‘Brown-Clay’ Amphorae from Gonio (Apsaros)

This paper presents the first study of the so-called ‘brown-clay’ amphorae discovered by the Gonio-Apsaros Polish-Georgian Expedition in the Roman fort of Apsaros (modern Gonio, Georgia) between 2014 and 2018. In the course of five excavation seasons, 157 diagnostic fragments of these containers were attested, all belonging to variants Ch 1B2 and Ch 1C dated to between c. 50 BC and the 3rd century AD. Thus, they confirm the existence of the Apsaros fortress during the first three centuries of the present era. Both Colchian and south-eastern Pontic containers were found in Apsaros, the latter produced probably in Trapezus. This suggests the south-eastern Pontic provenance of some of the imports in Apsaros, especially until the end of the 1st century AD. On the other hand, local production of containers indicates that the area of the fortress might have produced food surpluses (probably wine), which during the late 1st and throughout the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD were exported to other areas neighbouring the Black Sea.