This chapter considers the behavioral practice of recycling. As was the case with maintenance, because recycling played an important role in governing the formation of the Roman pottery record, it is here subject to comprehensive and detailed treatment. As defined in Chapter 1, recycling involves the use of a vessel or a vessel part as a raw material in a manufacturing process. Roman pottery was employed for various recycling applications at the termination of manufacture, distribution, prime use, and reuse. In addition, pottery could be reclaimed either from abandonment deposition or from an archaeological deposit for use in a recycling application. As noted in Chapter 1, a vessel or vessel part utilized in a recycling application loses its identity as a discrete artifact, and in this sense is removed from the systemic context.

The recycling of Roman pottery involved the use of sherds, crushed pottery, or pulverized pottery as a fill, fill/reagent, or tempering agent in the manufacture of a compound artifact. Among the various recycling applications attested are the use of sherds as fill in geotechnical and hydrogeological features, kilns, and concrete construction, as chinking in rubblework walls, and as a facing element in concrete construction and pavements; the use of crushed pottery as a fill/reagent in impermeable linings, wall/vault surfacings, and concrete pavements; and the use of pulverized pottery as a filler in mortar and wall plaster, as a tempering material in pottery, and as a flavoring agent or salve.