Anforas romanas y analisis de contenidos. El consumo de alimentos de la Baetica, Africa y el Oriente levantino en Gades, Pompeii y Roma (ss 1a.C.-1 s.C.) RACA-MED (HAR2017-84242-P)
Roman amphorae and contents residues analysis. The consumption of food in Baetica, Africa and the Levant in Gades, Pompeii and Rome (1st century BC-1st century AD) RACA-MED
This is a Spanish ministry MINECO-funded 3-year project, co-directed by Alessandra Pecci ( Ramon i Cajal, ERAAUB) in collaboration with Spanish and Italian colleagues. The aim is to determine through organic residues analysis the former contents (as well as sealants, such as pitch, and possible re-use) of several major classes of late Republican-early Imperial amphorae found in Cadiz (a large dump of amphorae excavated at El Olivillo, close to a garum processing factory), Pompeii and Rome (Nuovo Mercato del Testaccio and Porticus Aemilia).
This focuses on Baetican 1st century BC ovoid forms (wine or oil) and one of their successors (Haltern 70: defrutum-wine must) (El Olivillo finds), as well as contemporary late Republican African amphorae also of ovoid shape (oil?) produced in northern Tunisia (formerly thought to have been produced in Tripolitania) (finds from Rome) and early Imperial forms produced in southern Anatolia (eastern Cilicia) (type pieces excavated in Pompeii). The latter include Dressel 2-4 Koan imitations (in theory for wine) and 'hybrid' forms with a wider body and Koan-type handles (possibly fruit in wine?) (Agora G 198), and as such provide a similar variation of the wine theme that is also represented by the Haltern 70 (in theory, with contents mixed with defrutum).
The first results were presented at the Amphorae ex Baetica II conference in Sevilla (December 2018). Results so far indicate that most, but not all of the ovoid amphorae were pitched (through the burning of pine). Some contained wine, whereas others may have contained a plant oil. The sampling of 15 examples of Haltern 70 and 10 examples of Agroa G 198, the largest number of either form to undergo such analyses, is in progress.
