DRESSEL 20 STAMPS FROM THE VERULAMIUM MUSEUM

PEDRO PAULO A. FUNARI[1]

 INTRODUCTION

    Dressel 20 amphorae are a very common find in Romano-British sites. These globular amphorae were used to carry olive oil from the Southern Spanish province of Baetica (Clak-Maxwell 1899; Bonsor 1931; Ponsich 1974, 1979). Its large body with handles and short neck ends in a basal knob. These amphorae, also known as Beltrán V, Ostia I and Callender II (Peacock & Williams 1986: 136-140), are found in almost the whole Roman world. They were produced from the early Principate up to the mid third century AD (cf. map with potteries in Baetica). Dressel 20 amphorae usually bore inscriptions, tituli picti and stamps. Painted inscriptions are not easily found  because of their difficult conservation in normal archaeological conditions. Stamps, on the other hand, are commonly found in British sites. Dressel 20 stamps found in Britain have been published since the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. VII, in the last century (inscriptions in the number 1331) and M. Callender (1965) was a pioneer in the publication of a comprehensive catalogue of stamps found up to the 1950s. In the last three decades, there were a lot of stamps published in different papers, reports and books. However, there is still a lack of studies of all  Dressel 20 stamps from specific sites. St. Albans is a case in point. Thanks to the Director of the Verulamium Museum, Dr. Chris Green, I was able to rub all the 49 Dressel 20 stored in that Museum and to study them in order to  understand the consumption of Spanish olive oil in that Roman town.