TRANSPORT AMPHORAS AND MARKET PRACTICES 271
any transaction by numbers of containers could be a more accurate process
(Wallace 2004 ; Wallace-Matheson and Wallace 1982 ).
Hellenistic shipwrecks offer far more examples of larger and more homog-enous amphora cargoes than the Archaic or Classical periods, although this
impression may be partly shaped by the fact that there are simply more known
wrecks of this later period (Parker 1992 ). While a very few such larger cargoes
are known from the Greek East, such as the Pamphylian-dominated wreck
documented by the Nauticos corporation (Lawall 2005 / 2006 ), most are from
the western Mediterranean and never include more than a trace presence of
Aegean amphoras in their otherwise homogenous central Italian, Punic, or
Adriatic cargoes (Parker 1992 ). Alongside such larger, more homogeneous car-
goes, one should bear in mind that some wrecks still show great diversity; the
Anticythera early first century BCE wreck is perhaps the best-known Aegean
example (Weinberg et al. 1965 ; Kaltsas et al. 2012 ). A generous reading of these
data might indicate a more frequent occurrence of direct shipping of large
cargoes, fewer middlemen, and hence greater clarity of the nature of the goods
in question for both the seller and the buyer.
Such larger, more direct shipments would have been supported by vari-ous features of Hellenistic demand: cities were larger; rural populations and
net production may have shrunk in some areas especially in the late second
century (Alcock 1996 : 53–80; Shipley 2005 ; Reger 2007 ); armies were larger
and predictably in need of supplies (Archibald 2011 : 46–51; Chaniotis 2005 ) ;
monarchs had disposable wealth and the desire to use it conspicuously (Davies
2005a); prominent citizens might win a wide range of honors that, even if only
indirectly, facilitated their participation in transactions both as buyers and sell-
ers (Gabrielsen 2011 : 235–8).
General patterns of demand, as indicated by Late Hellenistic amphoraassemblages at sites on land, show a continuing importance of localized circu-
lation of goods in amphoras, but various amphora types – Rhodes, Cos, and
Cnidus in particular – more routinely appear beyond their local zones and
contribute significantly greater portions to overall amphora assemblages than
was seen earlier (Lawall 2005 ; Lawall et al. 2010 ).
Changes in Markets
Are we seeing in this comparison a development toward clearing away the
impediments to free market behavior by lowering transaction costs and giv-
ing free reign to rational choice, with prices shaped by supply and demand?
To some extent perhaps this is true. A greater scale of surplus, packaged by a
more organized, standardized, and informative amphora system, shipped more
directly, and sold, at least initially, in larger cargo units could all be interpreted
as a success story in terms of new institutional economics. Or, perhaps we are