; Opaiţ 2004, 13.
369 Athens: see Robinson 1959, 69, plate 15, K 113; 77, plate 16, L 33; 106, plate 28, M 237; 110, plate 29, M
274; 112, plate 31, M 303; Corinth: see Warner Lane 1990, 108-17, fig. 254, plate 15, n. 254.