The Flavour of Mechanisation

aeon.co

14 pointsHooke2 comments

> Monte Testaccio in Rome looks like a natural hill, but it’s an immense pile of broken oil amphoras (tall jars), which were used only once to prevent rancidness.

I wonder what the state of glass container production was at the time, and whether it would have been practical to sterilize and reuse.

Perhaps--like today--some things just come in disposable containers because of the trust and transport relationships (or lack thereof) between manufacturers and consumers.

Glass containers would not be an option. Monte Testaccio is maar up of globular amphorae of the type Dressed 20 (link at the end). Which is the largest type of amphorae, holding up to 80 liters. There's no way to make glass vessels of that size (in Roman times) they did use smaller glass bottles for oil that was perfumed.

The globular shape meant that reuse was impractical. Smaller allongated amphorae (the form most people think of when amphorae are mentioned)could see reuse as roofing tile, however they didn't hold the same volume.

https://www.sal.org.uk/collections/explore-our-collections/c...

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