A Roman shipwreck of c . AD 200 at Plemmirio, Sicily: Evidence for north African amphora production during the Severan period

Abstract

A Roman shipwreck at Plemmirio, near Syracuse in south-east Sicily, held a cargo of cylindrical amphoras from Africa Proconsularis (modern Tunisia). The pottery indicates a wreck date at the time of the emperor Septimius Severus (AD 193-211), and suggests that the other main ports of call were in central Tyrrhenian Italy.This paper focuses on the evidence for amphora production during the period of the Severan dynasty (AD 193-235), when north Africa began to replace south Spain as the main source of long-distance olive oil import to Rome. The two cargo amphora forms, Africana 1 and Africana 2A, were probably respectively for olive oil and fish produce, the latter reflecting a major export industry which developed alongside oil production. Kiln survey shows that these forms were produced in urban and peri-urban manufactories at several east Tunisian port sites, and Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, here applied for the first time successfully to a wreck assemblage, indicates that the Plemmirio amphoras were from the area of Sullechtum. The limited morphological variability in the assemblage reflects highly organized production. Wreck evidence greatly improves our understanding of amphora production, not only between the Spanish and the African phases but also in the evolving patterns of African export through the third century AD and beyond which can be related to wider political and economic developments in the middle and late Roman Empire.