An amphora Dressel 20 with examples of tituli picti found in Monte Testaccio.
Titulus pictus is a type of inscription used in antiquity. It is a commercial title (specifying, for example, origin, recipient, content, etc.) carried out on an object (often amphorae). The tituli picti (plural form) were executed before coctionem (that is, before the baking of the pottery), pressing with a stamp on the fresh clay. These inscriptions are frequent in the recipients of trade of Roman time. Some of the earliest Greek amphorae amphoras of the Iberian Peninsula were inscribed with tituli picti in Greek (as the pieces found in the wreck of Capistello's Secca in Lipari show).
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