Le anfore nei mosaici romani e tardoromani

The presence of amphorae in Roman and Late Roman figured mosaics is very interesting. Such containers, essential for a society in constant need of food, appear in a considerable variety of contexts, but are also important indicators for assessing the chronology of the mosaics. It should be noted that amphorae are not only present in realistic scenes of everyday life, but also in very specific forms in allegorical representations of boats steered by Cupids sailing the seas, or in Nilotic representations where they are used by pygmies as shields in hunting scenes. In addition, amphorae usually accompany personifications of rivers. Moreover, in some mosaics, water gushes out of the amphorae when they are thus accompanied. In certain cases, the mosaics also allow us to understand the ancient use of stuffed amphorae.