This document is part of the online version of the book Amheida II: A Late Romano-Egyptian House in the Dakhla Oasis / Amheida House B2 by Anna Lucille Boozer, which is available at http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/amheida-ii-house-b2/. It is published as part of the NYU Library's Ancient World Digital Library and in partnership with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW). Further information about ISAW's publication program is available on the ISAW website. Please note that while the base URI of this publication is stable, the exact content available at that address is likely to change over time.
This kind of object has been found only inside the house and particularly in room 3. Their number is not as great as one would expect from a domestic context, because the context of B2 is very shallow and may not have preserved everything that was in it at the time of its abandonment. None of them bear the impression of seals. They were used on medium size vessels, with rim diameters between 7.6 and 9.2 cm. This one is also the biggest of the series, and it sealed a jar on the rim of which a green vine leaf was laid. These stoppers testify to different shapes and methods of sealing vessels, with different kinds of lids, as a sort of small dish (cat. no. 9.2), a disc-shaped potsherd (cat. no. 9.4), and a vine leaf (cat. no. 9.3). Their shape can be ascribed mainly to the type “Convesso-Cavo” (CC) (cat. nos. 9.1, 9.2, 9.3) and probably “Fungo” (F) (cat. nos. 9.5, 9.7).1 They were used to seal vessels for liquids hermetically. It was very easy to make this kind of stopper, and thus they could be prepared domestically to close a container, but very often they were made to seal a container with its content in the production place or in a laboratory where the content was packed to be sold. In these last two cases a seal was impressed on the mud to guarantee the contents. Most of our stoppers were shaped on pottery lids. This means that there was no way to pierce the stopper and allow gases coming out from inside the vessel. Pierced stoppers were used to seal wine amphoras, especially when the wine was closed but still in fermentation. Thus we can assume that our stoppers were not used to close fermenting liquids.↩#p1655
These items are very common in Graeco-Roman settlements, with regional variations in the kind of lids used and of the mud locally available. In Amheida mud stoppers were also found in Area 2.1 (house B1), together with gypsum stoppers, which were used for smaller rims (as for example for kegs or bottles). Many mud stoppers found in Amheida Area 2 and at Kellis bear a small ostrakon embedded at the center of the upper convex surface. These texts typically bear some indication of the deliverer or intended recipient of the goods in the jars (e.g., O.Trim. 1.200: “Psais the donkey-driver”). The study of these ostraka with their contexts, that means the mud stoppers and the vessels they closed, will give us a better understanding of the products and of the commerce in the oasis and possibly between the oasis and other places.↩#p1656
Loom Weights
The loom weights have been found mainly in the trench cut in the courtyard outside the house. Their shape and material are common in Egypt, and they were used in vertical looms.↩#p1657
The clay miniature lamp found in the courtyard could not have been used as a proper lamp. It may be interpreted as an object to be fired in the pottery kilns set on the other side of the street in front of the house to the north.3 In this case the lamp should be considered as an intrusion. The same considerations can involve the small disk, possibly a token or a gaming piece.4↩#p1658
Condition: good, largely intact; part of the lateral surface is missing. Weathered bottom surface with salt incrustations.↩#p1666
Description: Circular stopper for a jar or amphora of the type CC. The upper surface is slightly convex, flattened, and roughly smoothed. The bottom surface is concave and weathered.↩#p1667
Description: Circular stopper almost intact of the type CC. Upper surface convex, complete and irregular, roughly smoothed. On the bottom surface there are the impression of the vessel rim (diameter 9.2 cm) and a complete pottery lid with circular lug, only partially preserved.↩#p1676
Description: Circular stopper for a jar in two joining pieces and of the type CC. Embedded Greek ostrakon (O.Trim. 1.200) on the apex of the convex surface. The upper surface is roughly smoothed. On the bottom surface are the impressions of the vessel rim and of a vine leaf with stalk. The ostrakon (4.1 x 3.1 cm) mentions the place-name Magdôla (“watch-tower”) and Psais the donkey-driver.↩#p1690
Parallels: For the use of vine leaves, see Davoli 2005:103. The ostrakon is published in Bagnall and Ruffini 2012.↩#p1691
Description: rounded stopper with flat border. The upper surface is slightly convex and flattened, roughly smoothed; on the bottom surface there are impressions of a flat disc-shaped lid made from a potsherd and of part of a rim. This one cannot be measured, but the diameter of the rim of the vessel must have been around 8 cm.↩#p1702
Parallels: For the use of a flat disc-shaped lid, see Bos 2000:278; Cashman 1999:290.↩#p1703
Description: circular stopper probably of the type F. The upper surface is convex and irregular; the bottom surface is also convex with the impression of a vessel rim.↩#p1714
Description: fragment of a circular stopper with convex upper surface. The bottom surface is very damaged and still preserves part of the rim impression, but not measurable.↩#p1724
Condition: lower part largely intact; upper part fragmentary↩#p1732
Description: circular stopper for a jar or an amphora, of which only the lower part is preserved. It can probably be ascribed to type F. This one is convex and with the impression of the vessel rim. The upper surface was probably convex.↩#p1733
Description: sub-biconical loom weight in two joining fragments, with a central circular hole. The base is flat and not smoothed. Upper surface only partially smoothed.↩#p1744
Material: light brown clay with fine-medium texture; very many quartz inclusions, many fine and medium vegetal and few fine and medium limestone inclusions.↩#p1774
Description: complete miniature lamp of oval shape with footed base. The upper face is decorated with light incisions: dots and dashes around the filling hole and simple dots all around the shoulder. It can be considered as a variant of the extreme evolution of the so-called frog lamp.↩#p1794
Parallels: Michelucci 1975:69, Tav. XVII nos. 291-293.↩#p1795
Notes: Stored in SCA general storehouse at Ismant el-Kharab, No. 2927.↩#p1796
Description: disc with the upper surface slightly convex, originally smoothed and decorated with incised double lines forming a central square. The bottom surface is flat.↩#p1805
Parallels: Discs of similar shape, but slightly smaller, with an incised cross on the top are in Davoli 2005:149-151, Nos. O15, O17, O18-O20.↩#p1806
2 A clay tablet with a Greek inscription comes also from room 7 in the house. For its description see Ruffini, this volume.
3 The surface in Area 1 is littered with unfired vessels and other items used in laboratories and kilns. Five pottery kilns of the Roman period were set in a mud-brick building just in front of the house (Hope 1980:307-311, Pl. XXVII).
4 About the use and classification of discs, frequently found in archaeological sites of different periods cf. D’Onofrio 2007.
