Posted on 06/07/2015 9:12:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The world's largest ancient Roman rubbish dump is revealing intriguing details about the extent and sophistication of trade in the Mediterranean 2,000 years ago.
Monte Testaccio is an artificial hill in the centre of Rome that is made up of an estimated 25 million shards of broken amphorae, many from as far afield as Spain and North Africa.
The amphorae, containing wine and olive oil, were broken up and dumped on the spoil heap after being unloaded from a nearby port on the River Tiber.
They could not be reused because wine and oil residue seeped into the clay, turning rancid after a while and preventing the containers from being recycled for fresh shipments.
Each amphora was painted or stamped with an inscription detailing which product it contained, how much it weighed, where it was produced, when it was shipped to Rome and how much import duty was paid.
Archaeologists are digging up thousands of shards and studying the inscriptions in order to map patterns of trade and to better understand the complex system by which products from around the Mediterranean were brought to the imperial capital -- then the most populous city in the world.
They are calculating the huge quantities of olive oil and wine that Rome imported in order to supply its civilian population as well as its vast legions as they pushed the boundaries of the Roman Empire ever further outwards in the first and second centuries AD.
Some of the amphorae were used to transport "garum", a smelly sauce made from fermented fish blood and intestines that the Romans relished as a condiment.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
They'll be back.
THE ROMANS DIDN’T RECYCLE!!! THE ROMANS DIDN’T RECYCLE!!!
That’s REALLY what destroyed their empire...
Mmmmm! Garum!
I’m not usually picky about food, as long as it is natural and not processed-but when my husband was in the military, I was friends with another military wife who was from Thailand-she was fond of serving kimchee, fermented soybean curd and that awful fish sauce every time she had dinner guests. My husband liked all three items-but I could never even get past the smell-I would not let him bring any of it into the house, ever...
It does sound similar and just as horrible-according to historians, the Romans used “fish sauce” on just about everything, too...
The ancient Romans imported crap from ancient Greece.
The modern Romans import crap from modern Greece.
I guess nothing changes in the Old World.
Sounds like the same stuff that Michael Moore uses instead of cologne.
They knew what they were doing.
that awful fish sauce...I believe it was Muocnam sauce, but it didn’t have labels to read. I sorta liked it with Tobasco.
“...if they just could have paired that with Heron’s steam engine they might have had an industrial revolution.”
They didn’t have the math. It took Newton and others to get that figured out...and then things took off like a rocket (including rockets!).
I find it a bit amusing that a somewhat recent cookbook of ancient Roman dishes was penned by a couple with the last name Brothwell. But I have a low threshold of humor.
;’)
Every once in a while I have one that has a shot of being around in a couple thousand years.
Aha, so it is pretty much the same as the Thai stuff...
Thailand, imagine that, an entire country named for men’s neckwear.
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