Rome's Mountain of Ancient Garbage

Transcript
· Introduction
0:08 · The ancient world's largest garbage dump was located on the outskirts of Rome. As
0:14 · tall as the Pantheon, it towered over the concrete labyrinth of the warehouse district:
0:20 · Monte Testaccio, the mountain of pots. As the name suggests,
0:25 · it consisted entirely of broken pottery – by one estimate, 53 million amphorae.
0:32 · Almost all of these amphorae held olive oil. Perhaps a tenth were imported from the rich
0:38 · olive groves of North Africa. But the vast majority came from Spain – more specifically,
0:45 · from the province of Baetica, modern Andalusia. The Spanish oil amphorae were huge, heavy vessels,
0:53 · capable of holding about 70 liters (18.5 gallons). From the first to the third centuries AD, tens of
1:02 · thousands were shipped to Rome every year, emptied into holding vats, and smashed on Monte Testaccio.
1:10 · Let's imagine the journey of a single batch of amphorae from Spain to Rome at the end of the
1:15 · second century. The long civil war that made Septimius Severus master of the Roman world
· Spanish olive groves
1:22 · has finally ended – just a few years ago, the new emperor ceremoniously rode his horse over
1:29 · the naked corpse of his last remaining rival. With peace has come renewed prosperity. Along
1:37 · Spain's Guadalquivir River, demand for olive oil is booming as never before.
1:43 · Our story starts on one of the many estates that checkered the fertile valley between
1:48 · Seville and Cordoba. It belongs to an absentee landlord, a man of Equestrian rank who prefers
1:55 · his comfortable frescoed townhouse in Cordoba to the villas scattered across his rural properties.
· From olives to oil
2:03 · This particular estate, located among rolling hills a short distance from the river, is almost
2:09 · entirely planted with olive trees. The groves are worked by both free and slave laborers. Although
2:16 · the slaves live in cramped quarters near the main villa and the tenant farmers have houses of their
2:22 · own, they do much the same work, eat the same simple foods, and celebrate the same festivals.
2:29 · Slave or free, the workers on the estate spend most of the year maintaining the olive groves,
2:35 · cutting down weeds and ploughing the land between the trees to aerate the
2:40 · soil. The busiest months are November and December. This the wettest time of the year,
2:47 · when rainstorms break over the hills and fill the river. But it also the
2:52 · season when the olives ripen and fall into the rain-pocked mud.
2:57 · On a clear, cool morning, the olives are gathered, washed, and dumped into a trough,
3:03 · where a mule-driven millstone crushes them to a paste. The paste is shoveled into backets,
3:09 · which are stacked beneath a press – a heavy beam lowered with a winch. As the beam is brought down,
3:16 · and the wicker of the baskets creaks and snaps, golden olive oil drips to the ground.
3:22 · Once the oil has settled and separated, it is decanted into amphorae. For this year's batch,
3:29 · several hundred amphorae have been made at the local claypit,
3:33 · each stamped with the estate owner's name before being fired in a large kiln. Even empty,
3:40 · the amphorae are too heavy to handle easily. When full, they have to be moved on muleback.
· The voyage to Portus
3:47 · The amphorae are brought to storage depots near the banks of the river. Months pass. Then, in
3:53 · April or May, a merchant sails down from Cordoba with a purchase contract signed by the estate
3:59 · owner, and the amphorae are loaded into the hold, joining hundreds of others from estates upstream.
4:06 · So heavily-laden that its keel scrapes a few sandbars, the ship floats downstream to the sea.
4:13 · Like most ancient vessels, it stays near the coast – close enough for the sailors
4:17 · to see the red roofs of port cities and smell the reek of garum factories.
4:23 · Twenty-two days after leaving Spain, the ship sails into Portus. Over the past century,
4:31 · this artificial harbor has definitively displaced the older facilities at Puteoli
4:37 · and neighboring Ostia. The outer basin, with its smoking lighthouse, is crowded with ships.
4:43 · Our ship pauses to pick up a harbor pilot, who guides it into the hexagonal inner
4:49 · basin. Moments after it noses into a berth, customs officials descend upon the decks,
4:56 · demanding to see the captain's contracts and inspect his cargo. After the usual rigmarole,
5:03 · members of the stevedores' guild, stripped to their loincloths, begin to use pulleys
5:08 · and treadwheel cranes to lift the two thousand amphorae in the ship's hold onto wagons. As these
· The emperor's oil
5:15 · are filled, they shuttle the amphorae into a vast concrete warehouse perfumed with oil.
5:22 · This warehouse belongs to the emperor, as does everything inside. Olive oil
5:27 · is a staple of the Roman diet, a vital source of protein and fat
5:32 · for the multitudes who live primarily on bread. At Rome, the price of olive oil,
5:38 · like that of grain, has been controlled by the emperors since the time of Augustus,
5:43 · and oil has occasionally been included the grain dole. Recently, Septimius Severus decreed that
5:50 · all citizens eligible for a grain ration should also receive olive oil every month.
5:56 · The merchant who brought the amphorae from Cordoba is under
6:00 · contract with the imperial government to supply oil at a fixed rate. He has
6:05 · spent most of his career dealing with subordinates of the praefectus annonae,
6:10 · the official responsible for overseeing both the grain dole and the olive oil supply.
· Up the Tiber
6:16 · Then, at last, the amphorae begin the final leg of their journey. Sprawling though the
6:22 · warehouses at Portus are, they are only meant to shelter goods for a brief time,
6:27 · until they can be brought up the Tiber to the capital.
6:31 · The amphorae, their handles lashed together for security, are loaded onto a dozen barges. To cope
6:38 · with the current, which makes it difficult to row upstream, each barge is hitched to a team
6:43 · of mules, who patiently tow it the twenty miles to Rome. It takes three days – partly because
6:51 · the mule teams have to switched every few miles, and partly because the river is so crowded with
6:56 · barges and boats of every description, all straining to reach the center of the world.
7:03 · Before we follow the amphorae to their destination,
7:06 · a brief word about this video's sponsor.
· Romanis Magicae
7:10 · Last year, I advertised a Kickstarter campaign for the first issue of "Romanis Magicae," a
7:16 · comic about a former legionary who stumbles upon a plot to destroy the Roman Empire.
7:22 · Now, the Romanis Magicae team is back with a second issue.
7:27 · As before, the setting is imperial Rome:
7:30 · cosmopolitan, chaotic, filled with opportunity and danger.
7:35 · Amid the crowds and confusion,
7:36 · the characters we met in the first issue are trying to live their lives.
7:41 · But the dark magic that brought them together has
7:44 · not disappeared – and they are still being hunted by monsters.
7:49 · The Romanis Magicae team is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. To learn
7:54 · more about the project and support the new issue, follow the link in the description.
8:00 · Returning to our topic. As the barges carrying the amphorae approach Rome,
· The warehouse district
8:05 · river traffic slows to a crawl. Towering tombs and villas crowd the banks. At last, the metropolis
8:13 · comes into the view: an incomprehensible accumulation of white and tan buildings, shrouded
8:19 · by the smoke of ten thousand charcoal fires. Where the current slows, just below the temples
8:26 · and tenements of the Aventine Hill, a tangle of piers marks the port of Rome. Around it sprawl
8:33 · the warehouses that hold oil, grain, marble, wood, and everything else consumed by the world-city.
8:41 · The barges are unloaded into one of these warehouse complexes.
8:45 · After the stamps and inscriptions on each amphora have been recorded and checked,
8:50 · the seals are broken, and the oil within is tipped into cavernous storage tanks.
8:56 · In Rome, many amphorae are recycled as storage containers, repurposed as pipes or flowerpots,
9:03 · or shattered and mixed into concrete as aggregate. The amphorae that carry olive oil from Spain,
9:10 · however, are not reused. Their bulbous shape and thick walls make them unsuitable for most
9:17 · secondary applications. They are difficult to break into small fragments, and the oil that
9:23 · clings to their surfaces weakens any concrete made with them. Last but not least, they stink.
· Monte Testaccio
9:30 · So, once they have been drained, Spanish oil amphorae are tied in pairs over the backs of
9:35 · mules and sent to the state amphora dump – the future Monte Testaccio. The dump is already as
9:42 · tall as the Seven Hills, and it's growing every day. Although the lower slopes are overgrown
9:48 · with grass, most of the mound is the chalky red of broken pottery. One access road winds to the top;
9:56 · another twists back down. Both paths are crowded with mules and drivers.
10:02 · Near the top of the hill, slaves with sledgehammers smash pots into hand-sized
10:07 · pieces. Other slaves rake the fragments into even layers and sprinkle them with
10:12 · lime to cut the stench of rancid oil. As they descend the long path down to the
10:18 · warehouses, the drivers have a spectacular view of Rome, radiating in every direction.
10:24 · But the mules, heads down, see only the reddish dust that coats the path,
10:29 · and bits of pottery crunching beneath their hooves.
10:34 · Dumping continued at Monte Testaccio until the late third century,
10:38 · when the construction of the Aurelian Wall cut the roads between the dump and
10:42 · the river. As the empire collapsed and the city of Rome contracted,
10:47 · the mountain of pots remained. Medieval legends sprang up around it – some claiming that it
10:54 · had been built with rubble from the great fire of Nero, others that it was composed
10:59 · of pagan cinerary urns. The most prevalent explanation, however, was that the hill was
11:06 · made of vessels sent to the emperors as tribute from the provinces. In a sense, this was correct.
· Significance of a dump
11:13 · Monte Testaccio is a microcosm of the Roman Empire. It reflects the reach of imperial power,
11:20 · which could draw millions of oil amphorae from distant parts of the Mediterranean.
11:25 · It attests to the productivity and complexity of the Roman economy,
11:29 · which could support long-distance trade on such a vast scale. It is evidence of
11:35 · consumerism that would not be excelled until the Industrial Revolution. And it bears witness
11:40 · to the inequality and exploitation that made Rome's grandeur possible.
· Visiting Monte Testaccio
11:47 · Last month, with the help of my friends at Through Eternity Tours, who often organize walks in the
11:53 · area, I visited Monte Testaccio for the first time in years. Though surrounded by a bustling
12:00 · and increasingly trendy neighborhood, the hill itself is quiet. Knee-high grass and clumps of
12:07 · shrubs cover most of its surface. But along the paths, and wherever erosion has cut the surface,
12:14 · you can see the broken pots. In places, the fragments are still stacked as neatly as they
12:21 · were 17 centuries ago, when the Roman emperors built the largest garbage dump in ancient history.
·

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Transcript
	·	Introduction
0:08	·	The ancient world's largest garbage dump was located on the outskirts of Rome. As
0:14	·	tall as the Pantheon, it towered over the concrete labyrinth of the warehouse district:
0:20	·	Monte Testaccio, the mountain of pots. As the name suggests,
0:25	·	it consisted entirely of broken pottery – by one estimate, 53 million amphorae.
0:32	·	Almost all of these amphorae held olive oil. Perhaps a tenth were imported from the rich
0:38	·	olive groves of North Africa. But the vast majority came from Spain – more specifically,
0:45	·	from the province of Baetica, modern Andalusia. The Spanish oil amphorae were huge, heavy vessels,
0:53	·	capable of holding about 70 liters (18.5 gallons). From the first to the third centuries AD, tens of
1:02	·	thousands were shipped to Rome every year, emptied into holding vats, and smashed on Monte Testaccio.
1:10	·	Let's imagine the journey of a single batch of amphorae from Spain to Rome at the end of the
1:15	·	second century. The long civil war that made Septimius Severus master of the Roman world
	·	Spanish olive groves
1:22	·	has finally ended – just a few years ago, the new emperor ceremoniously rode his horse over
1:29	·	the naked corpse of his last remaining rival. With peace has come renewed prosperity. Along
1:37	·	Spain's Guadalquivir River, demand for olive oil is booming as never before.
1:43	·	Our story starts on one of the many estates that checkered the fertile valley between
1:48	·	Seville and Cordoba. It belongs to an absentee landlord, a man of Equestrian rank who prefers
1:55	·	his comfortable frescoed townhouse in Cordoba to the villas scattered across his rural properties.
	·	From olives to oil
2:03	·	This particular estate, located among rolling hills a short distance from the river, is almost
2:09	·	entirely planted with olive trees. The groves are worked by both free and slave laborers. Although
2:16	·	the slaves live in cramped quarters near the main villa and the tenant farmers have houses of their
2:22	·	own, they do much the same work, eat the same simple foods, and celebrate the same festivals.
2:29	·	Slave or free, the workers on the estate spend most of the year maintaining the olive groves,
2:35	·	cutting down weeds and ploughing the land between the trees to aerate the
2:40	·	soil. The busiest months are November and December. This the wettest time of the year,
2:47	·	when rainstorms break over the hills and fill the river. But it also the
2:52	·	season when the olives ripen and fall into the rain-pocked mud.
2:57	·	On a clear, cool morning, the olives are gathered, washed, and dumped into a trough,
3:03	·	where a mule-driven millstone crushes them to a paste. The paste is shoveled into backets,
3:09	·	which are stacked beneath a press – a heavy beam lowered with a winch. As the beam is brought down,
3:16	·	and the wicker of the baskets creaks and snaps, golden olive oil drips to the ground.
3:22	·	Once the oil has settled and separated, it is decanted into amphorae. For this year's batch,
3:29	·	several hundred amphorae have been made at the local claypit,
3:33	·	each stamped with the estate owner's name before being fired in a large kiln. Even empty,
3:40	·	the amphorae are too heavy to handle easily. When full, they have to be moved on muleback.
	·	The voyage to Portus
3:47	·	The amphorae are brought to storage depots near the banks of the river. Months pass. Then, in
3:53	·	April or May, a merchant sails down from Cordoba with a purchase contract signed by the estate
3:59	·	owner, and the amphorae are loaded into the hold, joining hundreds of others from estates upstream.
4:06	·	So heavily-laden that its keel scrapes a few sandbars, the ship floats downstream to the sea.
4:13	·	Like most ancient vessels, it stays near the coast – close enough for the sailors
4:17	·	to see the red roofs of port cities and smell the reek of garum factories.
4:23	·	Twenty-two days after leaving Spain, the ship sails into Portus. Over the past century,
4:31	·	this artificial harbor has definitively displaced the older facilities at Puteoli
4:37	·	and neighboring Ostia. The outer basin, with its smoking lighthouse, is crowded with ships.
4:43	·	Our ship pauses to pick up a harbor pilot, who guides it into the hexagonal inner
4:49	·	basin. Moments after it noses into a berth, customs officials descend upon the decks,
4:56	·	demanding to see the captain's contracts and inspect his cargo. After the usual rigmarole,
5:03	·	members of the stevedores' guild, stripped to their loincloths, begin to use pulleys
5:08	·	and treadwheel cranes to lift the two thousand amphorae in the ship's hold onto wagons. As these
	·	The emperor's oil
5:15	·	are filled, they shuttle the amphorae into a vast concrete warehouse perfumed with oil.
5:22	·	This warehouse belongs to the emperor, as does everything inside. Olive oil
5:27	·	is a staple of the Roman diet, a vital source of protein and fat
5:32	·	for the multitudes who live primarily on bread. At Rome, the price of olive oil,
5:38	·	like that of grain, has been controlled by the emperors since the time of Augustus,
5:43	·	and oil has occasionally been included the grain dole. Recently, Septimius Severus decreed that
5:50	·	all citizens eligible for a grain ration should also receive olive oil every month.
5:56	·	The merchant who brought the amphorae from Cordoba is under
6:00	·	contract with the imperial government to supply oil at a fixed rate. He has
6:05	·	spent most of his career dealing with subordinates of the praefectus annonae,
6:10	·	the official responsible for overseeing both the grain dole and the olive oil supply.
	·	Up the Tiber
6:16	·	Then, at last, the amphorae begin the final leg of their journey. Sprawling though the
6:22	·	warehouses at Portus are, they are only meant to shelter goods for a brief time,
6:27	·	until they can be brought up the Tiber to the capital.
6:31	·	The amphorae, their handles lashed together for security, are loaded onto a dozen barges. To cope
6:38	·	with the current, which makes it difficult to row upstream, each barge is hitched to a team
6:43	·	of mules, who patiently tow it the twenty miles to Rome. It takes three days – partly because
6:51	·	the mule teams have to switched every few miles, and partly because the river is so crowded with
6:56	·	barges and boats of every description, all straining to reach the center of the world.
7:03	·	Before we follow the amphorae to their destination,
7:06	·	a brief word about this video's sponsor.
	·	Romanis Magicae
7:10	·	Last year, I advertised a Kickstarter campaign for the first issue of "Romanis Magicae," a
7:16	·	comic about a former legionary who stumbles upon a plot to destroy the Roman Empire.
7:22	·	Now, the Romanis Magicae team is back with a second issue.
7:27	·	As before, the setting is imperial Rome:
7:30	·	cosmopolitan, chaotic, filled with opportunity and danger.
7:35	·	Amid the crowds and confusion,
7:36	·	the characters we met in the first issue are trying to live their lives.
7:41	·	But the dark magic that brought them together has
7:44	·	not disappeared – and they are still being hunted by monsters.
7:49	·	The Romanis Magicae team is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. To learn
7:54	·	more about the project and support the new issue, follow the link in the description.
8:00	·	Returning to our topic. As the barges carrying the amphorae approach Rome,
	·	The warehouse district
8:05	·	river traffic slows to a crawl. Towering tombs and villas crowd the banks. At last, the metropolis
8:13	·	comes into the view: an incomprehensible accumulation of white and tan buildings, shrouded
8:19	·	by the smoke of ten thousand charcoal fires. Where the current slows, just below the temples
8:26	·	and tenements of the Aventine Hill, a tangle of piers marks the port of Rome. Around it sprawl
8:33	·	the warehouses that hold oil, grain, marble, wood, and everything else consumed by the world-city.
8:41	·	The barges are unloaded into one of these warehouse complexes.
8:45	·	After the stamps and inscriptions on each amphora have been recorded and checked,
8:50	·	the seals are broken, and the oil within is tipped into cavernous storage tanks.
8:56	·	In Rome, many amphorae are recycled as storage containers, repurposed as pipes or flowerpots,
9:03	·	or shattered and mixed into concrete as aggregate. The amphorae that carry olive oil from Spain,
9:10	·	however, are not reused. Their bulbous shape and thick walls make them unsuitable for most
9:17	·	secondary applications. They are difficult to break into small fragments, and the oil that
9:23	·	clings to their surfaces weakens any concrete made with them. Last but not least, they stink.
	·	Monte Testaccio
9:30	·	So, once they have been drained, Spanish oil amphorae are tied in pairs over the backs of
9:35	·	mules and sent to the state amphora dump – the future Monte Testaccio. The dump is already as
9:42	·	tall as the Seven Hills, and it's growing every day. Although the lower slopes are overgrown
9:48	·	with grass, most of the mound is the chalky red of broken pottery. One access road winds to the top;
9:56	·	another twists back down. Both paths are crowded with mules and drivers.
10:02	·	Near the top of the hill, slaves with sledgehammers smash pots into hand-sized
10:07	·	pieces. Other slaves rake the fragments into even layers and sprinkle them with
10:12	·	lime to cut the stench of rancid oil. As they descend the long path down to the
10:18	·	warehouses, the drivers have a spectacular view of Rome, radiating in every direction.
10:24	·	But the mules, heads down, see only the reddish dust that coats the path,
10:29	·	and bits of pottery crunching beneath their hooves.
10:34	·	Dumping continued at Monte Testaccio until the late third century,
10:38	·	when the construction of the Aurelian Wall cut the roads between the dump and
10:42	·	the river. As the empire collapsed and the city of Rome contracted,
10:47	·	the mountain of pots remained. Medieval legends sprang up around it – some claiming that it
10:54	·	had been built with rubble from the great fire of Nero, others that it was composed
10:59	·	of pagan cinerary urns. The most prevalent explanation, however, was that the hill was
11:06	·	made of vessels sent to the emperors as tribute from the provinces. In a sense, this was correct.
	·	Significance of a dump
11:13	·	Monte Testaccio is a microcosm of the Roman Empire. It reflects the reach of imperial power,
11:20	·	which could draw millions of oil amphorae from distant parts of the Mediterranean.
11:25	·	It attests to the productivity and complexity of the Roman economy,
11:29	·	which could support long-distance trade on such a vast scale. It is evidence of
11:35	·	consumerism that would not be excelled until the Industrial Revolution. And it bears witness
11:40	·	to the inequality and exploitation that made Rome's grandeur possible.
	·	Visiting Monte Testaccio
11:47	·	Last month, with the help of my friends at Through Eternity Tours, who often organize walks in the
11:53	·	area, I visited Monte Testaccio for the first time in years. Though surrounded by a bustling
12:00	·	and increasingly trendy neighborhood, the hill itself is quiet. Knee-high grass and clumps of
12:07	·	shrubs cover most of its surface. But along the paths, and wherever erosion has cut the surface,
12:14	·	you can see the broken pots. In places, the fragments are still stacked as neatly as they
12:21	·	were 17 centuries ago, when the Roman emperors built the largest garbage dump in ancient history.
	·