Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Unique ID: LON-762E72
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
A fragment of Roman amphora handle probably from a Dressel 20 amphora dating from the first half of the second century. The handle has part of the stamp [LI]VNI.M / [MEL]ISS[I.P] of the 'Two Iunii Melissi', both the masculine and feminine form name appears on the stamp and it probably belonged to a firm owned by a husband and wife, or a brother and sister, they were active from AD 120-160 in Baetica near the modern-day city of Seville, Spain. The amphora would have most likely carried either olive oil or possibly wine. The fabric is light pink throughout.
Amphora's with a similar stamp of the 'Two Iunii Melissi' have been recorded at Vindolanda, Inv. 6555 and Inv. 8531.
Dimensions: length: 81.57mm; width: 48.91mm; thickness: 30.02mm; weight: 136.24g.
Callender (1950:198-200) writes "The name Melissus points to the East for the origin of this family; it also indicates a servile origin for it, and it may be legitimately inferred that the founder of this extremely powerful firm was a freedman. The only occurrence of the cognomen, Melissus, in Spain (apart from the amphora stamps) is on an inscription from Barcelona, where a C. Publicius Melissus is described as a sevir of that city (C II 4497 = Dessau 3777), and it was usual for seviri to be freedmen. But this family, wherever it was domiciled, must have been one of the wealthiest in Spain; their stamps have a wider distribution and a greater frequency than any other known to the writer; but what was the relationship of the various branches of the family?
The stamps of L. Iunius Melissus P( )or CI( ) have been found on three sites, and perhaps four associated with the stamp F SCIM NIANO (figlino Scimniano?). Now the latter is dated by a painted inscription from the Monte Testaccio to A.D. 161 (G, XY, 4350), It has also been found at Niederbieber, which was not occupied until A.D. 190 (see p.7), and at a villa site, Norton Disney in Lincolnshire, where it was found associated "with early third-century pottery" (AJ XYII, p.149). It would not be wrong to assume then that L. Iunius Melissus operated in the last forty years of the second and the early years of the third century, and some confirmation of this is obtained from the fact that all his stamps from the Monte Testaccio were found on the western side, some in the position indicated by the letter H on Dressel's plan, and where he thought that amphorae were tipped in the reigns of Elagabalus and Severus Alexander (A.D. 218-35). On the other hand, the stamps of the two luni Melissi (husband and wife or brother and sister?), have been found on three sites associated with the stamp F PATEPJTI: this may be the same as that found at Brecon Gaer (PATR - Arch, Cambrensis, 1926, p, 246), a site which seems to have been abandoned in the earlier part of the Antonine period. Also, a stamp PATO, which might be a misreading for PATR, has been found at Mainz (Mainzer Zeitschrift YI, Abb,21,15), and ascribed to the period Domitian-Trajan, finally some of the Monte Testaccio examples were on' the north side "ad ascensum" and "in tecto cellarum," but there were others on the west side; this suggests a date somewhere in the reigns of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-61), and Marcus and Commodus (A.D. 161-180). It appears then that these two joint owners of a firm operated rather in the first half of the second century than in the second-half of that century, and there is a possibility that L. Iunius Melissus was either their son, if they were husband and wife, or the son of one of them, if they were brother and sister, and in any case, probably the inheritor of the firm.
There is insufficient evidence at present to make and distinction, as far as date is concerned, between the other two stamps, L.Camilius or Camillius Melissus and the two Camili or Camilli Melissi. The latter stamps were found chiefly on the north side of the Monte Testaccio "in infimo colle " and "in tecto cellarum, " and this suggests the period Hadrian-Antonine, it is possible that they were cousins of the luni Melissi, On the other hand there may have been no relationship at all, and therefore the stamps were expanded to a degree unusual on amphorae in order to draw a definite distinction between rival firms. Yet it can hardly be doubted that they all worked from the same area of Baetica, i.e. in or around the city of Italica = Santiponce, a few kilometres north of Hispalis = Seville. L. Iunius Melissus, however, went as far afield as Astigi to buy amphorae, and presumably wine or oil, since that town is mentioned on the titulus pictus which gave the name F Scimniano. Similarly, the two Iunii Melissi bought from the figlina Paterniana? but the situation of that is not known."
References: Callender, M. H., 1950. Roman Alviphorae, Durham theses, Durham University.
Birley A. R., 2003. The Excavations of 2001-2002: Volume I. Vindolanda Research Report 2003. Bardon Mill, Vindolanda Trust.
Funari P. A., 1996. Dressel 20 Inscriptions from Britain and the Consumption of Spanish Olive Oil, BAR 250.
Funari P. A.,1999. Dressel 20 Stamps from the Verulamium Museum. Rev. do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Sao Paulo, 9. p143-161.
Sheehan-Finn K., Vindolanda's Amphora Stamps 2007-2012. The Vindolanda Trust.
Class:
Dressel 20
Inscription:
[LI]VNI.M / [MEL]ISS[I.P]
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 120
Date to: Circa AD 160
Quantity: 1
Length: 81.57 mm
Width: 48.91 mm
Thickness: 30.02 mm
Weight: 136.24 g
Date(s) of discovery: Wednesday 18th April 2018
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Primary material: Ceramic
Manufacture method: Hand made
Completeness: Fragment
4 Figure: TQ3280
Four figure Latitude: 51.5035277
Four figure longitude: -0.09955492
1:25K map: TQ3280
1:10K map: TQ38SW
Grid reference source: Generated from computer mapping software
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
No references cited so far.