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Amphora

Location

TUNISIA

Era

9th.-2nd c. B.C.E.

Culture

Punic

Title

Amphora

Date

4th-3rd c. B.C.E.

Materials

Earthenware

Dimensions

34.2 cm (h.), 17 cm (diam.)

Credits

Gift of Dr. Jocelyn and Mrs. Ginette Demers, inv. 2018.9

Collection

Archeology and World Cultures

This amphora would have held liquids or grains for shipment overseas. The vessel’s slender, pointed bottom was created specifically to stand upright in a wooden rack on a ship. During the first millennium B.C.E., Carthage (in modern Tunisia) became the richest city in the ancient Mediterranean world through the colonial trade economy of the Phoenicians, who would colonize much of the western Mediterranean. By the end of the Third Punic War in 146 B.C.E., the city was destroyed, and the region fell under Roman control.

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