Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:28:15.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Colchian amphorae: typology, chronology, and aspects of production1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

G. R. Tsetskhladze  and
S. Y. Vnukov
G. R. Tsetskhladze
Affiliation:
Balliol College, Oxford
S. Y. Vnukov
Affiliation:
Russian Free University, Moscow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The development of amphora production in Colchis is examined, from its beginnings in the mid-4th cent. BC under the influence of vessels from Sinope. The emergence of amphora production should be seen as the result of Hellenic influence upon the economy and upon craftsmen of the E littoral of the Black Sea. Throughout the Classical period one type of Colchian amphora existed, which underwent drastic change in the course of time. Three successive variants may be discerned. The earliest, from the mid-4th to 3rd cent. BC, retains similarities with the Sinopean prototypes. In the late 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, substantial changes in morphology and dimensions take place. In the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD the third variant, with a rib under the rim, appears. Petrographic analysis shows that the vessels were made within one extensive region, Colchis, but at a variety of centres. They were produced in state-owned and private workshops, employing both Greek and local craftsmen. The Greek workshops (or those which had links with Greek potters) were the main exporters of amphorae to the northern Black Sea coastal region from the 4th cent, BC to 1st cent. AD.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 87 , November 1992 , pp. 357 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 Heraclides, Politeiai, fr. 18; Ps.-Skyl. 81; Str. xi. 2. 17; Pomp. Mela, i. 108; Anon. Peripl. M. Eux. 3; Theoc. xiii. 24; St. Byz. s.v.

3 Ps.-Skyl. 81; Str. xi. 2. 16; Arrian, , Peripl. M. Eux. 14, 101Google Scholar; Charax Pergam., frs. 36–7; Plin. NH vi. 16; Pomp. Mela, i. iii; Amm. Marc. xxii. 8. 24.

4 Ps.-Skyl. 81.

5 Zeest, I. B., ‘Novie dannie o torgovikh svyazyakh Bospora s yuzhnim Prichernomor'em’ [‘New data on trading links between the Bosphorus and the southern coast of the Black Sea’], Vestnik, 2 (1951), 114–15Google Scholar; id., Keramicheskaya tara Bospora [Pottery ware of the Bosphorus] (Moscow, 1960), 108. Later Zeest appeared to relinquish this idea (id., ‘Zadachi issledovaniya massovogo antichnogo keramicheskogo materiala’ [‘Objectives in the investigation of mass-scale ancient pottery material’], KSIA 109 (1967), 13.

6 Vinogradov, Y. G. and Onaiko, N. A., ‘Ob ekonomicheskikh svyazaskh Geraklei Pontiiskoi s severnim i severo-vostochnim Prichernomor'em v ellinisticheskoe i rimskoe vremya’ [‘On the economic links between Heracleia of Pontus and the northern and north-eastern coasts of the Black Sea in the Hellenistic and Roman periods’], SA 1 (1975), 88–9.Google Scholar

7 Mikhlin, B. Y., ‘Amfori “korichnevoi” glini iz severozapadnogo Krima’ [‘Amphorae of “brown” clay from the north-western Crimea’], SA 2 (1974), 60–7.Google Scholar As will be indicated later, the ‘types’ singled out by Mikhlin were chronological variants of a type that was in existence over a long period.

8 Kuftin, B. A., Materiali k arkheologii kolchidi [Materials relating to the archaeology of Colchis], ii (Tbilisi, 1950), 84Google Scholar; Khoshtaria, N. V., ‘Arkheologischeskie issledovania Ureki’ [‘Archaeological investigations in Ureki’], in Berdzenishvili, N. (ed.), Materials on the Archaeology of Georgia and the Caucasus, i (Tbilisi, 1955), 61.Google Scholar

9 Lordkipanidze, O. D., The Classical World and Ancient Colchis (Tbilisi, 1966), 137–40Google Scholar (in Georgian; brief summaries in Russian and English).

10 Puturidze, R. V., ‘Kolkhidskie amfori iz Vani’ [‘Colchian amphorae from Vani’], KSIA 151 (1977), 69, fig. 1.Google Scholar

11 See nn. 6, 7, and 10.

12 A total of 24 whole amphorae, 12 large, and 24 smaller fragments and also several hundred unconnected featured fragments.

13 Zeest, (n. 5), 126, fig. 12 a, b.

14 Isolated fragments are encountered which differ from those described above. The proportion they make up is extremely small, however, and they were in use only between the late 4th and 3rd centuries BC.

15 Lordkipanidze, O. D., Puturidze, R. V., Tolordava, V. A., and Chqonia, A. M., ‘Archaeological excavation in Vani in 1969’, in Vani, i (Tbilisi, 1972), 208.Google Scholar Amphorae from Vani are stored in the collections of the Georgian State Museum in Tbilisi and in the Vani Archaeological Museum; the amphora from Tshikhisdziri is stored at the Kobuleti base of the Pichvnari Archaeological Expedition.

16 Vnukov, S. Y. and Tsetskhladze, G. R., ‘Kolkhidskie amfori severo-zapadnogo Krima’ [‘Colchian amphorae from the north-western Crimea’], in Shchapova, Yu. and Yatsenko, I. (eds.), Pamyatniki zheleznogo veka v okrestnostyakh Evpatorii [Sites of the Iron Age in the Vicinity of Evpatoriya] (Moscow, 1991), 171.Google Scholar

17 Tolordava, V. A., ‘Results from the excavation of the north-eastern slope of the central terrace of the Vani city site (1975–1979)’, in Vani, viii (Tbilisi, 1986), 88.Google Scholar The amphora is kept in the Vani Archaeological Museum.

18 Id., ‘A rich burial from Dablagomi’, in Vani, ii (Tbilisi, 1976), 72. The amphora is kept in the Vani Archaeological Museum.

19 S. A. Danilchenko, V. P. Kopilov, and N. F. Fedoseev, ‘The closed complex in the Yelizavetovskaya city site’. We should like to express our sincere gratitude to N. F. Fedoseev for acquainting us with the MS of his part of this article.

20 Kiguradze, N. Sh., Dapnarsky mogil'nik [The Dapnarsky Burial Ground] (Tbilisi, 1976), 49.Google Scholar

21 Chkhaidze, L. V., ‘Materials on Gonio-Apsara in the Hellenistic period’, PUZG 12 (1983), 89.Google Scholar The amphora is kept at the Kobuleti base of the Pichvnari Archaeological Expedition.

22 The rare spikes similar in shape to those from Herakleia and Cos also date from this period; see Voronov, Y. N., ‘Ob Esherskom gorodishche’ [‘On the Eshera city site’], SA 1 (1972), no, fig. 4. 28Google Scholar; id., ‘K zucheniyu keramischeskoro proizvodstva Dioscuriadi’ [Towards a study of pottery production in Dioskouria’], SA 2 (1977), 165, fig. 2. 1, 11–13. Their appearance can apparently be linked either with commercial imitations by potters of ware from well-known centres, or with the process of a search for a distinctive shape for their own brown-clay amphorae.

23 Vashakidze, N. V., ‘Burials containing jugs at the village of Zemo-Partskhma’, PUZG 13 (1985), 75.Google Scholar

24 Voronov (n. 22), 165; 166, fig. 3. 2.

25 Puturidze (n. 10), 69; 70, fig. 3.

26 Ibid.

27 Trapsh, M. M., Trudi [Works], ii (Sukhumi, 1969), 283.Google Scholar

28 Voronov, Y. N., Arkheologicheskaya karta Abkhazii [Archaeological Map of Abkhazia] (Sukhumi, 1969), 48 n. 75.Google Scholar

29 Voronov (n. 22), 167, figs. 4. 3–5, 8–10.

30 Ibid. 167, fig. 2. 11—13.

31 Ibid. 167, fig. 4. 7, 10.

32 Inadze, M. P., Prichernomorskie goroda drevnei Kolkhidi [The Black Sea Coastal Cities of Colchis] (Tbilisi, 1968), 227–50Google Scholar; Lordkipanidze, O. D., Drevnyaya Kolkhida [Ancient Colchis] (Tbilisi, 1978), 214–15Google Scholar; Melikishvili, G. and Lordkipanidze, O. (eds.), Ocherki istorii Gruzii [Essays on the History of Georgia], i (Tbilisi, 1989), 324–45.Google Scholar

33 Gaidukevich, V. F., ‘Raskopki Tiritaki v 1935–1940 gg.’ [‘Excavations at Tiritaki in 1935–40’], MIA 24 (1952), 120, fig. 149. 1.Google Scholar

34 Ibid. 120.

35 Miklin (n. 7), 62.

36 On Colchian stamps see Tsetskhladze, G. R., ‘Die kolchischen stempel’, Klio 73 (1991), 361–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar, with full bibliography.

37 State Hermitage Museum, NF 72.856. Zograf, A. N., Antichnie moneti [Ancient Coins] (Moscow, 1961), fig. 41. 6.Google Scholar In a recent book, coins of this type are dated 220–210 BC; see Anokhin, V. A., Monetnoe delo Bospora [Coin-minting in the Bosphorus] (Kiev, 1986), 142 n. 146.Google Scholar

38 Tsetskhladze (n. 36).

39 Vinogradov and Onaiko (n. 6). 88; 89.

40 Tsetskhladze (n. 36).

41 G. R. Tsetskhladze, ‘The Cult of Mithras in Ancient Colchis’, forthcoming in Revue d'histoire des religions.

42 Tsetskhladze (n. 36).

43 Tsetskhladze, G. R., ‘Organization of ceramic production in Colchis during the Hellenistic period’, Eirene, 27 (1990), 53–65.Google Scholar

44 Ibid.

45 Homer, , Od. x. 138–9Google Scholar; Hesiod, , Theog. 856–7Google Scholar; Arg. ii. 1203–4; et al.

46 Tsetskhladze (n. 36).

47 Vnukov, S. Y., Svetloglinyanie amfori IV V. do N.E.–IV V.N.E. kak istochnik po ekonomicheskoi istorii severnogo Prichernomor'ya [Light-clay Amphorae of the First Century BC–First Century AD as a Source for Research into the Economic History of the Northern Coast of the Black Sea] (doctoral diss.: Moscow, 1988)Google Scholar; id., ‘Sravnitel'nii petrograficheski analiz drevnikh amfor’ [‘Comparative petrographic analysis of ancient amphorae’], in Problemi interpretatsii arkheologicheskikh istochnikov [Questions Concerning the Interpretation of Archaeological Sources] (Ordzhonikidze, 1991); Tsetskhladze, G. R., Vnukov, S. Y., and Soznik, V. V., ‘On the origin of one group of brown-clay amphorae from Chersonesus’, Arkheologia, 1 (Kiev, 1991), 57–62Google Scholar (in Ukrainian).

48 The numbers of the samples are taken from the Registration of Petrographic samples of the Dept. of Archaeology, Moscow State University.

49 Due to the large scale of the operation (109 × 109 samples), the table for the similarity coefficient cannot be reproduced here.

50 Vinogradov and Onaiko (n. 6).

51 Monakhov, S. Y., Amfori Khersonesa Tavricheskogo 4–2 vv. do n.e. [Amphorae from Tauric Chersonesus 4th–2nd Century BC] (Saratov, 1989), 76.Google Scholar

52 A similar picture would appear to be found in the Kerch and Herakleia peninsulas (Crimea) and on the NW shores of the Black Sea, where pottery production was ‘based on clays from a specific lithologic–stratigraphic layer of a specific quality and fairly widespread in that particular locality’ (Korpusova, V. N., Goreitsky, B. A., Gorlova, L. A., and Litovchenko, E. I., ‘Opit viyavleniya tsentrov proizvodstva keramiki po litologogeokhimicheskim kharakteristikam goncharnoi massi’ [‘An experiment aimed at identifying centres of pottery production according to lithological and geochemical characteristics of the clay matrix’], in Metodicheskie voprosi arkheologii [Methodological Questions of Archaeology] (Kiev, 1982), 192.Google Scholar

53 Melikishvili and Lordkipanidze (n. 32), 324–5.

54 Ethnography provides evidence to the effect that the newly-settled potters keep to their customary raw materials and even import such materials from old familiar deposits. See Bobrinsky, A. A., Goncharstvo Vostochnoi Evropi [Pottery in Eastern Europe] (Moscow, 1978), 76Google Scholar; 77; 93.

55 Monakhov (n. 51), 85; 75; 76; Loseva, N. M., ‘Ob importe i mestnom proizvodstve “megarskikh” chash na Bospore’ [‘On the import and local production of “Megarian” cups in the Bosphorus’], MIA 103 (1962), 205Google Scholar; Shelov, D. B., ‘Nakhodki “megarskikh” chash v Tanaise’ [‘Finds of “Megarian” cups in Tanais’], MIA 154 (1969), 228.Google Scholar

56 Shchapova, Y. L., ‘Masterskaya po proizvodstvu stekla u s. Komarovo (III–IV vv.)’ [‘The workshop for glass production near the village of Komarovo (3rd–4th centuries)’], SA 3 (1978), 75.Google Scholar

57 Treister, M. Ju., ‘Bronze statuary in the ancient towns in the north Pontic area’, in Akten der 9. Tagung über antike Bronzen (Wien, 1986), 152–7.Google Scholar

58 Wells, P. S., Culture Contact and Culture Change (Cambridge, 1980), 90.Google Scholar

59 Tsetskhladze (n. 36).

60 Golenko, K. V., ‘Klad sinopskikh i kolkhidskikh monet iz Kobuleti’ [‘Hoard of Sinopean and Colchian coins from Kobuleti’], Vestnik, 1 (1961), 42–59.Google Scholar

61 Inadze, M. P., Greek Colonization of the Costal Region to the East of the Black Sea (Tbilisi, 1982), 164–6 (in Georgian)Google Scholar; Tsetskhladze, G. R., ‘Greek influence on Colchis (6th–2nd centuries BC)’, in Braund, D. (ed.), Colchis and the Greek World (Bristol, forthcoming).Google Scholar

62 Tsetskhladze, G. R., ‘The northern and eastern Black Sea littorals in the 6th–1st centuries BC (from the history of trade relations)’, Arkheologia, 2 (Kiev, 1990), 86–97 (in Ukrainian).Google Scholar

63 Desbat, A. and Picon, M., ‘Les importations d'amphores de Mediterranée orientale à Lyon’, BCH 13 (1986), 846–8.Google Scholar

64 Melikishvili and Lordkipanidze (n. 32).

65 Tsetskhladze (n. 36).

66 Lordkipanidze (n. 32).