A. Ferjaoui and T. Redissi eds. La vie, la mort et la religion dans l’univers phénicien et punique: Actes du VIIème congrès international des études phéniciennes et puniques. Hammamet, 9–14 novembre 2009, Vol. II: Production et relations commerciales. Tunis. Institut National du Patrimoine., 2019
Several types of Punic amphoras have been defined by Pierre Cintas, José Maña, Joan Ramón Torres ... more Several types of Punic amphoras have been defined by Pierre Cintas, José Maña, Joan Ramón Torres and others. This paper is concerned only with Maña Type C/Ramón Type 7 amphoras, with its cigar-shaped body, two handles attached in the upper third of the body, pointed toe and outflaring rim (fig. 1). For the purposes of this paper, the various subdivisions of this type and their fabrics, important topics that they are, will not be discussed since these subjects are irrelevant to the main points made within. Two scholars have questioned the proposition that Maña C/ Ramón 7 amphoras were used as shipping containers. Susan Rotroff, in her publication of the pottery from the Mahdia shipwreck published in 1994, writes that "Maña C-2 amphoras, with their thin walls and wide mouths, were not designed for large-scale, long-distance transport, and they are not found in large quantities on sunken ships; a number of wrecks carried only one or two examples among a cargo of hundreds of amphoras. They seem, then, generally to have been taken aboard as part of the ship's supplies" 2. Anna Margarite McCann, writing about a similar amphora found at Skerki Bank, located 80 km northwest of Sicily, echoes similar thoughts: "These thin-walled amphoras with wide mouths are not found in large quantities on ancient shipwrecks, indicating that they were probably taken on board as ship's supplies rather than cargo" 3. The fact that these observations were made by two renowned scholars makes them worthy of further discussion. These statements can be broken down into two parts; first, that the design of Maña C/Ramón 7 amphoras was not conducive to long-distance shipping in the holds of ships, and second, that their small numbers on shipwrecks imply that they were part of the crew's equipment. These points will be discussed one by one. First, about the design of these amphoras. It is true that their shape is far from classicalshaped Greek and Roman amphoras, but it is also true that Maña C/Ramón 7 amphoras were not a short-lived experiment in ceramic production. This type was produced for at least 200 years, so it was successful from a utilitarian point of view. The same could be said of all Punic amphora types. For a non-Punic parallel to a seemingly ill-designed amphora type that lasted for four centuries one could mention the basket handled amphora, a type that originated in Cyprus around the end of the eighth century BC and continued to be manufactured and distributed throughout the eastern Mediterranean until the third century BC 4 , this despite the fact that it was an extraordinarily
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