Mortarium

A complete mortarium in a grey fabric, with internal grits. It has a hooked flange and a pronounced ridge where the rim meets the bowl, leading continuously round to the pouring lip that protrudes beyond the flange.

It was used in the kitchen to pound spices and chop herbs on the rough surface or to mix sauces which could then be poured off using the pouring lip. Many of the excavated mortaria are obviously well-used, their bases worn thin or sometimes even worn all the way through and then discarded. No ceramic pestle has been found in London although angular stone examples are known and wooden pestles of simply large smooth pebbles may also have been used to pound and mix the ingredients.