Dipinti, graffiti and stamps on commercial amphorae produced in The Eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity (4-7th c.ad)

Over the last two decades, the Late Roman - Early Byzantine amphorae from Eastern Mediterranean have been one of the most interesting topics for researchers, and results of new researches are emerging day by day. In particularly, studies on understanding the production and usage of the Late Roman - Early Byzantine amphorae, which cover a period of approximately three to four hundred years, have increased considerably in recent years. Through these studies, more detailed data have been obtained from the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin. However, it is seen that the studies on the inscriptions and seals on the amphorae can not reach to a level of the ones on the Western Mediterranean amphorae. The inscriptions and seals on the amphorae of the Eastern Roman Imperial period are constituted the main subjects of the thesis. The main focus of the thesis is on the four major mass-production amphora types from the Eastern Mediterranean, mainly based in Asia Minor, which are essential economically and commercially in the Eastern Roman Empire: LRA 1, LRA 2, LRA 3 ve Zeest 80. Primarily, a corpus has been composed to analyze both in terms of inscription (for inscriptions and seals) tradition and amphora typology. In the second part of the thesis research, the position and importance of the data obtained from the first part, has been evaluated in the economic and commercial conditions of the period. Accordingly, in the light of these amphora types, inscriptions and seals in the corpus; annona civicia and annona militaris system, which had been known to have existed in the Roman Imperial Period, were examined on specific to the Eastern Roman Empire. This study is based on the amphora typologies and findspot of examples, as well as the meanings, contents, and representing of the inscriptions and seals.