Original scientific paper

The Origin and Function of the Amphora's Spike

Irena Radić Rossi orcid.org/0000-0002-5680-9066
Ivo Senjanović
Smiljko Rudan
Janez Indof

Abstract

The need to sink amphorae into the earth or sand, to store them in layers below ship decks or to grip them conveniently while pouring out their contents – all these are habitual explanations of the function of the amphora spikes. The question is, however, whether these arguments were sufficiently compelling to lead ancient pottery masters to manufacture more complex and costly vessels such as these, which were even unable to stand by themselves.
The increased strength of amphorae resulting from the replacement of a flat bottom with a rounded or conically pointed one and, in later stages, from the addition of a massive pointed end, has already been suggested by several authors, however, without paying sufficient attention to this argument. An analysis of the origin of amphora shapes and, subsequently, empirical tests of their strength that were conducted by numerical modelling in the SESAM program using the finite element method, have confirmed the crucial importance of such massive pointed ends to the durability of containers so shaped, which was probably the main reason for the production of such amphorae. This assumption does not preclude any of the aforementioned functions of the spike, but divests it of their primary significance in the explanation of its development.

Keywords

amphora; spike; finite elements method; strenght; SESAM

Hrčak ID:

711

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/711

Publication date:

1.6.2004.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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