Macedonian Type Amphorae in Ancient Epirus. Chronology, Typological Evolution and Use

Resumen

A significant number of vessels classified as “Macedonian” amphorae or amphorae of Macedonian type has been recorded in the region of ancient Epirus. Almost all the examples found in Epirus (Northwestern Greece) and southern Albania share common morphological features such as a spherical body, a continuous profile and a calyx-shaped rim. The particular shape of the Epirote amphorae differs from the main varieties of the type in Macedonia, while it is mostly related to examples discovered in Boeotia, Phthiotis and Thessaly. Most of the examples from Epirus were unearthed in burial contexts, although some fragments from the residential area of Phoenike, capital of the ancient Chaonia, along with few pieces from the Agora complex of Elea in Thesprotia, are also known. An amphorae assemblage, discovered in the warehouse of a late Hellenistic farmstead at the location Episkopi in the plain of Ioannina, which was destroyed in the first quarter of the 1st c. BC, gives us the occasion to attempt a chronological and typological classification of the Macedonian type amphorae in the region of ancient Epirus. The amphorae from Episkopi, some of which bear stamps possibly indicating a workshop, trade symbols or the amount of product stored inside them, testify to another use of these vessels, which could serve commercial redistribution of products throughout mainland Epirus.