MARKETS, AMPHORA TRADE AND WINE INDUSTRY 241
diversification of the export destinations and increasing the significance of the
close-distance markets is clearly notable from the late fourth century on. For
the next ca. forty years the exports were well balanced, and all markets shown
on the chart participated. In the second quarter of the third century the share
going to Callatis became significant, followed by the one to Abdera. After the
middle of the century the Black Sea markets played a negligible role with most
of the amphoras going to Athens and the cities closest to Thasos. It is important
to note that neither an increase nor a decrease in the proportion of a partic-
ular market on the chart necessarily corresponds to a concomitant change in
sales to this market. The high numbers for Athens in the late third century, for
example, reflect not only the growth in Athenian sales, but also the disappear-
ance of other major markets in a period of general decay for Thasian exports.
Figure 10.3 is an example of a sales allocation chart on a regional level. Itcompares data from four regions: (1) the local sales, represented by the stamps
found on Thasos, excluding those collected at ceramic workshops; (2) the
core-zone of Thasian exports, represented by the finds from Amphipolis,
Abdera, Maroneia, and Mesembria-Zone – four major cities close to Thasos,
which yielded sizable collections of Thasian stamps; (3) the distant markets,
represented by the finds outside the island and its core-zone; (4) the finds in
the Black Sea periphery.
Several general conclusions follow from this graph. The Thasians clearlymade much more wine than they needed for their own consumption, even
if we allow that part of the locally consumed wine was never placed in
amphoras. Furthermore, the export of this surplus was not due to unintended
over-production. On the contrary, the island regularly exported significant
portions of its wine produce – a practice lasting for more than two centuries.
The most striking result, however, is that during the first three quarters of the
fourth century local consumption is much lower than exports, which were
almost entirely allocated to long-distance markets.
The Dynamics of Production
In the few studies of the dynamics of amphora and wine production, the latter
has been sought as a reverberation of the sales dynamics. Both Finkielsztejn
( 1999 : 23–4) and Lund ( 1999 : 202) have suggested that the dynamics of
Rhodian amphora production follow trends similar to those of sales on the
island of Rhodes. This hypothesis is hard to verify, but the great differences
between the dynamics of the local sales and the exports of Thasian amphoras
make it unlikely that Thasian production followed similar logic. Theoretically,
this approach would be valid, if the scale of production is the only factor in