Ceramic stamps of Knidos with the symbol «ship’s prow» (chronological group Ib)

Abstract

In the article are collected in the form of a corpus the stamps of the initial period of the systematic marking of amphorae in Knidos - stamps with a “prora” or “ship bow” (chronological group Ib). A total of 323 stamps originating from the territory of the Bosporus, Chersonese and Olbia were taken into account. They are distributed unevenly. The main reason ist, that not all museum collections are available and processed. More than half of the stamps of our corpus have been checked against the originals and the rest are taken from IOSPE III and publications. Unfortunately, most of the IOSPE III stamps are not illustrated, moreover in many cases due to the absence of indications of museum numbers, or re-inventorying, certain difficulties arise, during comparing with items stored in museum collections. Most of the studied stamps are stored in the Kerch Museum. Additionally are also involved stamps from other regions of the Northern Black Sea and the Mediterranean areas. In general, the material presented below is the first attempt at a wide coverage of the stamps of this group, which, we hope, will simplify the cameral processing of poorly preserved specimens, and will help, by attracting additional materials, to take a fresh look at the trading activity of Cnidus in the early Hellenistic period. 

Keywords

• ceramic stamps
• matrices
• knidos
• prow
• manufacturer
• magistrate
• amphora