"Nikandros" Group amphoras
Turkey/Aegean/Ephesos
mid-3rd -mid-1st c. BCE
Hellenistic
General Information
The so-called "Nikandros Group" amphoras were made in the vicinity of Ephesus beginning around 260 BCE. They were the first mass transport vessels made by the city's potters. Their appearance indicates that the city's agricultural hinterland was capable both of supplying necessary foodstuffs for Ephesus itself as well as of participating in an export-oriented agrarian economy.
Nikandros Group amphoras were primarily distributed throughout Asia Minor and nearby islands, although they are sometimes found much further afield (e.g., southern Phoenicia and coastal Israel) thanks to active market networks in the southeastern Mediterranean (Lawall 2004, 179, 187 (table 2); Lawall 2007, 49).
The fabric is made with a clay reddish/orange to brown in color; fine to medium-fine texture, dense and hard. The inclusions consit of very fine red and black paticles, considerable presence of fine mica. The slip on the surface ranges from pink/beige to light beige.
