Strata: Strata Answers

079

What Is It?

A. lead ampulla (tiny amphora)

This ampulla is a small vessel (it is less than 1.5 inches high) that was filled with perfumed oils and hung around the neck (secured with string or leather tied to the loop handles). Ancient writers prescribe the use of lead because it preserves the strength of the odor (so does alabaster, but that was much more costly). Some of the oils, like spikenard, were probably used for their “medico-magical efficacy”—to ward off evil and to prevent or cure disease. About 75 of these vessels are known. Most (85 percent) were obtained on the antiquities market. The pictured one, however, was found in an excavation at Beth Shean in Israel. Ampullae like this have also been found in Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Rome and as far away as France. They date from about the first to the eighth centuries A.D.

Source: L.Y. Rahmani, “On Some Roman to Early Medieval Lead Miniature Amphorae,” Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2003), p. 33.

How Many?

Answer: 9