Ampullae Finds in the Izmir Archaeology and in the History and Art Museums

Abstract

Fourteen terracotta ampullae exist in the Izmir Archaeology and in the History and Art Museums. They have either flattened oval or globular body forms and they also have two small fittings on the shoulders over the body for a chain or cord so that they could be suspended or worn. When the motifs on the ampullae are evaluated in terms of iconography, it is observed that most of them are depicted with a cross. At the centre on both faces of the ampullae occurs either a independant cross or a cross placed at the centre of a circle or a rosette; or a big teardrop motif existing in the interaxis of the central cross is to be observed. On Catalogue Number 13 occurs a floral rosette and in Catalogue 14, we can observe in the circled space in the centre small interwined circles with hollow interiors. Three ampullae differ from the others with their figures. On one of the ampullae with human figure occurs the Apostle Martyrs Andreas and Ioannes and a frontal depiction of a saint surrounded by an aureole on the one face of the ampullae and another frontal depiction of a saint figurine in an arch on the other face. An eagle in a floral rosette appears on each face of the ampullae. The ampullae similar to the ones in the Izmir Archaeology and in the History and Art Museums were uncovered in the archaeological excavations carried on the west of Asia Minor. Therefore, it is revealed that the ampullae which were similar to each other or were sometimes the same, were mass-produced in the workshops located in some important cities of the Late Byzantine period. It can be thought that the believers who could not go to the Holy Land or to pilgrimage sites might have asked for this mass production or might have bought ampullae to have their share of pilgrimage. The ampullae in this article with their forms, styles and figures on them could be dated in the light of similar examples. Accordingly, two examples were produced between the end of the 4th and 5th centuries and the other eleven ampullae were produced between the 5th and 6th centuries.