Shipwrecks and cargoes.

Routes and trades in the Mediterranean Sea

through the Hellenistic relief bowls
Antonella Antonazzo
PhD – University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
antonella.antonazzo@libero.it

The study of specific categories of objects from cargoes offers a peculiar possibility to reconstruct the routes and the trends of the trades in the area of the Mediterranean Sea. In particular, the main aim of
this PhD research is to try to reconstruct routes and trades during the Hellenistic and the Roman Late Republican periods through a specific class of artifacts usually known as "Megarian bowls".
These bowls belong to a very broad group of Hellenistic pottery, that is mainly characterized by the hemispherical shape and by a common production technique: moulds were used to define both shapes
and relief decorations, with the aim to imitate the luxurious and more expensive metal vessels. For these reasons, more adequately, we should define these bowls "Hellenistic hemispherical mould-made
relief bowls" (this is the appropriate qualification defined by Susan Rotroff) or, with a simplified nomenclature, "Hellenistic relief bowls". Although still used for conventional and synthetic purposes, the term
"Megarian bowls" is incorrect. It was created by Otto Benndorf in 1869, because he wrongly thought that Megara had been the first production centre of this pottery; in contrast, it has been now established
that this type of bowls had never been produced in Megara.
Through the identification of production workshops and the study of specimens and fragments found in settlements' layers, necropolis and tombs, sites for votive offerings and underwater sites, it is
possible to draw the distribution area of the Hellenistic relief bowls around the Mediterranean. In the present contribute, the investigation is focused on the interpretation of few groups of Hellenistic relief
bowls exclusively recovered by underwater archaeological research and brought to light from shipwrecks (as part of the cargo) or other submerged sites.

a) Le Grand Congloué B (Marseille, France) b) Apollonia B (Cyrenaica, Libya)

About a dozen of fragments of Hellenistic relief bowls were found beside the parts of the cargo of Le
Grand Congloué B wreck, dated to 110-80 BC by Fernand Benoit.
This second wreck on Le Grand Congloué was overlying the wreck A.
The bowls, defined by F. Benoit as imported pottery from Delos, were part of a cargo that mainly a
large number of Dressel 1A amphorae, probably made in Etruria. The other finds were represented
by 2 Punic amphorae, Campana B (20 pieces) and Campana C pottery, thin-walled pottery and
various coarseware vessels.
The wrecked cargo of the Apollonia B ship was found at the depth of 8 m near the wreck A,
apparently without any surviving hull remains.
The main cargo was made up of Hellenistic relief bowls, found in association with Rhodian
amphorae. Some of the bowls have stamps of the potter Menemachos and for this reason they
have been attributed to his atelier.
The Rhodian amphorae have stamps of Drakontidas (167-165 BC) and Aristonos II (150-147
BC) that allow to date the cargo.

d) Šćedro B (near the

Island Šćedro - the
e ancient Tauris,
a d Dalmatia)
A relief bowl was found beside
c the parts of a cargo and ship
f equipment, in association with
Black-Gloss ware and a main
c) Spargi (La Maddalena - cargo of Lamboglia 2
Sardinia, Italy) amphorae.
The wreck and its rich cargo, dated to
120-100 BC, were found near
Spargi Island, at 17-18 m depth.
The cargo comprised a very large number of amphorae, especially Dressel 1A
and Dressel 1B and also some ovoidal amphorae and several small Rhodian
amphorae. b
Also in this case, the amphorae were associated with a fair amount of
Hellenistic relief bowls and Hellenistic relief pottery from Pergamum.
The rest of the cargo was made of a great quantity of Black-Gloss pottery
(thousands of pieces with fabric related to Campana B, from Northern
Campania or Southern Latium), several moulded glass alabastra, e) Čiovo - Gospa Prizidnica
"presigillata" pottery in several different fabric varieties, thin-walled ware, (Čiovo Island, Dalmatia)
lamps, red-and-black bowls, unguentaria, lagynoi and coarseware. Some fragments of "mould made relief ware"
Other finds included worked or half-worked stones, beads of glass and lapis were brought to light from a shipwreck not far
lazuli, glass and bone pendants, amulets, buttons and pins, a ring and a bone from Resnik.
box that belonged to the crew; about 100 fragments of Campana A pottery The bowls were found in association with
belonged to shipboard supplies and many marble and bronze objects were Black-Gloss ware and a main cargo of
part of the shrine of the ship. Lamboglia 2 amphorae.

f) Torre Santa Sabina 4 (near Brindisi, Italy)

The cargo of one of the wrecks (at least 5) found in the bay was datated to the second half of the 2nd century
BC and was made up of a significant number of Late Republican amphorae of Salentine production (Apani and
Giancola types, for both wine and oil, that are transitional type between the late Greco-Italic and the Lamboglia
2), Dressel 2-4 (probably produced in Kos together with Chian, Knidian and Thasian types) and Rhodian
amphorae (some of which stamped with the eponyms Aristodamos II), several “early” Tripolitanian productions
and a nearly complete Punic amphora.
With these amphorae, a great amount of Hellenistic relief bowls was found – ca. 600 fragments belonging to at
least 300 cups, the most important group of finds of this type discovered in Italy – because of both their amount
and their provenance. A large portion of these cups can be traced to imports from several workshops in Greece
or Asia Minor (like Ephesos, Miletos and Knidos), especially from the ateliers of Menemachos and of the
Monogram [PAR].
The rest of the cargo included fine wares, storage and cooking wares produced in Puglia, in the Aegean basin
and, to a lesser extent, in the Tyrrhenian basin: Black-Gloss ware; Campana A ware; Eastern Sigillata A ware;
Knidian-type cups; “colour-coated ware”; Thin-walled pottery; lamps; plain and cooking wares.
This Late Republican cargo could be defined as a “cargo of secondary formation”, according to a “redistributive”
model of trade: amphorae both of local and Aegean production with fine wares and cooking wares of Eastern
production travelled to Brundisium. From here, the Eastern imports were shipped to other destinations together
with local products, probably following vertical routes along the Adriatic coast and with a final destination along
the western Adriatic route.

New data and interpretation

The production of Hellenistic relief bowls was attributed, in the past years, to workshops of Delos. New data, on the contrary, suggest that a local production in Delos is unlikely to exist, and allow to identify
the presence of this kind of ateliers in the sites of Ephesos and Miletos or Knidos.
Also the atelier of Menemachos, considered one of the most important Delian potters for this type of bowls, must probably be referred to the Ephesian area.
For these reasons we could suggest a new origin for the Hellenistic relief bowls found on the shipwrecks of the Grand Congloué B, Apollonia B, Torre Santa Sabina 4 and Spargi.
All the bowls of these cargoes were considered as productions of Delos' workshops; but in all these cases we could consider more probable an origin from Ephesos, especially for those bowls that were
attributed to the ateliers of Menemachos and of the Monogram [PAR].
Another element of interest is the coexistence, in these 4 cargoes, of the "Megarian bowls" with specific kinds of goods: Campana A/B pottery (Le Grand Congloué B, Torre Santa Sabina 4, Spargi), thin-
walled pottery (Le Grand Congloué B, Torre Santa Sabina 4, Spargi), Black-Gloss ware (Torre Santa Sabina 4, Čiovo - Gospa Prizidnica, Šćedro B) Dressel 1A amphorae (Le Grand Congloué B, Spargi),
Lamboglia 2 amphorae (Torre Santa Sabina 4, Čiovo - Gospa Prizidnica, Šćedro B) and especially Rhodian amphorae (Apollonia B, Torre Santa Sabina 4, Spargi).
F. Benoit thought that the Hellenistic relief bowls were imported using maritime trades and along the same routes of the Rhodian amphorae till the coast of France. In this trade, southern Italian merchants
had surely a great key-role. Puglia was probably a fundamental staging point for the diffusion and trade of Rhodian products (mostly wine, but also purchase and reselling of grain), particularly in the 2nd c.
BC. Rhodian commerce in Puglia seems to have followed two routes: one in the Ionian Sea, terminating at Taranto, and one or more in the Adriatic, certainly along the eastern coast, as attested especially
by the finds at Apollonia (Liburnia).
Interesting perspectives could came from the discoveries of Hellenistic relief bowls in the shipwrecks cargoes of the Eastern Adriatic coast, like Čiovo - Gospa Prizidnica and Šćedro B wrecks. In these
cases, the identification of the bowls could be also compared with the local productions in the Dalmatian area.
Indeed, in addition to all these findings, the large number of Hellenistic Relief Bowls that came from the submerged site of Resnik, near Kaštel Novi (Croatia) are of great relevance. In this underwater
archaeological site about 104 pieces were found that were probably produced locally, and suggest that in Resnik there was at least an atelier for the production of the hellenistic ceramic.