amphorae - ancient containerisation

[PhilusEstilius]

Where Musivarius mentions that it would be easier to stack a cart with them horizontal this could cause the problem of the lower ones getting the short sharp shock treatment of all the bounce of the cart on cobbled roads such as the surface of the Via Appia and other not so smooth roads.

They did I suppose have a way of sealing the tops against spill but put horizontal and as mentioned about Roman roads there would be wine and oil all over the place in the first mile.
The system of racks for any vertical mode of transport I think works out to be the one of most simple logic for ships that don't want pots rolling all over in the hold or carts having oil or wine dripping all over their carts and roads.

[LVCIAN FIDELIS]

This raises an interesting point, and one I hadn't given much thought to before.

A tall narrow container, filled with liquid, would have less "slosh" (like pushing a carton of milk across a table) reducing the effect lateral forces. Further this would reduce the amount of sway the roughly handled liquid would have on transport carts.

The even narrower neck and rounded shoulders (like a modern wine bottle) would also limit the amount of force that the liquid could apply to the cork with vertical forces like shaking or bouncing in a cart reducing the likely hood of a spill.

[Vindex]

Sorry - edited out my reply as the points had been covered but which only appeared on my screen after I pressed the "submit" button.

But I will just add that earlier forms of pottery are still called amphora even though they don't have quite an exaggerated form. One assumes the amphora as illustrated in the original post are those for the optimum loading capacity on a vessel.

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

The way the amphorae are stacked in the photo is very good explained in this video :

http://youtu.be/C1HBR0IbcmM

41:12

M.VIB.M.

[richsc]

Have to think about the entire container system and why it came about. Several books have been written, and containerization has transformed global commerce over the last fifty years. The standard size was key, so cranes and shipyards could fit the same box onto a truck or train with no human handling. Ships no longer need the packing skills of stevedores. You also get electric generation, computing farms and labs delivered in containers. A lot of specialization that might have you scratching your head if you saw just one out of context to the whole system. Maybe this concept is overlooked by academia, though there are some arguments about Roman globalization.

Were ship designs optimized to take amphorae? Costs? Distribution? Handling? Supply chain? Wagons? Sounds likea great thesis paper.

[Vindex]

Here's a recent find of a sunken merchant ship.