An amphora (/ˈæmfərə/; Ancient Greek: ἀμφορεύς, romanized: amphoreús; English pl. amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container^[1] with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land or sea. The size and shape have been determined from at least as early as the Neolithic Period. Amphorae were used in vast numbers for the transport and storage of various products, both liquid and dry, but mostly for wine. They are most often ceramic, but examples in metals and other materials have been found. Versions of the amphorae were one of many shapes used in Ancient Greek vase painting.

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Amphora
Amphora designed for marine transport, taken from shipwrecks of the Bronze Age, on display in the Museum of Underwater Archaeology at Bodrum Castle, Turkey. The museum archaeologists have devised a rack and roping device to illustrate how the cargo might have been kept from shifting.
Panathenaic prize amphora in the black-figure style, showing the goddess Athena
Material	Ceramic, a small minority in metal, rare instances in stone or glass
Size	Small-volume container varying from table-top size to half the height of a human, able to be carried by one or more people.
Writing	Sometimes inscribed with an identifying mark, or, in the case of painted ware, the signature of the potter or artist and the names of the characters depicted in the scene.
Created	Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Middle Ages
Discovered	The shards are ubiquitous in any type of archaeological context. The vessels were used primarily to carry wine, which was drunk by all known peoples over Eurasia[citation needed] from at least the Neolithic.
Present location	Circum-Mediterranean, Black Sea, Eurasia from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

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The amphora complements a vase, the pithos, which makes available capacities between one-half and two and one-half tons. In contrast, the amphora holds under a half-ton, typically less than 50 kilograms (110 lb). The bodies of the two types have similar shapes. Where the pithos may have multiple small loops or lugs for fastening a rope harness, the amphora has two expansive handles joining the shoulder of the body and a long neck. The necks of pithoi are wide for scooping or bucket access. The necks of amphorae are narrow for pouring by a person holding it by the bottom and a handle. Some variants exist. The handles might not be present. The size may require two or three handlers to lift. For the most part, however, an amphora was tableware, or sat close to the table, was intended to be seen, and was finely decorated as such by master painters.^{[clarification needed]}

Stoppers of perishable materials, which have rarely survived, were used to seal the contents. Two principal types of amphorae existed: the neck amphora, in which the neck and body meet at a sharp angle; and the one-piece amphora, in which the neck and body form a continuous curve upwards. Neck amphorae were commonly used in the early history of ancient Greece, but were gradually replaced by the one-piece type from around the 7th century BC onward.

Most were produced with a pointed base to allow upright storage by embedding in soft ground, such as sand. The base facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were packed upright or on their sides in as many as five staggered layers.^[2] If upright, the bases probably were held by some sort of rack, and ropes passed through their handles to prevent shifting or toppling during rough seas. Heather and reeds might be used as packing around the vases. Racks could be used in kitchens and shops. The base also concentrated deposits from liquids with suspended solid particles, such as olive oil and wines.

Amphorae are of great use to maritime archaeologists, as they often indicate the age of a shipwreck and the geographic origin of the cargo. They are occasionally so well preserved that the original content is still present, providing information on foodstuffs and mercantile systems. Amphorae were too cheap and plentiful to return to their origin-point and so, when empty, they were broken up at their destination. At a breakage site in Rome, Testaccio, close to the Tiber, the fragments, later wetted with calcium hydroxide (calce viva), remained to create a hill now named Monte Testaccio, 45 m (148 ft) high and more than 1 kilometre in circumference.

Amphora is a Greco-Roman word developed in ancient Greek during the Bronze Age. The Romans acquired it during the Hellenization that occurred in the Roman Republic. Cato is the first known literary person to use it. The Romans turned the Greek form into a standard -a declension noun, amphora, pl. amphorae.^[3] Undoubtedly, the word and the vase were introduced to Italy through the Greek settlements there, which traded extensively in Greek pottery.

It is remarkable that even though the Etruscans imported, manufactured, and exported amphorae extensively in their wine industry, and other Greek vase names were Etruscanized, no Etruscan form of the word exists. There was perhaps an as yet unidentified native Etruscan word for the vase that pre-empted the adoption of amphora.

The Latin word derived from the Greek amphoreus (ἀμφορεύς),^[4] a shortened form of amphiphoreus (ἀμφιφορεύς), a compound word combining amphi- ("on both sides", "twain")^[5] and phoreus ("carrier"), from pherein ("to carry"),^[6] referring to the vessel's two carrying handles on opposite sides.^[7] The amphora appears as 𐀀𐀠𐀡𐀩𐀸, a-pi-po-re-we, in the Linear B Bronze Age records of Knossos, 𐀀𐀡𐀩𐀸, a-po-re-we, at Mycenae, and the fragmentary ]-re-we at Pylos, designated by Ideogram 209 𐃨, Bennett's AMPHORA, which has a number of scribal variants. The two spellings are transcriptions of amphiphorēwes (plural) and amphorēwe (dual) in Mycenaean Greek from which it may be seen that the short form prevailed on the mainland. Homer uses the long form for metrical reasons, and Herodotus has the short form. Ventris and Chadwick's translation is "carried on both sides."^[8]

Amphorae varied greatly in height. The largest stands as tall as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) high, while some were less than 30 centimetres (12 inches) high - the smallest were called amphoriskoi (literally "little amphorae"). Most were around 45 centimetres (18 inches) high.

There was a significant degree of standardisation in some variants; the wine amphora held a standard measure of about 39 litres (41 US qt), giving rise to the amphora quadrantal as a unit of measure in the Roman Empire. In all, approximately 66 distinct types of amphora have been identified.

Further, the term also stands for an ancient Roman unit of measurement for liquids. The volume of a Roman amphora was one cubic foot, c. 26.026 L.

Roman amphorae were wheel-thrown terracotta containers. During the production process the body was made first and then left to dry partially.^[9] Then coils of clay were added to form the neck, the rim, and the handles.^[9] Once the amphora was complete, the maker then treated the interior with resin that would prevent permeation of stored liquids.^{[citation needed]} The reconstruction of these stages of production is based primarily on the study of modern amphora production in some areas of the eastern Mediterranean.^[9]

Amphorae often were marked with a variety of stamps, sgraffito, and inscriptions.^[10] They provided information on the production, content, and subsequent marketing. A stamp usually was applied to the amphora at a partially dry stage. It indicates the name of the figlina (workshop) and/or the name of the owner of the workshop. Painted stamps, tituli picti, recorded the weight of the container and the contents, and were applied after the amphora was filled. Today, stamps are used to allow historians to track the flow of trade goods and recreate ancient trade networks.^[10]

The first systematic classification of Roman amphorae types was undertaken by the German scholar Heinrich Dressel. Following the exceptional amphora deposit uncovered in Rome in Castro Pretorio at the end of the 1800s, he collected almost 200 inscriptions from amphorae and included them in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. In his studies of the amphora deposit he was the first to elaborate a classification of types, the so-called "Dressel table",^[11] which still is used today for many types.

Subsequent studies on Roman amphorae have produced more detailed classifications, which usually are named after the scholar who studied them. For the neo-Phoenician types see the work by Maña published in 1951,^[12] and the revised classification by Van der Werff in 1977–1978.^[13] The Gallic amphorae have been studied by Laubenheimer in a study published in 1989,^[14] whereas the Cretan amphorae have been analyzed by Marangou-Lerat.^[15] Beltràn studied the Spanish types in 1970.^[16] Adriatic types have been studied by Lamboglia in 1955.^[17] For a general analysis of the Western Mediterranean types see Panella,^[18] and Peacock and Williams.^[9]

Some modern winemakers and brewers use amphorae to provide a different palate and taste to their products from those that are available with other aging methods.^[27]

• Ancient Roman pottery
• Ayla-Axum Amphoras
• Carinate
• Demijohn, another large container used historically for wine
• Lionel Casson, scholar of the contents of shipwrecked amphorae
• Maritime archaeology
• Monte Testaccio
• Stirrup jar, a two-handled amphora whose opposing handles connect the aperture to the sides of the vessel
• Tapayan, earthenware and stoneware vessels used for storing and transporting various products in ancient maritime Southeast Asia
• Zafar, Yemen