3. JARS AND AMPHORAE, OF BOTH PERIODS
Jars and Amphorae
The vessels which remain to be described are larger in size than any of the preceding. They were probably employed for storage and for transport, and they may be classified as jars and amphorae. The former are often of jars and fine ware, resembling large jugs with one or two handles. Though doubtless many fragments of these larger vessels occurred among the pottery, it was only towards the end of the excavations that any specimens could be put together. Among the early dishes in Pit LXXVI, the neck and handle with the greater part of the body of a large jar was found. This vessel is illustrated in Plate XLIX. (B), Fig. 3. It stands 17½ inches in height, and is made of fine close-grained earthenware of no great thickness. The colour is a light grey. The mouth is 3½ inches in diameter. The vessel has a single handle, and the foot shows a projecting ring as in the case of the smaller jug type. Such vessels were doubtless imported. A jar differing very little in shape occurs at Haltern,[1] and we may see it also at Hofheim.[2] We have no examples of vessels of this type belonging to the later period. Another early vessel more closely approaching the amphora was found in Pit LXXVIII (Plate XLIX. (B), Fig. 1). It is made of rather thin close-textured ware of a grey colour. It stands 25 inches in height, and is almost complete with the exception of the bottom, which is a restoration. The orifice is 3 inches in diameter. On either side of the neck, strong handles are affixed. The neck of the vessel has been made separately from the body and inserted; this is also the case in Fig. 3. An additional point of interest in connection with this jar lies in an inscription written across the shoulder with a brush which has been dipped in ink or some dark pigment. The inscription is reproduced in Plate LII., Fig. 20. It consists of two lines, for the most part still wonderfully distinct, and it is evidently a mark of possession, ATTI·SECVNDI·LAGVNVM; the jar of ATTIVS SECVNDVS. The strokes which terminate the first line, apparently forming one or two letters or symbols and possibly a single letter at the end of the second, are faint, and have not been deciphered satisfactorily. We have a parallel to this inscription on a jar—a Laguna—in the Museum of Saintes, which bears the inscription, MARTIALI SOLDAM LAGONAM.[3] A second inscription of the same character occurred upon a
1 Mitteilungen der Altertums-Kommission für Westfalen, v. Taf. xxiii. Fig. 1.
2 Ritterling, Hofheim, p. 97, Abb. 54.
3 Marquardt, Privatleben, vol. ii. fig. 14, p. 649.
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