Mortarium

This Roman mixing bowl is called a mortarium, which was made with a gritty clay, because they were used like a pestle-and-mortar, to grind up foodstuffs. Scientific analyses of mortaria in Britain discovered that they were used to grind dairy products, fats and plants. We don't know what was ground-up in this one, but it was used so much that a hole was worn in the base! This large mortaria was found at Great Dover Street in Southwark, but archaeologists think that it was made in Hertfordshire, because the rim has been stamped with 'SEX. VAL' in Latin. The stamp shows that the mortaria was made by a freedman (a freed slave) called Sextus Valerius- his work has been found in London and across Britain.