Amphora Types According to Dressel

This table for dating amphoras is taken from Heinrich Dressel: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, band XV, Berlin 1899. The table mainly covers Roman types.

It was made in a time when relatively few amphoras were known and could be dated. Today, many more have been found underwater. Despite this shortcoming, the table is still useful and serves as a basis for later improved classifications, e.g. by Nino Lamboglia and Ricardo Pascual.Form 1: 129 BC-13 BC

Form 2: 16 BC-29 AD

Form 3: 28 AD-146 AD

Form 4: 4 BC-24 AD

Form 5: 12 BC (one known find)

Form 6: 36 AD (one known find)

Form 8: 1st century AD

Forms 1-6 are Roman wine amphoras.Forms 7-15 are south Spanish salt fish amphoras, except for # 12 which is Roman.

Form 20: 2nd and 3rd centrury AD south Spanish oil amphora

Form 26 and 27: 3rd century and laterAll other forms are later and were not classified by Dressel.

Related documents:l'Archéologie sous-marine à l'étude du commerce romain, Françoise MayetAmphoras from Cap de Mèdes wreck, 1st century BC, FranceRelated links:The Amphoras projectAbysso, ItalyLes àmfores oleàries bètiques Dressel 20 i Dressel 23, Pere Isquierdo i TugasLiterature:

M Sciallano, P Sibella: Amphores – comment les identifier? (Edisud) Lattara 6, (Lattes 1993)

images from Heinrich Dressel, text by Per Åkesson, April 1999

Back to Nordic Underwater Archaeology