particles of various sizes. This type was used almost exclusively for closed vessels (i.e., lids used also as footed bowls, jugs, and costrels). More specifically, water jugs are dated mainly, but not exclusively, to the middle of the third century/end of the fourth century CE.25
The B3b type is characterized by an orange kaolinitic clay containing mostly red hematite inclusions of medium and small size, quartz, and platey fragments of shale and mudstone.26 Usually this fabric is attested at Amheida in flasks and small bowls with yellow slip. Its production has been linked to sites located in the North of the Kharga Oasis.27 The double-handled flasks, designed to contain and transport wine from Kharga, are small containers similar to lagynoi of the Hellenistic world (Fig. 10). They are characterized by a yellow slip on the exterior surface, sometimes decorated in a monochrome or bichrome painted motif. They can also present thick blackened traces on the inner surfaces, on the rim, and on the outside of the neck. These are traces of resins that covered the whole internal surface to seal them so that the liquid content would not be spoiled. The small convex bowls with yellow slip are characterized by a simple rim with spiral decoration on the inner surface. They are usually found in the same contexts as the flasks. This production appears in the Kharga Oasis in small amount at the beginning of what is called Phase III, dated to the 3rd century CE, and increases progressively during the 4th or 5th century CE, at the end of Phase III.28
3.2.2. CERAMIC VESSELS
The morphological repertoire of Amheida’s pottery vessels includes a great variety of shapes, mainly of local or regional manufacture, as already mentioned above. Most of the fragments come from common wares, especially iron-rich fabric A1, and can be divided into closed forms (jars, kegs, water jugs, and cooking pots) and open forms (craters, basins, and small bowls).
Kegs constitute the main import from the oases of the Libyan desert. The manufacture of this type of container begins at the end of the Third Intermediate Period (25th Dynasty) in the oases of Bahariya (Qasr Allam),29 Kharga (27th Dynasty at Ain Manâwîr), and Dakhla during the Late Period (fifth century BCE).30 During the Roman Period and Late Antiquity, kegs have a large oval shape, short neck, cylindrical or slightly tapered, and a rounded triangular rim.31 Today, these vessels are still used, particularly in the Dakhla Oasis (El-Qasr), as churners, for storing cheese, or for drawing water in shallow channels.32
Storage containers at Amheida include several types of jars classified according to the rim shapes. They usually present short necks and rims with quadrangular sections and sometimes grooves. Roman jars have usually a projecting rib at the junction between the neck and shoulder, a short neck, and a rim of quadrangular section,33 or the surface right below the neck can be decorated with grooves.34 Containers with rounded rims are characteristic of Late Antiquity.35
Water jugs characteristic of the Late Roman Period and Late Antiquity have usually a pinched rim, narrow cylindrical neck provided with a filter, large carinated body, and flat base. The handle is attached to the lip and the upper part of the body. Generally, these vessel types are made with a marl coarse clay favorable to the keeping of water and its freshness (B10 fabric), but they can also be produced in a ferruginous clay rich in calcite particles (A5 fabric). In both cases, the outer surface is covered with a white slip.
All these containers are made in A1, A2, and A5 fabrics, attesting a local or regional production. They were intended to store water and local wine, but also dairy products (Fig. 7).
The large family of cooking vessels consists mainly of globular pots with rims of different shapes. They are usually short necked, slightly flared, and sometimes molded, or with thickened flared rims, or even neck-less with flat and flared rims. The fabric used for this types of vessel is A1, A2 or, from the late third and fourth century CE, A11 (Fig. 8).
Open forms used for food consumption and serving have many variants that are sometimes difficult to classify because of their very slow and minimal changes between the Imperial period and Late Antiquity (Fig. 9). Large bowls used in food preparation include craters and basins. Craters have usually outward everted rims, deep carinated bodies, and rounded bases. Most of the examples found at Amheida have red-purple wavy lines or spiral patterns painted over cream-colored bands that decorate the inner side of the rims. Very common at Amheida are also basins or deep bowls used in food preparation. They typically have slightly flattened rims with triangular sections, convex walls, and ring bases. Although these shapes are usually dated to the Early Roman Period (1st–2nd c. CE),36 the comparative materials from houses at Kellis are dated to the Late Roman Period.37
Small and medium-sized bowls, part of the table wares, can be divided into three main types, all very common at Amheida.
Figure 7. Transportation and storage vessels.
Figure 8. Cooking vessels.
Figure 9. Food consumption and serving vessels.
Small bowls with convex profiles and slightly domed or flat bases were used for the consumption and the preparation of food, as evidenced by the presence of black soot on the external surfaces. However, they were more often utilized as lids for storage jars, as proven by the presence of residues of gypsum plaster attached to their inner walls. Convex bowls were produced as early as the beginning of the Hellenistic period, both in the oases and in the Nile valley.38 Parallels from Kellis date primarily to the second or third century CE.39
A second type of bowl, with straight-sided rim, is characterized by slightly raised bottoms and sloping walls. Many of them have an internal ledge where the lid sat and present heavily blackened surfaces caused by exposure to fire during the cooking of food. This type was found at Kellis in contexts dated to the second and third centuries CE.40
Finally, small bowls with high carinations on the upper body have small flared or tapered rims and convex bases. They are sometimes heavily blackened on the exterior surfaces, as they were used also as cooking vessels. The inner side of their rims is usually decorated with painted red dots on a cream-colored band. This decoration is characteristic of the end of the third century and fourth century CE.41
All these containers are made in A1 and A2 fabrics; they often present white drips and spots on both rims and bodies, and they are frequently decorated with red dots or thick marks on the rims, a decorative motif which is characteristic of the oasis during the Late Roman Period.42
3.2.3. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OSTRAKA
In general, all ostraka at Amheida are in a good or fair state of preservation. Most of the texts were written on the potsherds’ convex faces, though some examples were written on the concave sides. In a few instances the same text stretched over both sides of the sherd, or the same sherd was used for two separate texts, each written on one of the two sides. The texts were written for the most part in black ink, but there are some examples in brown ink.
The fragments were originally part of the vessels’ bodies, more commonly from the shoulders or the
