A STUDY OF THE DATABASE AND THE DEFINITION OF MATRICES OF STAMPED AMPHORA HANDLES IN ALEXANDRIA

Gonca Cankardes Senol*

In the article entitled “Une banque de données sur les vases conteneurs – amphores et lagynoi - dans le monde Grec et Romain” in BCH, Suppl. XIII, 1986, Dr Jean-Yves Empereur mentions the huge quantity of stamped amphora material in the Museums of the centres of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Region and the necessity for their documentation. He gives the example of a Knidian stamp having much information and points out the necessity of creating at least eight different forms prepared by hand—in fact 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, such as amphorae and lagynoi. The forms, whose examples were given in the abovementioned 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 when 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 has Dr Empereur’s article been of great help but also his experience and guidance have been central to the realisation of this project (1).

The currently documented stamped handles are from the rescue excavations undertaken in various parts of the city by the Centre d’Etudes Alexandrines (CEAlex)under the direction of Dr Jean-Yves Empereur and from the collections stored in the Graeco-Roman Museum that were also found in excavations in the city and its environs. The museum currently houses more than 160,000 stamped handles in different storerooms including those in the world-famous collection of Benaki and others from different excavation sites.

The amphorae 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, in fact, the largest stamped amphora handle collection in the world having nearly 65,000 pieces of varied origin (fig. 1). Thanks are due to Virginia Grace, who classified them initially, and to Jean-Yves Empereur, who continued the studies of classification and photographed them all, in addition to his studies on stamps from other sites in and around the city.

As a result of the close political connections between Rhodes and Ptolemaic Egypt, Rhodes’ commercial policy was oriented towards Egypt and also the Eastern Mediterranean consumption centres rather than to the northern markets like Delos and Athens, which were held by Knidos in the Hellenistic Period. This is also confirmed by the abundance of complete or fragmentary Rhodian amphorae and Rhodian stamped handles found in the excavations in the city, some of which are now stored in the Graeco-Roman Museum along with the stamped handles in the Benaki collection, and some in storerooms on the archaeological sites of the city and the storerooms of the salvage excavations undertaken by the CEAlex in Alexandria (figs. 3-4).

The stamped handles in the Benaki Collection were organized and placed in the drawers centre by centre by V. Grace and later by J.-Y. Empereur and the drawers of each particular centre 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 with the eponym stamps followed by fabricant stamps. Subdivisions have also been 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 aranged in the drawers according to their KT numbers.  The other groups (Coan, Thasian, Pamphylian, Chian, Egyptian, Cypriot-Kourian, Latin stamps, stamps of Petos and Nikandros Groups, monograms and miscellaneous stamps) are placed in separate 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 identifying each stamp is written on the handle followed by the number of the drawer in which it is placed.

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