Officina di IG XIV2 – A Lead Stamped Medicine Jar from Taranto

Abstract

The contribution offers the first edition of a small lead olla preserved in the storerooms of the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, made from a bivalve matrix and intended for the trade of medicinal ointments or eye drops. The discreetly preserved object bears a matrix inscription consisting of an idionym in genitive case: Παμφίλου, from Pamphilos, identifying the φαρμακοπώλης according to whose recipe the medicamentum was made. The name is massively attested in Attica and the object therefore seems referable, in terms of form and material of manufacture, to the ‘Athenian or Central-Mediterranean’ area.