STUDIES ON THE DATABASE AND THE DEFINITION OF MATRIXES OF STAMPED AMPHORA HANDLES IN ALEXANDRIA

Gonca Cankardes Senol*

In the article with the title “Une banque de données sur les vases conteneurs – amphores et lagynoi - dans le monde Grec et Romain” in BCH, Suppl. XIII, 1986, Prof. Dr. Jean-Yves Empereur mentions the huge quantity of stamped amphora material in the Museums of the Centers in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea Region, and the necessity of their documentation. He gives an example of a Knidian stamp having many information and points out the necessity of creating at least eight different formss prepared by hand -infact more than eight when adding the other characteristics of the inscription and the stamp itself- for only this very stamp. The programme SIGMI was used at that period for the documentation and database of stamped handles and stamped complete jars as amphoras and lagynoi. The forms whose examples were given in the mentioned article on page 134, fig. 5 for a Rhodian amphora and on page 138, fig. 7 contain all the information obtained from the stamps. This article presents the first notes on what kind of points should be taken into consideration while preparing a complete, effective and servicable database and documentation of both amphora stamps and complete stamped amphoras for the scholars dealing with this subject. During our studies not only his article but also his experience and orientation have been very worthy to realize this project (1) .  

The stamped handles documented currently are from the rescue excavations held in varied parts in the city by CEAlex (Center for Alexandrian Studies) under the direction of Prof. Dr. Jean-Yves Empereur and from the collections stored in the Graeco-Roman Museum coming from the excavations in the city and also its environs.  By means of the finds from the earliest excavations till the latest discoveries, the museum currently houses in different storerooms, more than 160.000 stamped handles including those in the world-famous collection of Benaki and others comig from different excavation sites. 

The amphoras and the amphora stamps are among the most important collections in the museum because of both their variety of origin and their quantity. For amphora stamps, we are grateful to Mr. Lukas Benaki who donated his large collection to the museum in 1962 (2). The so-called Benaki Collection is, infact, the largest stamped amphora handle collection in the world having nearly 65.000 pieces of varied origin (fig. 1). Thanks to Virginia Grace who classified them and Prof. Dr. Jean-Yves Empereur who continued the studies to classify and photographed them all, besides his studies on stamps came from other sites in and around the city.

For the studies on setting up a database and establishing the matrixes of amphora stamps, material in great quantity either in the production center or the consumption center is required. The stamps in the Benaki Collection in Alexandria (fig. 2), the most important consumption center in the Eastern Mediterranean, serve this matter properly as their immense quantity permits to compare, to identify and to recognize of varied dies belonging to eponyms and fabricants, to differentiate the transformation of the impressions obtained from the same matrix (which changes depending on the first usage of the matrix -which has been called by Prof. Dr. Empereur as a prototype of the matrix- and the other usages till the matrix is out of usage, the place where the stamp was impressed on the jar, the dryness degree of the clay when the impression was applied, and the manual diversities of persons who impressed the matrix on the jar), and their variety in origin makes someone possible to form a database and to establish the matrixes of stamped handles of not only the centers whose production was too dominant like Rhodes, Cnidos, etc. but also the centers that produced stamped amphoras in modarate quantity as Pamphylia, Cyprus, Chios, Cos, etc. and some groups like Nikandros, Petos. Since Benaki Collection is essential that one can find examples or, at least, one sample belonging to these centers and small groups (3).          

            As a result of close political connections between Rhodes and Ptolemaic Egypt, Rhodes’ commercial policy was oriented to Egypt and also the Eastern Mediterranean consumption centers rather than Northern markets like Delos and Athens which were held by Cnidos in the Hellenistic Period. This is also confirmed by the abundance of complete or fragmentary Rhodian amphoras and Rhodian stamped handles found in the excavations in the city, now stored in the Greco-Roman Museum containing the stamped handles in the Benaki collection, some storerooms in the archaeological sites in the city and the storerooms of rescue excavations held by CEAlex in Alexandria (figs. 3-4).

Rhodian stamped handles in the Benaki Collection were the first step of our project as the studies on the documentation of this material had already been started by Prof. Dr. Empereur in 1980s and, surely, it was intended to bring to light some novelty, if possible, to add some extra information to understand the system of stamping jars better in Rhodes and to present the colleagues a complete and collective source containing numerous matrixes of eponym and fabricant stamps to compare, to restore and to identify the stamps in their files.

The stamped handles in the Benaki Collection were organized and placed in the drawers center by center by V. Grace and later by Prof. Dr. J.-Y. Empereur and the drawers of each certain center contain the handles put mostly in alphabetical order (fig. 5). Being the largest group of the collection, Rhodian stamps are organized in alphabetical order beginning from the eponym stamps followed by fabricant stamps. Subvisions have been also made for some of the Rhodian stamps such as early Rhodian stamps, button type stamps, secondary stamps and stamps bearing only the month-names. The other large group contains the stamps from Knidos put in the drawers depending on their KT numbers.  The other groups (Coan, Thasian, Pamphylian, Chian, Egyptian, Cypriot-Kourian, Latin stamps, stamps of Petos and Nikandros Groups, monograms and miscellaneus stamps) are placed in seperate drawers depending on their origin. All the drawers in the storeroom have a number and each stamped handle has the number of the drawer and its individual number given depending on its placement in the drawer. This temporary inventory number for identifiying each stamp is written on the handle followed by the number of the drawer in which it is placed.

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