1992.256.184: Two-handled Amphoriskos

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1992.256.184

Title

Two-handled Amphoriskos

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

c. 300-600 CE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Anatolia

Period

Roman Imperial period, Late, to Early Byzantine

Culture

Roman

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/288237

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Wheel-made

Dimensions

actual: 29 x 16.7 x 13.9 cm (11 7/16 x 6 9/16 x 5 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Louise M. and George E. Bates, Camden, ME (by 1971-1992), gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1992.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Louise M. and George E. Bates

Accession Year

1992

Object Number

1992.256.184

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

Small, intact amphora with remains of sealife encrusted on the surface. Narrow mouth and blunt, rounded toe. Underneath the white encrustation, the light brown clay can be seen. The encrustation encircling the round mouth is dyed with purple, either from dye the vessel would have contained or from the shells themselves.

Purple was a color reserved for upper classes and royalty in ancient times due to its great expense. The color could be extracted from the Murex shell, which was used to create the dye, but it was expensive to obtain and import these shells.

Commentary

LIVE LIKE A ROMAN: DAILY LIFE OBJECT COLLECTION

Trade was the most common form of commerce in the ancient world. Amphorae (plural of amphora) were storage vessels used to transport goods in Roman times. They were used for wine, oil, and water. They were also used for garum, a type of fish sauce highly prized by the Romans. They varied in size, but the example in this collection is smaller than most amphorae. Pieces of amphorae are still found today at sites all over the Roman world. It is rare to find them fully intact, like this one, but they are often found whole in shipwrecks that would have been carrying liquids on trade routes. The saltwater and pressure below the surface help preserve artifacts, and in some cases, the liquid inside.

The special shape of the amphora makes it easy to stack them on top of each other and on their sides in the lower decks of a ship. They would have been corked on the top, like modern-day bottles of wine. The narrow bottom part of the amphora is called the toe. It was designed like this because it can easily stand up in dirt or sand, which was an early form of refrigeration. Digging a small hole in the ground and burying the amphora to its neck would help keep its contents cool.

[Jessica Pesce 8/3/2010]

Publication History

• Ioli Kalavrezou, Byzantine Women and Their World, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 191/fig. 103
• Harvard Art Museums: In Your Hands, Harvard Art Museums and GILES (Cambridge, 2025)

Exhibition History

• Byzantine Women and Their World, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/25/2002 - 04/28/2003
• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/25/2015 - 01/03/2016; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/28/2023 - 05/07/2023

Verification Level