Residue analysis of medieval amphorae from the Eastern Mediterranean

Alessandra Pecci , Nicolas Garnier , S.Y. Waksman (1, 2, 3)

1 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
2 ArAr - Archéologie et Archéométrie
3 MOM - Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée - Jean Pouilloux

The POMEDOR project gave the opportunity to investigate the provenance and contents of some of the main types of Middle and Late Byzantine amphorae, for which we had very little information so far. This paper presents the first results obtained by residues analyses on amphorae of types Günsenin III and IV, which were widespread in the Mediterranean and the Black sea in the 12th-13th century AD, and are probably among the latest Mediterranean transport amphorae. We also studied another type of amphora, known only in the Levantine area in the Crusader period. The samples were analysed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Different extraction methods were carried out in order to identify the residues preserved. The results of the analyses show wine was likely contained in almost all the amphorae. However, residues of plant oils were also present together with animal origin products and Pinaceae products probably used to coat the amphorae. In general, the results of the analyses seem to indicate that the analysed amphorae were often reused.

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire; Chimie analytique

Alessandra Pecci, Nicolas Garnier, S.Y. Waksman. Residue analysis of medieval amphorae from the Eastern Mediterranean. S.Y. Waksman (ed.). Multidisciplinary approaches to food and foodways in the medieval Eastern Mediterranean, pp.417-428, 2020, 978-2-35668-070-9. ⟨hal-03070474⟩