What are amphorae?

Amphorae are ceramic vessels with two handles used as containers or packaging for the transportation and storage of various trade goods: wine, olive oil, fish sauce, fruit.

They appeared in the mid second millennium B. C. in the eastern Mediterranean. Thanks to the Greeks and the flourishing of the sea trade, new shapes were designed which spread throughout the Mediterranean via their colonies on Sicily and southern Italy. The production of these Greek-Italian amphorae dates from the 4th century B. C. and it continued until the 1st century B. C.

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