In the wake of the search for the remnants of the Pharos of Alexandria, several shipwreck sites were discovered outside the East Harbour zone. The wreck site Qaitbay 1, named after the nearby Mamluk fortress located where the famous Hellenistic lighthouse once stood, revealed a peculiar cargo of Adriatic and Campanian wine amphoras. This site was first investigated in 1997–1998 under the direction of Jean-Yves Empereur, former director of the Centre des Etudes Alexandrines, and the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt. The investigation was extended to the surrounding zone in 2015–2016, leading to the discovery of more amphoras belonging to the original cargo. After conducting a research program of several years on the Qaitbay 1 wreck site, Nicolas Boichot presents his results concentrating on the coexistence of a production of Campanian amphoras imitating the Lamboglia 2 types and the original Lamboglia 2 amphoras which were produced along the Central Adriatic coast of Italy during the greater part of the 1st century BC. This carefully constructed and well-documented publication lays bare the challenging problems connected with the production and imitation of Lamboglia 2 amphoras, as well as with their commerce and consumption.
In the introduction, the author offers an overview of the development of his research and its problems and questions. The book consists of three main parts subdivided in 14 chapters. The first part is a status quaestionis of research on the typochronology, wine production, production places and diffusion of the most important Central Adriatic amphora forms and their imitations. The diffusion is established by a corpus of some 150 shipwrecks. In the second part, the context of the Qaitbay 1 shipwreck site and its amphora cargo are presented and discussed. The cargo consists of at least three different amphora types: the Central Adriatic Lamboglia 2, the Campania imitation of this type and the Central Adriatic Dressel 6A. A small group of Brindisi olive-oil amphoras is also treated by the author as belonging to the cargo. Then follows the study of stamps and stoppers, the date of the wreck, the presence on the site of amphoras and other objects from different periods, and finally a comparison with the Central Adriatic amphoras from the excavations in the city of Alexandria. The last part is devoted to the presentation and discussion of Campanian imitations of the Central Adriatic Lamboglia 2 amphoras, starting with a reassessment of the shipwreck of Sa Nau Perduda, where the cargo consisted almost exclusively of Campanian imitations of Lamboglia 2 wine amphoras. After a typological study of the amphoras, the stamps and a curious graffito ante cocturam are discussed. Then the freight is compared with the smaller loads of Campanian Lamboglia 2 amphoras in the wrecks of Qaitbay 1, la Madrague de Giens (French Riviera), Port-Vendres 4 (Eastern French Pyrénées) and Secca dei Mattoni (island of Ponza, Latium). The rare presence of these imitations is further investigated at selected consumption sites in Spain, France, Italy, Albania and Alexandria. Finally, first conclusions are made concerning the chronology and the production place of these Lamboglia 2 imitations in the Vesuvian region, where they are compared with Dressel 1 types, the main production type of amphoras in that region. The second and third parts of the book also contain the results of different types of analyses supporting the identification of the amphoras. Assem Bahnasy and Mai Abdelgawad were respectively responsible for the petrographic and chemical analysis of the amphoras in the Qaitbay 1 cargo. The first also carried out the petrographic analysis of what could be interpreted as ballast stones from the Qaitbay 1 ship. C. Capelli did the petrographic analysis of the amphoras of the Sa Nau Perduda and Port-Vendres 4 wrecks. Using gas chromatographic analysis, N. Garnier offers some clues about the content of several amphoras of the Sa Nau Perduda wreck. The book’s conclusion provides some thoughts on the meaning of amphora imitation. The volume closes with acknowledgments, indices of the wrecks, geographic locations, amphora types and other ceramics, onomastics, a list of abbreviations and finally a thorough bibliography. This publication is so rich in information and new insights that we only can focus on some of the main topics: the shipwreck site, the typochronology of the Central Adriatic amphoras, the distribution of these amphoras through the corpus of shipwrecks and the case of the Campanian imitations of the Lamboglia 2 amphoras.
The author’s painstaking research on the context of the wreck site of Qaitbay 1 deserves special attention. Nothing of the hull or the gear (except perhaps the ballast stones) belonging to the merchantman survived. That there must have been a ship is proven by a meticulous study of the formation of the site and the homogeneity of the amphora cargo. Through the spreading of the amphoras, the wreckage of the ship is visible over a rather large area, up to 1250 m², in which an exhaustive survey was able to distinguish 5 sectors. The central sector contained the largest part of the cargo, consisting of Central Adriatic Lamboglia 2 amphoras. The southeast sector shows a more scattered pattern but still with an appreciable density of amphoras, composed mainly of Central Adriatic Lamboglia 2 mixed with Dressel 6A and Campanian imitations of Lamboglia 2 types. These 2 sectors represent the core zone of the wreck. The more remote northeast sector comprises nearly all the Brindisi amphoras and some Central Adriatic Lamboglia 2 amphoras. In our opinion, the 10 or so Brindisi amphoras do not belong to the cargo. Apart from their distant position in the wreck area, the types all fit into the first half of the 1st century BC, whereas the Qaitbay1 wreck is dated around 30–25 BC. The homogeneity of the cargo of the other amphoras is confirmed by their typochronology, the composition of the fabrics, their common origins, the presence of the stamps (especially the large series of palm leaf stamps) and the numerous preserved ceramic stoppers. A total of some 100 Central Adriatic Lamboglia 2 amphoras, nine Campanian imitations and seven Central Adriatic Dressel 6A amphoras were identified in all. It is impossible to estimate the original size of the cargo, which must have been much larger. Moreover, with the exception of several complete examples, only the upper parts of the amphoras survived. Strangely enough, no amphora spikes were preserved. All this is partly due to the changing configuration of the seabed and the action of the waves over the centuries. In addition, at the time the wreck took place, the area was shallower and closer to the coast, which probably offered possibilities for the salvage of a substantial part of the freight.
The typochronology of the amphoras produced on the Central Adriatic coast of the Italian peninsula is one of the most complex in amphora studies in general. These amphoras lack the more consistent evolution of standardisation of those produced on the Tyrrhenian west coast and partly exemplified by the Dressel 1 wine amphora type. Apparently the workshops in the Adriatic were more individualistic or conservative and less open to current trends. Nevertheless, three main groups can readily be distinguished, i.e., the Greco-Italic types produced from the 4th until the end of 2nd century BC (which are not really our concern here), the Lamboglia 2 amphoras in use during the greater part of the 1st century BC and the more sturdy Dressel 6A type developed around the beginning of the Augustan era and continuing into the 1st century. Difficulties in fixing typologies and chronology arise among numerous undated examples, either bearing the morphological characteristics of two main types or showing wide varieties in rim and handle profiles. Despite these incongruities, a scrupulous study of rim profiles can sometimes produce positive results. Boichot is able to show that in a closed context with a combination of a series of rim profiles and fabric analysis it is possible to recognise typical characteristics of a specific workshop. On the other hand, the coexistence of a Lamboglia 2 and a Dressel 6A amphora, as in the Qaitbay 1 wreck cargo, reveals a transition phase pointing to the end of the Republic or the beginning of the Empire. This chronology is confirmed by comparison with other dating clues such as those found in the Comacchio wreck (Po delta), the stratigraphy of some consumption sites like Pula or by the study of amphora stamps.
Presenting a corpus of shipwrecks is a convenient manner to get a picture of the diffusion of amphoras types. But it is regrettable that the author sums them up geographically in a long, hard-to-read text. This hampers a more detailed insight into the nature of the freights and a proper use of the data. It remains vital to distinguish the wrecks where the Lamboglia 2 amphoras represent the main cargo, are part of a mixed cargo or belong to the on-board equipment. In addition, the chronology of the cargos is missing from his corpus, data that is crucial for the evaluation of the floruit of the distribution of the amphoras. Why not use comprehensible tables to present the essential information about the size of the cargos, the other accompanying amphora types, the dates of the shipwrecks, etc.? In other respects the author advances significant observations. In the Western Mediterranean, only 4 wrecks seem to have carried a main freight of Lamboglia 2 amphoras (Cartagena 1, Punta de Algas, Sa Nau Perduda and Est Perdudo 2). Most are mixed cargos, the main freight consisting generally of Dressel 1 amphoras, the Lamboglia 2 showing mostly a minority. The largest number of wrecks naturally occurs in the Adriatic Sea, especially in those facing the Dalmatian coast, sites that are close to the production centres. In most cases they are exclusively filled with Lamboglia 2 amphoras. Finally, more recent intensive surveys in the Ionian and Aegean Seas have revealed an important number of wrecks containing exclusively Lamboglia 2 amphoras, distinct markers of the Roman conquest of the East in the Late Republican period. Even if so far not much research has been carried out, the cargos of several shipwrecks seem very impressive, such as those of Vati Avlaki near the island of Makronissos or of Yalıkavak 2 near Bodrum.
The find of nine Campanian Lamboglia 2 amphoras at Qaitbay 1 and the study of the freight of the Sa Nau Perduda ship give rise to some intriguing questions about this production which still remain unanswered. One clear fact about these Lamboglia 2 imitations in general is the homogeneity of their fabrics, which seems to point to a specific group of workshops in the bay of Naples. But as the author himself states, Campanian Lamboglia 2 amphoras are rare. Both in the shipwrecks and at the consumption sites their presence is marginal in the counts of the total amount of the amphoras. The exclusive load of the Sa Nau Perduda wreck remains exceptional. Moreover, there is the strange fact of a production imitating Lamboglia 2 in the neighborhood of Barcelona but of which the consumption seems very local. What is perhaps most striking is the extremely close degree of imitation, making them nearly undistinguishable from original Adriatic examples. Also the presence of Campanian Lamboglia 2 amphoras seems restricted to the Western Mediterranean. The Qaitbay 1 amphoras are an exception which we would explain in the light of the importance of the port of Alexandria and the grain trade. So what could then have been their economic relevance? Was their production limited in time? How about the concept of imitation? Was it an experiment amongst other amphora types that did not last long? Was it that the consumer should recognise the amphora type and its content? Were they copied because they transported an imitation of Adriatic wine? Did it matter what sort of wine was carried? In this last case our guess would be that the possessors of Campanian amphora workshops could have invited Adriatic fabricants at some peaks of high demand and let them practice their own skills and traditions.
This book is an important contribution to the complex research on the late Republican and early Augustan production and diffusion of Adriatic wine amphoras through the investigation of two important wrecks in the harbor of Alexandria and near the coast of Catalonia. It addresses a wide range of disciplines — underwater archaeology, ceramology, epigraphy and the history of ancient economy — and will be of interest to scholars working in those areas.