Dolia should be bought at Rome

The Netherlands Institute at Athens announces the keynote speech of Professor Maurean Carroll: “‘Dolia should be bought at Rome’: Exploring heavy ceramics elemental to producing, storing, and distributing wine in Roman Italy” that will take place at the NIA on Thursday 2 November (7.00 p.m.) in the frame of the Workshop Consuming the Past: Modern Vines and Ancient Wines organized by Vladimir Stissi, Emily Hanscam and Robert Witcher.

Abstract

Dolia were costly specialist vessels essential for fermentation and storage, and sometimes shipping, of wine in the Roman world. In this paper, I explore the archaeological and archaeometric evidence for their manufacture, use, and marketing as wine-making equipment in Roman Italy. The quality of dolia also determined the quality and
quantity of wine produced, and the evidence suggests that some areas and workshops on the Tyrrhenian coast dominated the market and exported their containers to wine producers widely and occasionally over long distances. The business activities of even the emperor himself included the manufacture of this category of heavy ceramics, as recent excavations at Vagnari in southeast Italy indicate.

The paper also explores how this iconic Roman wine container represented a link to the past and took on new meaning for the nobility of the 17th century whose villa gardens in Rome, often built on the remains of suburban estates of ancient Roman elites and
emperors, were landscaped with ancient dolia as focal points. Finally, it highlights the linking of modern wine production in southeast Italy to the Roman production sites in the region.