March 22, 2020 : Amphora

[xoxoxoBruce]

I remember Jacques Cousteau finding amphora on ancient shipwrecks. You know, those pointy bottomed jugs with a pair of handles
that looked like Mickey Mouse ears. Jacques said they were used to carry wine, but probably other stuff too. He may have said wine
for ratings, wine being more titillating than grain or pickled veggies.
A construction company in Tomares, Spain was digging a ditch for an electric service when they uncovered an amphora. From there
on they proceeded very carefully and only broke ten of the nineteen total found.



No wine in them though just a little over 1300 lbs (590kg) of 4th and/or 3rd century Roman coins.

Why so many coins would be hidden in jugs raises interesting questions for archaeologists and historians. Investigators floated the hypothesis that the money was set aside to pay imperial taxes or army levies, reported El Pais. The jugs appeared deliberately concealed underground, covered by a few bricks and ceramic fillers, according to the Andalusian department of culture.
Richard Weigel, a professor of ancient Greece and Rome at Western Kentucky University, told the PBS NewsHour that the coins likely were buried during an era of “great discord in the Roman empire.”
The central authority in Rome broke down in the middle of the third century, he said. Germanic tribes invaded the country from time to time, in addition to other challenges to the various emperors.

The part of southern Spain where the coins were discovered would have been considered a distant land to emperors before it became a normal part of the Roman Empire, said, Weigel.
“The suggestion that they were collected to pay taxes to the Roman Empire is, of course, possible,” he said. “But I suspect that they could have been stored to pay one of the Roman legions in the area and to hide the money from invaders in the region.”
Once the emperors on the coins are identified, he continued, it should be easier to date the coins and put them in the context of military activities and invasions.

link

[Diaphone Jim]

Merriam-Webster says you got your choice:

plural amphorae\ ˈam(p)-​fə-​ˌrē , -​ˌrī \ or amphoras