Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 3rd century CE. A beautiful pottery amphora with ribbed body, constricted rim, and applied handles from the rim to the shoulder. The base is rounded. The accumulation of sea life on its body is mostly white, with some startling flashes of bright purple. Comes with custom stand. Size: 12.5" W x 18" H (31.8 cm x 45.7 cm); height on stand: 19.5" (49.5 cm).

Lacking its cork and pitch stopper, the original contents of this amphora are unknown; based on the globular size and shape, it was most likely used to transport olive oil (smaller ones were for stewed fruit or salted fish, while larger ones were used for wine). Amphorae formed the basis of the Roman economy as storage vessels for transporting goods throughout the Empire, with examples found from North Africa to Britain. The pointed base on this one is standard, and was intended for storage in Roman warehouses in soft ground and for transport on ships by placing it through a specially-designed rack and roping it through the handles to others. This vessel was found in the sea and bears evidence of that in the form of barnacles and other white deposits on its body; it came from North Africa, a major site of olive oil production (alongside Spain and France) in the Roman economy. This oil was used for cooking, lighting, and, in some cases, bathing; one estimate suggests that each Roman legion consumed 1370 amphorae of olive oil per year!

Provenance: Ex-Private New York Collection; Ex-New York Collector GF

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#120897

Large areas of the surface have sea encrustation and calcifications.