(or amphorae, if you prefer)
I understand that amphoras are the most common arhcaeological artifact from antiquity. There are many sizes and shapes, but I would guess there’s not much more to learn after you’ve seen your 500th amphora of the same type. Would there be any point in storing them? What happens to hundreds and hundreds of virtually identical amphoras (and shards)?
I saw a couple on Antiques Roadshow, actually, so I guess they’re around, in people’s houses and stuff.
hanz I would offer that the “most common arhcaeological artifact from antiquity” would be a coin. Bronze. Roman. The basements of museums in Europe and Asia must be simply overflowing with them. Millions. Billions perhaps. Mainly from the late Empire, 300’s AD. I doubt that there could be billions of amphorae or whatever.
samclem
The archaeologist who said that amphoras are the most common artifact may have been referring to distribution and not the actual numerical count. On the other hand, he may have been referring to the number of shards rather than whole and complete vessels, which are rare. I simply don’t recall. It seemed a reasonable statement and I had (and still have) no cause to question it.
Do you have any evidence that millions or billions of Roman coins were minted? The most common Roman coin was the popular Denarius, a silver coin. Several hundred thousand were minted between about 210 BC and the 3rd century AD. Caches of Roman coins are found all the time. Every year, tens of thousands of coins are discovered.
In any case, I’m not interested in whether there are more coins than pottery shards. As far as I know arhcaeologists don’t throw away uninteresting artifacts or sell them. Amphorae are bulky objects, so where are they? Who has the space to store thousands of relatively valueless ancient objects? (Valueless in the sense that their yield of historical information is minimal*)
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hanz You may have to trust me on this. I am a coin dealer by profession. I have occasions to order 1000 Roman bronze coins for some promoters with whom I deal. They want generic, garbage grade, genuine Roman bronze coins. I call up an importer, he quotes me a price for crap($1.50/coin) and I order, then deliver them. If I needed 1 million coins in this quality, I have every reason to believe that I could deliver them in about a years time.
Since I doubt that you are a coin dealer, and I doubt that you have handled as many Roman coins as I, I would suggest that you might defer to my 30 years experience.
As to Amphorae and the shards thereof, I would suggest that they change hands in the $100-$500 range based upon condition and period of time of origin. If you have info otherwise, I would be glad to have it. The fact that they aren’t available in the $1-$3 range indicates to me that they are a bit rarer than Roman bronze coins. Of course, demand is a factor here. But, I can call up my supplier of Roman bronze coins, and say that I need all of his Roman bronze coins which he has in stock by next week, and am willing to pay $10/each. I will receive, IMHO, ten of thousands of coins next week.
If I offered $500 each for his stock of amphorae, he could in no way deliver 1000 lamps.
And, you say the most common Roman coin was the denarius. Well, if you are talking about the period from about 100-275 AD, I might agree. But from 300-389 BC, you’d better believe I could cover your ass under with Roman bronze coins, about 100+ for every denarius you could supply.
This is my field. I know what I’m talking about. At least, in the coin side. As for amphorae, I am willing to learn.
Ammending my post, denarii were the most common coin from 100-BCE, 'til about 150 AD. Then they debased the coins to lightweight silver coins called Antoninianni. Until they took all the silver out from 300-389AD or so. This is done from memory and may not be exact, but the basics are correct.
One more post, and trying to keep it on a lower key than my previous posts.
Complete amphorae probably are very valuable depending on their style, period, and lack of damage. Shards probably are most common and change hands at cheap prices.
While I accept that they are the most common artifact available, both in distribution and sheer numbers(except for bronze coins :D) they bring more money simply because they are more disireable as art. They still, IMHO, are not as available, nor were they made in the quatity of simple copper coins.
I would give as an analogy, that today, in the US, there are hundreds of billions of one cent coins available. There are also billions of pieces of crockery available. But, if you examine the average house, there are probably more cents lying around in drawers and pockets than jars.
As for distribution, Roman copper coins were available every where the Romans were. Which was pretty well everywhere.
samclem
I did some research based on your earlier posts. Whew! There are several sources which mention that there are several million Greek and Roman coins available today. Nothing more specific, but between you and them, that’s good enough for me. So, I guess that settles that! 
I didn’t mean to get your hackles up, by the way … your credentials were unknown to me.
I wanted to find out about how so many could be minted, so I checked that out as well. Once coins were reduced to sizes that could be struck, a one-man mint could make about 100 coins an hours. At important centers, men working in teams of 3 or 4, could produce a staggering 1800 coins per hour at maximum capacity.
I hope that ends the hijack!
I’ve tried to find information about how many amphorae have been discovered or are in storage. I’m not having much luck, which is why I submitted this post in the first place. They came in many shapes and sizes and were used to store everything from wine to medicine to cosmetics to all manner of foodstuffs - an everyday item that peasant and noblemen alike would have used. I would expect museum shelves to be overflowing with examples.
hanz Sorry for my tone. I get carried away with myself sometimes.
I think that the basements of European museums are overflowing with shards and whole bottles.