Original scientific paper
The Production and Distribution of the Pharos 2 Amphorae on the Eastern Coast of the Adriatic Sea
Miroslav Katić
; MHAS
Abstract
The Parians founded their colony of Faros in 385/4 on the site of today’s Stari Grad on the island of Hvar. Among the colonists were the artisans who were essential for the successful establishment of a new colony. Finds of production rejects of the potters’ workshops, of overfired and deformed fragments of various vessels, also included the production of late Corinth B amphorae in Faros. This article gives new evidence of the production of Faros 2 amphorae that appeared on the eastern coast of the Adriatic from the middle of the 2nd to the end of the first century BC. The beginnings of the production of this amphora might have been in the first half of the 2nd century BC. A fragment of an overfired reject of a rim of a Faros 2 amphora was found in 2015 at the site of Sv. Ivan in Stari Grad on Hvar. It was the last Faros amphora and at one time appeared in parallel with Lamboglia 2 amphorae around the Adriatic, as well as in the sunken ship’s cargo in the Bay of Vela Svitnja on Vis Island. Fragments were found during the 1960s and 1970s at Gradina in Ošanići by Stolac in eastern Herzegovina. But at that time there was no detailed consideration of their origin, and Faros ware was either not known or could not be identified. Only two relatively well preserved examples of the Faros 2 amphora are currently known. One comes from Faros (Stari Grad), and the second from the sunken ship in the Bay of Vela Svitnja on Vis Island. A Faros 2 amphora is about 78 cm tall, is 37 cm in the shoulders and the neck is 14.5 cm. It has an elegant heart-shaped form, with a mushroom shaped bottom. The wall of the amphora is thin, from 8 to 10 mm thick. At the Issaean necropolis of Martvilo two amphorae were found, the example from grave Va being particularly similar to Faros 2 amphorae, albeit of smaller capacity. They are about 62 cm tall, 29 cm wide at the shoulders, with a neck of 14 cm. The Issa finds show that Faros 2 amphorae were produced in two versions – a larger and a smaller capacity. On the whole they are found in the central Adriatic at major Illyrian hill fort settlements. As the Romans began to penetrate Illyricum, the Lamboglia 2 amphora became dominant, gradually driving out the Faros 2, some time at the end of the 1st century BC. The appearance of Faros 2 amphorae can be expected all along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, as well as on the Italian shores.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
240299
URI
Publication date:
29.6.2020.
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