7. Jahrgang 2005/06 · Heft 1 - 2 33 Towards a Typology of Erythraian Amphoras 1 Deborah N. Carlson – Mark L. Lawall Abstract - Recent excavation work at Erythrai uncovered a Hellenistic ceramic workshop, including amphora wast- ers, a kiln, and potter’s wheel. At Athens, studies of Classical and Hellenistic amphora stamps at the Kerameikos drew increased attention to Erythraian stamp types. This paper presents a preliminary outline for the history of Erythraian amphora production and exports through the Classical period, for which the most secure datum point is the cargo of a 5 th -century BC ship wrecked off the Turkish coast at Tektaş Burnu. Stratified assemblages on land at Ephesus, Athens, Troy, and elsewhere continue the typologi- cal sequence through the Hellenistic period and indicate a strikingly prosperous export trade. Erythraian amphoras were not always of a shape unique to that city. The close coordination of studies of shipwreck material and land sites has filled a significant gap in our understanding of amphora production and exports of the central west coast of Asia Minor. Inhalt - Ausgrabungen in Erythrai haben eine hellenistische Töpferwerkstatt mit Abfällen von Amphoren, einem Brennofen und einer Töpferscheibe ergeben. In Athen hat die Forschung zu klassischen und hellenistischen Ampho- renstempeln im Kerameikos ein wachsendes Interesse an erythräischen Stempeltypen gezeitigt. Dieser Beitrag bietet eine vorläufige Darstellung der Geschichte der erythräischen Amphorenproduktion und ihres Exports in klassischer Zeit, für die der sicherste Datierungshinweis von der Ladung des Schiffes des 5. Jhs. v. Chr. stammt, das vor der türkischen Küste nahe Tektaş Burnu scheiterte. Stratifizierte Befunde an Land in Ephesos, Athen, Troja und anderenorts führen die typologische Abfolge durch den Hellenismus fort und lassen auf einen er- staunlich blühenden Export schließen. Erythräische Amphoren hatten nicht immer eine auf diese Stadt beschränkte Form. Das enge Zusammenwirken der Erforschung von Wrackfundmaterial und von Landgrabungen hat eine wichtige Lücke in der Kenntnis der Ampho- renproduktion und des Exports im mittleren West-Kleinasien gefüllt. Amphora production and general economic prosperity for the city of Erythrai is attested in ancient literary sources and inscriptions (if only obliquely) 2 . Even so, archaeo- logical knowledge of the city as a site of amphora production only dates back to three discoveries in the 1990s: the cargo of the Tektaş Burnu shipwreck, which included one jar stamped with the letters ERY; Gerhard Jöhrens’ 1999 re- port on four stamps from the Ke- rameikos excavations each with the letter A closed by a horizontal bar at the base and the letters ERY arranged around the A 3 , and the Turkish excavations of a kilnsite at Banyoz (ancient Erythrai) which provided an important link bet- ween the late Classical stamped types and later Hellenistic forms 4 . From these three discoveries, we can now begin to construct a more extensive typology for Erythraian amphora forms. Four major sta- ges emerge: (1) the heavy rounded rim type of Tektaş Burnu, (2) a mushroom rim type, (3) a band rim type, and (4) a cup-shaped rim type. This last is the late Hel- lenistic predecessor to a long tra- dition in Roman period Aegean amphora production, Dressel form 24 5 . Tekta ş Burnu shipwreck In 1996, divers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) at Texas A&M University located the remains of an ancient shipwreck at Tektaş Burnu, southeast of Çeşme and west of Siğacık (ancient Teos). Excavation of the wreck between 1999 and 2001 revealed a pri- mary cargo of 213 amphoras still partially filled with the remains of their ancient contents: wine, pine tar, and butchered beeff 6 . Ten Mendean and two Chian ampho- ras suggest a date between 440 and 430 BC for the wreck. The vast majority (195 of 213 or 90%) of the more than 200 amphoras excavated at Tektaş Burnu belong to a previously unattributed ty- pe. Centered on the neck of one of these jars was a circular stamp framing the Greek letters Epsilon- Fig. 1: Stamp of an amphora from the Tektaş Burnu shipwreck.