Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:30:18.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Roman Diet and Trade: Evidence from Organic Residues on Pottery Sherds Recovered at the Roman Town of Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester, Hants.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2010

L.-J. Marshall ,
S.R. Cook ,
M.J. Almond  and
M.G. Fulford
L.-J. Marshall
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, The University of Reading
S.R. Cook
Affiliation:
School of Human and Environmental Science, The University of Reading, m.g.fulford@reading.ac.uk
M.J. Almond
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, The University of Reading
M.G. Fulford
Affiliation:
School of Human and Environmental Science, The University of Reading, m.g.fulford@reading.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The analysis of organic residues from pottery sherds using Gas-Chromatography with mass-spectroscopy (GC-MS) has revealed information about the variety of foods eaten and domestic routine at Silchester between the second and fourth–sixth centuries A.D. Two results are discussed in detail: those of a second-century Gauloise-type amphora and a fourth-century SE Dorset black-burnished ware (BB1) cooking pot, which reveal the use of pine pitch on the inner surface of the amphora and the use of animal fats (ruminant adipose fats) and leafy vegetables in cooking at the Roman town of Silchester, Hants.

Keywords

ROMAN POTTERYROMAN DIETSILCHESTERROMAN TRADEAMPHORAORGANIC RESIDUESGAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH MASS-SPECTROSCOPY
Type
Notes
Information
Britannia , Volume 39 , November 2008 , pp. 245 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © L.-J. Marshall, S.R. Cook, M.J. Almond and M.G. Fulford 2008. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charters, S., Evershed, R.P., Goad, L.J., and Leyden, A. 1993: ‘Identifcation of an adhesive used to repair a Roman jar’, Archaeometry 35, 211–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colombini, M.P., Giachi, G., Modugno, F., Pallecchi, P., and Ribechini, E. 2003: ‘The characterization of paints and waterproofng materials from the shipwrecks found at the archaeological site of the Etruscan and Roman harbour of Pisa (Italy)’, Archaeometry 45 (4), 659–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colombini, M.P., Giachi, G., Modugno, F., and Ribechini, E. 2005: ‘Characterisation of organic residues in pottery vessels of the Roman age from Antinoe (Egypt)’, Microchemical Journal 79, 83–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copley, M.S., Berstan, R., Dudd, S.N., Docherty, G., Mukherjee, A.J., Straker, V., Payne, S., and Evershed, R.P. 2003: ‘Direct chemical evidence for widespread dairying in prehistoric Britain’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100.4, 1524–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copley, M.S., Hansel, F.A, Sadr, K., and Evershed, R.P. 2004: ‘Organic residue evidence for the processing of marine animal products in pottery vessels from the pre-colonial archaeological site of kasteelberg D east, South Africa’, South African Journal of Science 100, 279–83Google Scholar
Dudd, S.N., and Evershed, R.P. 1998: ‘Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economies’, Science 282.5393, 1478–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudd, S.N., Regert, M., and Evershed, R.P. 1998: ‘Assessing microbial lipid contributions during laboratory degradations of fats and oils and pure triacylglycerols absorbed in ceramic potsherds’, Organic Geochemistry 29 (5–7), 1345–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudd, S.N., Evershed, R.P., Gibson, A.M. 1999: ‘Evidence for varying patterns of exploitation of animal products in different prehistoric pottery traditions based on lipids preserved in surface and absorbed residues’, Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 1473–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evershed, R.P. 1993: ‘Chemical analysis of the pitch’, in M., Rule and J., Monaghan (eds), A Gallo-Roman Trading Vessel from Guernsey, The Excavation and Recovery of a Third Century Shipwreck, Guernsey, 115–18Google Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Heron, C., and Goad, L.J. 1990: ‘Analysis of organic residues of archaeological origin by high-temperature gas-chromatography and gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry’, Analyst 115.10, 1339–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Arnot, K.I., Collister, J., Eglinton, G., and Charters, S. 1994: ‘Application of isotope ratio monitoring gas-chromatography mass-spectrometry to the analysis of organic residues of archaeological origin’, Analyst 119.5, 909–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Mottram, H.R., Dudd, S.N., Charters, S., Stott, A.W., and Lawrence, G.J. 1997: ‘New criteria for the identifcation of animal fats preserved in archaeological pottery’, Naturwissenschaften 84, 402–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evershed, R.P., Dudd, S.N., Copley, M.S., Berstan, R., Stott, A.W., Mottram, H., Buckley, S.A., and Crossman, Z. 2002: ‘Chemistry of archaeological animal fats’, Accounts of Chemical Research 35, 660–8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fulford, M., Clarke, A., and Eckardt, H. 2006: Life and Labour in Late Roman Silchester. Excavations in Insula IX since 1997, Britannia Monograph 22, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hally, D.J. 1983: ‘Use alteration of pottery vessel surfaces: an important source of evidence in the identifcation of vessel function’, North American Archaeologist 4, 3–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heron, C., and Pollard, A.M. 1987: ‘The analysis of natural resinous materials from Roman amphorae’, in Slater, E.A. and Tate, J.O. (eds), Science and Archaeology, Glasgow 1987: Proceedings of a Conference on the Application of Scientifc Techniques to Archaeology, Glasgow, September, 1987, BAR British series 196, Oxford, 429–47Google Scholar
Holbrook, N., and Bidwell, P.T. 1991: Roman Finds from Exeter, Exeter Archaeological Reports 4Google Scholar
Ingrem, C. 2006: ‘The animal bone’, in Fulford et al. (2006), 167–88; 339-62Google Scholar
Mills, J.S., and White, R. 1994: The Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects, LondonGoogle Scholar
Orton, C., Tyers, P., and Vince, A. 1993: Pottery in Archaeology, Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Pollard, A.M., and Heron, C. 1996: Archaeological Chemistry, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regert, M., Garnier, N., Decavallas, O., Cren-Olive, C., and Rolando, C. 2003: ‘Structural characterization of lipid constituents from natural substances preserved in archaeological environments’, Measurement Science and Technology 14, 1620–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, N., Evershed, R.P., Higgs, W.J., Jerman, K., and Eglinton, G. 1987: ‘Proof of a pine-wood origin for pitch from Tudor (Mary Rose) and Etruscan shipwrecks - Application of analytical organic-chemistry in Archaeology’, Analyst 112, 637–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, M., with Fulford, N. and Tootell, K. 2006: ‘The macroscopic plant remains’, in Fulford et al. (2006), 206–18; 374–9Google Scholar
Sealy, P.R., and Tyers, P.A. 1989: ‘Olives from Roman Spain: a unique amphora fnd in British waters’, Antiquaries Journal 69, 53–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serpico, M., and White, R. 2000: ‘Adhesives and binders’, in Nicholson, P. and Shaw, I. (eds), Ancient Egyption Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 475–94Google Scholar
Timby, J. 2006: ‘The pottery from the late Roman deposits’, in Fulford et al. (2006), 86–115; 291-313Google Scholar
Tyers, P.A. 1996: Roman Pottery in Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar