Amphores grecques timbrées découvertes à Suse (SO-Iran)

Abstract

During his excavations, now more than fifty years ago, Roman Ghirshman has found in the area of the so called necropolis of the 'Ville des Artisans' at Susa, a few complete and fragmentary amphorae with stamped handles, most of them Rhodian. Another Rhodian stamp was uncovered during his excavations at the Apadana. They are to be situated in the last quarter of the 3(rd)/first quarter of the 2(nd) century BC and can now be added to the known corpus of amphorae stamps found in numerous parts in the Near East. A complete amphora is likely to bear two unique types of stamps, one of them mentioning almost certainly the eponym Pi O lambda upsilon kappa rho alpha tau eta zeta and turns out to be an important addition to the general corpus of (early) Rhodian stamps. Because of the recent developments in the study of the chronology of Rhodian stamps (the "chronologie basse" of Gerald Finkielsztejn), two more examples from Susa found by Roland de Mecquenem and previously published by Franz Cumont are equally reconsidered. However, all together they seem to be among the rare stamped amphorae that have been found so far in Iran.