Ancient Roman Sea-Salvage Pottery Amphora

Eastern Mediterranean, ca. 1st–3rd century AD.

This ample Roman transport amphora is a deep, ribbed vessel rising on a pointed conical toe to a rounded shoulder, a thick cylindrical neck, a heavy everted rim, and twin vertical loop handles springing from the shoulder to the neck—the classic form of a Roman commercial wine or oil container of the Dressel 2–4 family, the standard type used for maritime trade across the Mediterranean in this period. Recovered from a Roman shipwreck, the amphora is enveloped in spectacular marine encrustations: a thick calcareous crust of pale grey and ochre tones interspersed with coral, worm-tube, and shell deposits, together with patches of purple-violet mineralization—all the unmistakable signature of long immersion on the seabed, and exactly the dramatic, atmospheric surface that collectors and decorators prize in genuine shipwreck material. The vessel measures 21 inches (53.3 cm) high, and 25 inches (63.5 cm) overall as displayed on its custom black metal tripod ring stand, which cradles the rounded base in the manner originally used aboard ship and in antiquity. Provenance: the Estate of an Arkansan surgeon and pilot.

Complete and well-proportioned, with its handles, neck, and rim intact and its encrustation beautifully preserved, this is an imposing and highly displayable example of Roman maritime commerce frozen in time on the ocean floor. 

 Cf. the Roman Amphorae: A Digital Resource (University of Southampton / Archaeology Data Service), has the standard typological corpus for Roman transport amphorae including the Dressel 2–4 wine class; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the British Museum, London, for Roman ceramic transport amphorae of comparable ribbed, twin-handled form; and the collections of the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, Turkey, for shipwreck-recovered Mediterranean amphorae preserving marine encrustation.