2.14. Kapitän II (`Hollow foot') amphoras

Typology

Tall conical neck, tapering towards a simple thickened rim, with a sharp flange just below the lip; tapering conical body ending in a short, hollow, tubular foot, with light grooves on the exterior. Broad, thick, steeply arching handles, with slight raised ridge on the outer face.

Fabric and technology

Distinctive hard, rough orange-red (Munsell 2.5YR 5/8) fabric with grey core (particularly in the handles); moderate quantities of large white quartz grains and occasional red-brown sandstone fragments.

Date

From late 2nd to late 4th century with little apparent typological change, but most date from later 3rd and 4th century.

Source

Probably the Aegean region.

Contents

Unknown.

Distribution

Extensive distribution in the eastern Mediterranean, around the Black Sea and along the lower Danube. Less common in the west, but there are examples in at least one wreck off the French coast (Parker 1992, no. 76) and the type occurs sporadically in southern Gaul, the Rhineland and Britain.

Aliases

Augst class 54. Keay class XII. Peacock and Williams class 47 (Ostia VI, Kapitän II, Kuzmanov VII, Niederbieber 77, Zeest 79, Benghazi MR7).

References

For distribution and chronology: Riley 1979, 189-93; for petrology: Peacock 1977, 297.

Bibliography

Parker 1992 Parker, A. J., Ancient shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and the Roman Provinces, British archaeological reports. International series, 580, Tempus Reparatum, Oxford, 1992.
Peacock 1977 Peacock, D. P. S., Late Roman amphoras from Chalk, near Gravesend, Kent, in Roman pottery studies in Britain and beyond Papers presented to J. P. Gillam, July 1977, J. Dore and K. T. Greene ed., British archaeological reports. International series, 30, 295-300, BAR, Oxford, 1977.
Riley 1979 Riley, J. A., The coarse pottery from Benghazi, in Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice). II, J. A. Lloyd ed., Supplements to Libya Antiqua, 5, 91-497, Department of Antiquities, Tripoli, 1979.