Beyond the Stamp: Material and Production Strategies for Amphorae in the Hellenistic and Roman Aegean – MATEGEE

The MATEGEE project proposes to study the production strategies of amphorae in the Aegean Sea during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, based on the study of ceramic fabrics. These huge wastes of packagings, found on ancient sites, are essential witnesses to the trade of a wide variety of goods in the Mediterranean. Within the Aegean vicinity, the project will focus on the production centres of Thasos, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos, Knidos and Rhodes between the 4th century BC and the 3rd century AD. During this long chronological period, marked by the morphological evolution of the types of containers, production practices will be questioned in an attempt to understand the more or less commercial destiny of certain series of amphorae.

MATEGEE has two main objectives. The first is to identify the manufacturing processes (nature of raw materials, manufacturing recipes, etc.) of amphorae based on data from their chemical and mineralogical compositions. The similarities and dissimilarities thus observed between production centres or regions will make it possible to question the choices made at different scales, from the manufacturer to the region and over time. Accordingly, the micro-regional variability of the "fabrics" will be highlighted and the production areas will be better defined.
The second objective concerns the choice of installation of workshops. Are the production strategies constrained by the geological environment where the workshops are located, or are the rules defined in the societal space, dictated by actors in the socio-economic life of the city-states?

The methodology developed in the MATEGEE programme is based on existing data, the acquisition of new data, and the development of IT tools. The use of chemical analysis equipment, such as pXRF, would allow performing large series of measurements, and computerised methods for the automated fabrics recognition of thin sections of amphorae are the original components of this project. In addition to access reference collections that are currently impossible, an innovative software will be developed by machine learning and deep learning through the digitisation of the richest collections of thin sections for the study of Aegean amphorae, currently conserved in three centres recognised for the solidity of their methodologies and their long expertise in this field (CEAlex, HeRMA and the Fitch Laboratory).

The compilation of documentary sources of different nature and the exploitation of existing databases in a cross-archaeometric, epigraphic, and archaeological approach will contribute to the renewal of knowledge and the opening of data to the scientific community.

Therefore, by analysing the compositions of stamped and unstamped amphorae, we aim to identify technological repetitions that could reflect underlying mechanisms, and above all to seek their causes. How does the state power finally impact the production strategies of amphorae: from the manufacturing process to the establishment of workshops, up to the diffusion of agricultural products? Furthermore, from a scientific prespective, MATEGEE is a good opportunity to go beyond the compartmentalisation in which, sometimes, a strong specialisation conducts studies.