Early Excavations at Pergamon and the Chronology of Rhodian Amphora Stamps

by Mark L. Lawall

Hesperia, Volume 71, Issue 3
Page(s): 295-324
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3182029
Year: 2002
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ABSTRACT:

The chronology of Rhodian amphora stamps depends heavily on a collection of roughly 900 stamps found at Pergamon in 1886, known as the Pergamon Deposit. Most of the Rhodian eponyms in this group are dated to ca. 210-175 B.C. Two points of historical interpretation are fundamental to these dates: good relations between Rhodes and Pergamon at that time, and Rhodian garrisoning of Knidos between 188 and 167. Neither interpretation, however, withstands scrutiny. The archaeological and topographic contexts of the Pergamon Deposit, hitherto ignored, are used here to argue for a closing date in the late 160s or early 150s, and the wider implications for Hellenistic ceramic chronologies are explored.