„As a younger branch of the epigraphics, whose important achievements were realized in a recent period, the ceramics epigraphy has brought till now and certainly will bring henceforth too many considerable services to the history. Of a special significance for the hellenistic age are the amphora stamps put on the handles or on the neck of the jars ; they afford precious data for the economic history because generally speaking their centres of production can be easily identified, in every case with less dificulties than for any other archaeological material. Consequently it clearly appears that the amphora stamps mean for an archaeologist or a historian a concrete document in establishing the directions and the intensity of the trade relations of a Greek city. These data complete the information otherwise obtained, mainly from the historical sources of the antiquity or from the decrees or funeral inscriptions of a town whose citizens are sometimes mentioned in the inscriptions of other cities.”