Novedades sobre la tipología de las ánforasDressel 2-4 tarraconenses

Abstract

The canonical name Dressel 2-4 had been used traditionally in scientific studies to nominate the most representative roman wine amphora from the High Roman Empire, especially those produced in the western Mediterranean basin. This is a generic and ambiguous definition including three Dressel CIL XV's successive types. As we will see, this three types have different meaning, although a common economic function and a related design. Since 1971, when André Tchernia brought to the international community the existence of kilns in Catalonia to produce this kind of amphora, the concept of "Dressel 2-4 tarraconensis" become the standard denomination in almost all the studies published to date. To understand its raison d'être, the nature of the name, and its scientific limits as a typological classification, we start from a new, and yet necessary, general analysis of all the published data existing on the subject. The result of this work has been the construction of the first descriptive model to precisely date the Laietana amphorae. Finally, the systematization of evolutionary sub-types over time has revealed a change in the commercial dynamics of wines by the conjuncture "quality versus quantity".