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 was used for many years. This large mortaria was made at Brockley Hill between the mid 1st and mid 2nd centuries CE and found in London. The potter stamped his name in Latin 'DOINVS' onto the rim - archaeologists have found his mortaria in London and in many other places across Britain.