Amphora Iron Ages amphorae spread around the ancient Mediterranean world, being used by the ancient Greeks and Romans as the principal means for transporting and storing grapes, olive oil, wine, oil, olives, grain, fish, and other commodities. They were produced on an industrial scale until approximately the 7th century AD. Wooden and skin containers seem to have supplanted amphorae thereafter. They influenced Chinese ceramics and other East Asian ceramic cultures, especially as a fancy shape for high-quality decorative ceramics, and continued to be produced there long after they had ceased to be used further west. Besides coarse amphorae used for storage
Stirrup jar had uncovered them from the Troy VI layer at Troy (destroyed 1250 BC). The handles look like stirrups. The neck between the stirrups is a false one, leading to the synonym "false-necked jar." The real spout projects from the upper flank. There is a mechanical advantage to holding the stirrups and tilting the jar up from the bottom to pour from the side, over turning the flasks with similar stirrups but a real neck nearly upside down to pour. Stirrup jars are made of clay, which in unworked form occurs in beds of particles of a certain size formed from