The study of the pottery recovered from the excavation has allowed us to deepen our knowledge of the goods that circulated in Rome over the centuries. Among the most significant objects are the thousands of amphorae which in the 1300 years between the archaic age and the end of antiquity (6th century BC – 7th century AD) transported wine, oil, fish sauces and other foodstuffs. The illustration on the left shows the operation of a large workshop that produced a type of wine amphora, classified Dressel 2-4, common between the 1st century BC and 1st century BC. and the 2nd century AD.
The amphorae were modeled in separate parts and bore trademarks (stamps) which made it possible to identify their producers, real entrepreneurs of the ancient world: in this case the letters LMO are read. In the background on the left, the clay extraction area and the ovens for firing the amphorae are visible. In the background a productive villa, the operational center of the large estates (villae), from which the raw materials for the products destined for export came.
In an intermediate position between the ceramic workshop and the hillsides you can see a stream, a direct communication route towards the sea: here were the warehouses (horrea) which housed the amphorae ready to be embarked for transport to the main places consumption throughout the empire. The map of the Mediterranean, on the opposite wall, shows how large the city’s supply basin was at the end of the 1st century AD. The finds refer to a single large unloading of materials made to improve the drainage of the land and offer a precise cross-section of the different geographical origins of the goods.
