Commercial Amphoras: The Earliest Consumer Packages?
By Diana Twede
Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 22 No. 1 (2002)
Introduction: This article presents the hypothesis that the ancient commercial amphora was not only a very well-designed shipping container, but it may have been the first “consumer package” as well.We know very little about ancient packaging because so little of it has survived. Amphoras are a notable exception because of their slowness to degrade and have been found throughout the Mediterranean, dating from about 1500 B.C. to 500 A.D. They are the earliest commercial packages for which samples exist.
Amphoras performed the same functions that are expected from packages today. In them, wine, oil, and other processed food products were supplied to households and institutions. They were key to export trade. They served as “silent salesmen” to convey information about the contents’ origin, type, and grade. Many identified the merchant. They even had tamper- evident closures to ensure “truth in packaging.”
But their shape and material is not like any package that we use today. This package, for liquid, which is a most difficult type of product to carry and ship, dominated trade for more than 2,000 years and was pointed on the bottom! This article explores the reasons.
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