INTRODUCTION

It is useful to think about packaging according to the material it is made of: whether it is an organic material such as wood, or an inorganic one such as pottery. If the latter, there are no problems of survival and the material may be found on any sort of site. If the former, waterlogged deposits or at least damp, anaerobic ones will be required to preserve them, so their survival will be an exception rather than the rule. It is likely that much packaging was made from organic materials. Grain would have been most conveniently transported in sacks, fruit in baskets. Fragments of these sorts of containers survive only rarely, and even when they do, it is not possible to say what they contained. Pottery containers occur on many sites and some even have graffiti or inscriptions that identify the contents. Such containers will dominate discussion in this chapter, but it should always be borne in mind that they will have only accounted for a fraction of the food packaging that would have been used. That said, the information that can be gleaned from the principal pottery containers – amphorae – is invaluable for exploring the long-distance trade in luxury foodstuffs such as wine and oil.

AMPHORAE

Amphorae were large pottery vessels used to transport primarily liquid contents such as wine, oil and fish sauce over long distances: other contents could include preserved fruits, and occasionally things that were not food.