INTRODUCTION GÉNÉRALE SUR LES AMPHORES TROUVÉES À ALEXANDRIE

Kaan Senol*

After the foundation by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, Alexandria became the most attractive trade harbor of the Hellenistic World by using her geographic advantages. Alexandria flourished and became a famous consumption center of Mediterranean Basin after the efforts of the Ptolemies. She deserved the prizing phrases of Strabo as being the greatest emporium in the inhabited world, during the Hellenistic Period. Due to the extensive trade connections, many varieties of the products been carried by amphorae reached the city in order to be consumed and also transported to India via Lake Mariut, Nile River, desert roads and finally Red Sea. These routes have been used both for exporting and importing the goods as so many different types of the amphorae have been found during the excavations made in the city. This variation can be followed by the amphora stamps that we have the largest collection in the world, conserving in the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria.

Importance of Alexandria as a Production Center

Alexandria was not only a consumption city but also a production center as well. After the discoveries of amphora workshops (not less than 28) and the villae rusticae around the Lake Mariut, the hinterland of the city attached importance as one of the most important wine production area in Egypt. The Egyptian wine was carried by AE 1 and AE 2 (Amphores Egyptiennes Type 1 and 2) amphorae during the Hellenistic Period (Picture 1-2). The amphora types were radically changed during the Roman Period in Egypt. They used longer but unusual bi-conical forms as their characteristic forms called AE 3 amphorae (Picture 3). By changing the shape and scale of the amphorae the AE 4, derived from DR 2-4 amphorae of that period, were used for famous Taeonitic wine which we found in big quantities in the rescue excavations of CEAlex in Alexandria (Picture 4). The history of Egyptian wine survived in another type called AE 5/6 or LR 5/6 that were also used in Syrian coast (Picture 5). The only type that we could not find the traces of production on the shores of Lake Mariut is AE 7 amphorae which were also known as the previous one but widely produced and distributed in Middle Egypt (Picture 6).

Amphorae as Epigraphic Materials

Amphorae are considered as the evidence of ancient commerce as they were used to carry wine, olive oil, fish sauces, salted fish, meat, fruits, vegetable oils, spices and any goods that we may imagine. The painted inscriptions (dipinti) and the engravings (graffiti) on the amphorae point out the products of these containers, the actual capacities, the names of the producers or consumers and the quality of the products inside them. We have a various collection of dipinti conserved due to the extraordinary climate of Egypt, mostly from fifth and sixth centuries AD found from the Necropolis of Gabbari (Picture 7-8).