Abstract:

In this research work we analyze the presence of the ovoid amphorae in the contexts of the 2nd and 1st century BC from the city of Tarraco. To this end we have analyzed twenty-nine ceramic ensembles with stratigraphic reliability coming from various interventions throughout the city, to obtain a representative sample. The sample was formed by a total of 59174 ceramic fragments, of which we have identified a total of 4646 individuals, 42247 fragments reports, 49484 rim fragments, 2337 spikes or bases, 1824 handles, 21 complete profiles, and 356 other type of fragments. With the global study of these ceramic ensembles we can determine in which time periods appear the Late Republican ovoid amphorae in the city, wich centres produced the containers and their percentage weight compared to the rest of amphoras that reach the capital of Hispania Citerior. Nevertheless, although it is a wide sample, Tarraco’s own historical dynamic, on the one hand, and the intrinsic randomness to our profession, on the other, generates periods that are very well represented, with various contexts that offer us a sample quite representative, while at other times the opposite occurs, with a total absence of stratigraphic contexts as for the first half of the 2nd century BC and the last quarter of this century. In this way, the data offered by the study of the ceramic ensembles of the Republican Tarraco can be used to try to know the commercial dynamics of various products through their packaging. Unfortunately, this knowledge is fragmentary, because we lack of closed representative ensembles on the end of the 3rd century BC, on the first half of the 2nd century BC and on the last quarter of this century.