Stamps on Italian Sigillata and the Renaissance of Aptera, Crete

by Martha W. Baldwin Bowsky

Hesperia, Volume 83, Issue 3
Page(s): 503-568
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.83.3.0503
Year: 2014
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ABSTRACT:

This study presents a group of stamps on Italian sigillata dating from the 1st to mid-2nd centuries A.D. that were discovered at Aptera, Crete. Most were discovered in systematic excavations of the city's theater; the rest were collected or found in areas associated with two cisterns and one of the baths. This study not only increases the total number of published stamps from Crete, but it also enhances our understanding of the provenience and chronological profiles of the Italian sigillata imported to the island. Comparison with stamps from other cities and sites on Crete and in the Greek East documents the island's position at the crossroads of patterns of contact and exchange.