Pepper pot from the Hoxne Hoard
Date:
Fourth century
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
England
Medium:
Gilt-silver
Dimensions:
10.3 × 5.8 cm
Description:
Britain's Hoxne Hoard, found in 1992, is the largest cache of Roman gold and silver ever found. Likely hidden in the early fifth century, the treasure contains over 15,200 coins (the latest dates to 407), jewelry, almost 100 spoons and ladles, and other items, including four so-called pepper pots (Latin piperatoria). Pepper was a highly desirable condiment that features in most surviving Roman recipes; it was imported from India to the Roman Empire beginning in the first century CE. Costly spices were kept in pricey containers like the one featured here, which would have been displayed on an opulent dining table. Turning a disk in the base permitted the ground spice to be poured in and sprinkled out.
This gilt-silver female figure wears aristocratic clothing and elaborate jewelry, including multiple hairpins that secure her fourth-century hairstyle. She holds and points to a scroll, perhaps to suggest her classical education; one of the hoard's other piperatoria takes the form of the mythical Hercules wrestling the giant Antaeus. She may be a personification or evocation of wealth and good fortune. The woman's aristocratic appearance reinforced the preciousness of the vessel's contents.
This gilt-silver female figure wears aristocratic clothing and elaborate jewelry, including multiple hairpins that secure her fourth-century hairstyle. She holds and points to a scroll, perhaps to suggest her classical education; one of the hoard's other piperatoria takes the form of the mythical Hercules wrestling the giant Antaeus. She may be a personification or evocation of wealth and good fortune. The woman's aristocratic appearance reinforced the preciousness of the vessel's contents.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
2
Repository and Online Resources:
• The pepper pot is in London's British Museum (inv. no. 1994,0408.33).
• The Hercules and Antaeus pepper pot from the same hoard is in London's British Museum.
Image Credits:
© The Trustees of the British Museum
