Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura and the Culture of Mortaria

The "culture of the mortar, " which gave color to the diet of the Roman period, is an important element for studying the territorial expansion and the deep cultural layers of the Roman Empire. Comprising the core of this culture of the mortar were Roman ceramic vessels called "mortaria, " but as the meaning of these items changed over time, in the Republican period it is rather the notion of a "culture of mortaria" which better reflects the nature of the times, and the existence of this culture of mortaria helps clarify the culture of the mortar of the Imperial period.<BR>First, the uses of mortaria are clarified from literary sources beginning with the Roman Republican period. Passages referring to mortaria are excerpted from the oldest Latin text in which mortaria appear, Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura (thought to be a work from the beginning of the second century B.C.), and the ways and contexts in which they were used are made clear. From this it is seen that mortaria were not merely used as implements for grinding, as there are several references to uses for kneading batter for bread or cake. This was a period for which it is better to think of mortaria as vessels having a variety of uses, and not just as mortars. The ways in which mortaria were used is also pointed out by using a mural from Etruria as data.<BR>Next, for mortaria of the Republican period, an examination through archaeological comparison is made for items from the Italian peninsula and those from the eastern Mediterranean. Then the culture of mortaria of the later Hellenistic period is clarified. For mortaria of the Italian peninsula in the same period as Cato, the Roseto type of mortaria is defined on stylistic grounds. In terms of research for the Imperial period, this type of mortaria is called the wall-sided rim type (this author's compound rim type). Then from an examination of typologies covering the latter half of the fourth to the first half of the second centuries B.C., it is concluded that the characteristics of mortaria appearing in Cato's text and the stylistic characteristics of the Roseto type are in agreement. In a comparison with mortaria for the eastern Mediterranean region of the latter Hellenistic period, an analysis is made of examples recovered from the site of Tel Anafa in Israel, clarifying change in mortaria from the Hellenistic to the Imperial periods, and pointing out in particular the similarity in terms of the characteristics of the vessel's foot with the Roseto type.