Le anfore greco italiche di Ischia: archeologia e archeometria : artigianato ed economia nel Golfo di Napoli

The subject of the volume is the study of graeco-italic amphorae found in Lacco Ameno (Gulf of Naples). One of its aims is to unify and deepen the results of the researches conducted at various times during the past years in the pottery workshop under the church of Santa Restituta, discovered and excavated by the priest don Pietro Monti. Ischia was famous in ancient times for its clay deposits and for its wine, and has been a production center of ceramics from the times of the Greek colonization of the island. The graeco-italic amphorae stamped in Greek, which find comparison with types of Naples, are an important marker of the Gulf’s economic situation and have been object of typological, epigraphic and archaeometric researches (with chemical and mineralogical methods). Which are the amphorae produced in Ischia (and/or in Naples) during Hellenistic times? Where and when did the amphorae circulate? Which are the types? Which are the stamps? Which are the fabrics and clay mixtures? These are only some of the questions to whom this research tried to give an answer. Thanks to laboratory analyses it has been possible to show the link between some of the graeco-italic amphorae and the Gulf of Naples, often defended but never proved. Additionally, a possible relationship emerged between some stamps and the initials put on coins of Neapolis; such relationship may open new horizons of studies regarding the stamps and the economic and administrative situation of the Gulf of Naples during Hellenistic times. The work is structured in eight chapters with added catalogues. The second chapter is dedicated to the wine of Ischia, that probably made the contents of the graeco-italic amphorae, and to the installations connected to the Island’s wine production. The third chapter is focused on the typology of the graeco-italic amphorae of Ischia/Gulf of Naples. The fourth chapter deals with the Greek stamps on the graeco-italic amphorae of Ischia and the fifth chapter is a critical catalogue of some stamps and of their circulation. The sixth chapter includes the archaeometric, chemical and mineralogical data. The seventh and eight chapters are an attempt of reconstructing the circulation of the graeco-italic amphorae from Ischia/Gulf of Naples. The issue of the research is, in fact, extended to some sites and shipwrecks from Sicily and the western Mediterranean Sea, thanks to direct verifications and to laboratory analysis, partially still ongoing, conducted within the project Immensa Aequora (www.immensaaequora.org). The last chapter summarizes the achieved results and makes a first attempt of interpretation of the data under an historic-economical point of view.