Amphorae - why that shape?

Question

It is a fully accepted historical fact that the Romans (and other peoples of that era) transported many good, including wine and olive oil, in amphorae, the remains of which are found all over the Empire. I have read that the shape of the amphorae varied from area to area and from commodity to commodity. However, they all share the characteristics of having rounded bases and being mainly tall and fairly slim. This seems, to me, to be a basically unstable design, particularly for carrying liquids. Which led me to wonder why they were designed in such a way, why they did no have flat bases and what were the advantages (if any) of the design. Comments would be appreciated,

Answer 1

Aesthetics, to begin with. Wide based pottery is "squatty", it does not thrust itself upwards. Amphorae also had two handles and that is what the word itself means in Greek:To be carried by both hands. Function is another reason. It is easier to pour from a tall vessel than a short.

Answer 2

I heard the same as Jared, this was the best shape for packing and shipping, with ropes slipped through the handles to keep them stable in the holds. It gave one more possibilities for packing too, rather than one bulky box you get four slim amphorae you can slip and move around. And you could put two or even three levels of amphorae on top of each other, the pointed base slipping easily in the free space between the amphorae of the row below.

Answer 3

The advantage of that shape was in shipping; you could pack many in a smaller space because they don't have a wide base. I suspect, but can't specifically recall that they had special carriers in the ships- a simple lattice would help hold them, but they might have just leaned them slightly on the ship's bottom (which was also rounded) in tight formations for stability.

I do know that they would often transfer the contents of amphorae to something else when it reached land, and the amphorae weren't necessarily the first container in the first place; but they were thick & durable pots anyhow.

Answer 4

Two principal types of amphora existed: the neck amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle; and the one-piece amphora, in which the neck and body form a continuous curve. Neck amphorae were commonly used in the early history of ancient Greece but were gradually replaced by the one-piece type from around the 7th century BC onwards. Most were produced with a pointed base to allow them to be stored in an upright position by being partly embedded in sand or soft ground.


Dressel 1B type amphora
Key : 1 : edge - 2 : neck - 3 : handle - 4 : shoulder - 5 : belly or body - 6 : foot
Large late Geometric Attic amphora, ca. 725 BCE – 700 BCEAmphorae varied greatly in height. The largest could stand as much as 1.5 m (5 ft) high, while some were under 30 cm (12 inches) high - the smallest were called amphoriskoi (literally "little amphorae"). Most were around 45 cm (18 inches) high. There was a significant degree of standardisation in some variants; the wine amphora held a standard measure of about 39 litres (41 quarts), giving rise to the amphora quadrantal as a unit of measure in the Roman Empire. In all, around 66 distinct types of amphora have been identified.

High-quality painted amphorae were produced in significant numbers for a variety of social and ceremonial purposes. Their design differs significantly from the more functional versions; they are typified by wide mouth and a ring base, with a glazed surface and decorated with figures or geometric shapes. Such amphorae were often used as prizes. Some examples, bearing the inscription "I am one of the prizes from Athens", have survived from the Panathenaic Festivals held between the 6th century BC to the 2nd century BC. Painted amphorae were also used for funerary purposes. The loutrophoros, a type of amphora, was used principally for funeral rites. Outsize vases were also used as grave markers, while some amphorae were used as containers for the ashes of the dead.

The word amphora is Latin, derived from the Greek amphoreus (Αμφορέας) or amphiphoreus, a compound word combining amphi- ("on both sides") plus phoreus ("carrier"), from pherein ("to carry

Answer 5

It may be that they were stronger thanks to their small radii. The Laplace relation between pressure within a vessel and the tension that tends to break the wall (T=P/radius) expresses this. If the contents of an amphora were fermenting then high pressures could build up and, if tightly sealed, they could burst. Both the narrowness of the body and the roundness of the base would be accounted for by this.

Answer 6

Ships holds had piles of sand (or piles of grain) in them and the amphorae were packed into the sand. Many had slightly pointed bottoms for this reason.

Answer 7

sparks has it, cheers.