Roman Epigraphy Epigraphy on instrumentum domesticum

Epigraphy on instrumentum domesticum

titulipicti-abc     CEIPAC, since its inception in 1989, aims to create an amphorae epigraphy corpus. As a result, a digitalized database was created in 1995, available on the web (ceipac.ub.edu). In 1996 CEIPAC joined the Timbres Amphoriques de la Union Académique International project. In 2003 Prof. José Remesal Rodríguez was chosen as director of the Latin amphorae epigraphy section, followed by the election in 2009 as director also of the Greek amphorae epigraphy section.

The main goal of this database, which uses the MySQL system in a Linux server, is not only to gather as many data as possible related to amphorae epigraphy but, above all, to create a systemization model of amphorae epigraphy, which is devoid of a specific analytical procedure to date. This database has also an ICT system which allows all scholars, from anywhere in the world, to learn the description and analysis techniques of these materials.

Nowadays this database has more than 40,000 entries, as a result of a systematic introduction of related publications. The data associated with a specific amphora type, Dressel 20, stands out. This amphora type contained olive oil and originated from the Roman province of Baetica (Andalusia, Spain), as these were amphorae consistently stamped. The production area along the valley of the Guadalquivir and Genil rivers has been methodically documented, as well as the Monte Testaccio (Rome), an enormous depot of Dressel 20 amphorae.

The documents directly generated from the research carried out at CEIPAC are also an essential asset for the database. One should mention particularly the materials recovered in our excavations at the Monte Testaccio (Rome), where we have been working since 1989 with the financial aid of the Real Academia de la Historia, and also the materials (still unpublished) of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten, Germany) and Brigantium (Bregenz, Austria). An agreement with the Sopraintendenza Archaeologica in Rome facilitated the study of all the amphora material from the city of Rome. Also the study of the African amphorae epigraphy, in collaboration with the Université de Sousse (Tunisia) and the material from one of the necropoleis from Leptis Magna (Libia), in collaboration with the Universitá di Roma III.