Phoenician and Punic amphorae in Western Mediterranean

Abstract

Amphorae from the Phoenician world of the Far West and the Atlantic sphere have been extensively studied over the last few decades, laying the foundations for a solid chronological and typological dataset that today allows to use these items as a primary source for (proto)historical research in the region. There remain, however, many production sites to be identified and characterised, as well as remarkable deficits in the technological and scientific study of many series and types. Early Iron Age amphorae were versions of Levantine series and defined a new craft tradition, becoming the forerunners of most of the major western repertoires of the following centuries. Between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, however, the main reference were Carthage and its various related manufacturing areas (from Ibiza to Western Sicily), which influenced technically and formally the main western types, and were key to modify their production processes, their managing features (stamps, dipinti, etc.) and even their capacity standards