Commercial Amphoras: The Earliest Consumer Packages?
Diana Twede
Journal of Macromarketing: Vol. 22 No. 1, 98-108, June (2002)
Abstract
Commercial amphoras are large ceramic vessels that were used from 1500 B.C. to 500 A.D. to ship wine and other products throughout the Mediterranean, supplying the ancient Greek and Roman empires. Although their form is much different from our own packages, the shape and design were clearly the result of the same reasoning that we use to design successful packaging today. The unusual shape, especially the pointed base, facilitated handling, storage, transport, and use in marketing channels that were very differently shaped from those that are used today. This article investigates amphoras’ physical properties, manufacturing process, and logistical and marketing advantages and illustrates the value of such packaging artifacts in documenting the history of trade.
The lens of history reveals the flaw in the theory that marketing began in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, as a renaissance that followed the dark ages of the production and sales eras (Hollander 1986; Fullerton 1988). Evidence of marketing has been shown from as long ago and far away as classical Greece (Nevett and Nevett 1987) and Rome (Walle 1987). Similarly, we no longer naively claim that consumer packaging began 100 years ago in America with the Uneeda Biscuit box (Twede 1997).
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.
Diana Twede
Journal of Macromarketing: Vol. 22 No. 1, 98-108, June (2002)
Abstract
Commercial amphoras are large ceramic vessels that were used from 1500 B.C. to 500 A.D. to ship wine and other products throughout the Mediterranean, supplying the ancient Greek and Roman empires. Although their form is much different from our own packages, the shape and design were clearly the result of the same reasoning that we use to design successful packaging today. The unusual shape, especially the pointed base, facilitated handling, storage, transport, and use in marketing channels that were very differently shaped from those that are used today. This article investigates amphoras’ physical properties, manufacturing process, and logistical and marketing advantages and illustrates the value of such packaging artifacts in documenting the history of trade.
The lens of history reveals the flaw in the theory that marketing began in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, as a renaissance that followed the dark ages of the production and sales eras (Hollander 1986; Fullerton 1988). Evidence of marketing has been shown from as long ago and far away as classical Greece (Nevett and Nevett 1987) and Rome (Walle 1987). Similarly, we no longer naively claim that consumer packaging began 100 years ago in America with the Uneeda Biscuit box (Twede 1997).
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.
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