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Equipment · Historical object · Jars, pots and crocks
dolia · Garum Shop dolia · Pompeii garum dolia
Six ceramic dolia at Pompeii’s Garum Shop held fish-processing remains. They are vessels, distinct from masonry fish-salting vats; the evidence does not establish whether these specimens were portable or fixed in place.
A 2018 study examined fish-processing remains from six ceramic vessels called dolia at Pompeii’s Garum Shop (I.12.8). Its figure caption distinguishes five sampled vessels, d1–d5, in the central part of the shop from d6 in the garden of Ambiente 9. Artisanal garum production used large storage jars (dolia) and other ceramic containers; industrial-scale fish processing also used separate fish-salting factories.
This record covers the jars. It does not describe a masonry tank, counter, or building, and the study does not say whether the six vessels were portable or fixed into the floor. The evidence therefore supports classifying them as vessel equipment without claiming how each specimen was installed. Roman fish-salting vats built from masonry belong to a different equipment record.
The researchers compared remains from the six Pompeii dolia with a modern experimental garum based on a recipe attributed to Gargilius Martialis. They report that earlier zoological analysis found anchovy remains and pollen from culinary spices in the archaeological material. Their own analysis found differences in nitrogen and fat between the vessels; they suggest these could indicate different batches in progress when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79.
Those results support the use of ceramic jars in fish-sauce production at this site. They do not disclose a complete ancient recipe, and the authors present mineral explanations such as lime use or colouring as possible interpretations. This page does not turn those possibilities into established ingredients, a cleaning method, or a modern production instruction.
A linked PompeiiinPictures page shows dolia in the north-west corner of the complex’s peristyle garden. Its captions identify five vessels in that garden area, while the chemistry paper labels its sampled d1–d5 in the central shop area and d6 in the garden. The photographs help readers see dolia at the site but do not prove that the pictured garden group is the same six-vessel sample.
The sources call the vessels large ceramic storage jars but provide no measurements, capacities, clay composition or surface treatment for the six analyzed examples. Nor do they state whether those jars could be moved once filled. The image is contextual evidence for vessel form, not a blueprint or proof of a fixed installation.
A 2018 study sampled fish remains from six dolia preserved in Pompeii's Garum Shop I.12.8. Its figure caption places d1–d5 in the central shop area and d6 in the garden of Ambiente 9. This dates the documented use of these specimens, not the origin of Roman dolia or every feature of their construction.
The research identifies six dolia but gives no dimensions, capacities, clay recipe, coating, glaze or construction details for those specimens.
Source →The study reports possible batch differences from residue chemistry; it does not recover a complete ancient recipe or establish every ingredient or additive.
Source →Neither the paper nor the site-photo captions establish whether the studied jars were movable, set into the floor, or fixed to the building. This record is for ceramic vessels, not a masonry installation.
Source →Six analyzed vessels were preserved at the Garum Shop (I.12.8) in Pompeii. This is a site-specific historical attestation, not a claim that Pompeii originated the dolium form.
Jars, barrels, skins, leaves, pits and whole rooms decide much of what happens to fermented and cured food. This is how a container works on its contents, and how people in different places chose theirs.
A Roman dolium was a very large ceramic storage and processing jar. In some wineries its heavy body was set partly into the ground; Pompeian evidence also documents dolia used for fish sauce.
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At North Abydos in Egypt, a fixed early Dynastic brewery comprised parallel semi-subterranean installations with rows of ceramic mash vats; excavation reports revise their number, scale and estimated batch capacity.
Ají amarillo is the orange-yellow Peruvian chilli cultivar group of Capsicum baccatum, used to colour and season huancaína sauce and ají de gallina. Published heat estimates do not establish one range for the named cultivar.
Toasted almonds are whole sweet almond kernels dry-roasted until golden to brown. Heat replaces their marzipan note with a roasted, nutty one; they thicken and flavour romesco.
Kodiak salmon, halibut and cod cut as seg'aq and hung on an initaq rack to become tamuuq, with kac'amaasaq and kupcuunaq named as different results.
Aniseed is the dried ripe fruit of Pimpinella anisum, an aromatic Apiaceae spice commonly called a seed. It adds a sweet, warm aroma to breads such as Moroccan krachel and South African mosbolletjies, and is distinct from star anise.
A fixed Late Chalcolithic installation in Areni-1 cave combined a shallow clay pressing basin with a large jar set into the cave floor and storage vessels nearby.
Ripe avocado flesh is the soft, buttery, fat-rich pulp of Persea americana, eaten raw. It is low in acid, so it is a fresh ingredient that needs care in chilled dishes.
A portable dome and pan used over a hearth, with embers on the lid and heat from below. Regional peka and saç forms share this principle while differing in materials, pan shape and how the food is cooked.
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Zephyrus, University of Salamanca, vol. 82 (2018), pp. 149–163Six ceramic dolia · Residue analysis · Garum production context · Historical attestation
New technological contributions to Roman garum elaboration from chemical analysis of archaeological fish remains from the ‘Garum Shop’ at Pompeii (I.12.8)The abstract states that fish remains from six vessels called dolia at the Garum Shop were chemically compared with a garum made from Gargilius Martialis's recipe.
The paper says garum was made at artisanal scale in large storage jars called dolia as well as at industrial scale in fish-salting factories.
The figure caption locates d1–d5 in the central part of the shop and d6 in the garden of Ambiente 9.
The authors say differences in nitrogen and fat could indicate different batches at the time of the eruption; this is a cautious interpretation, not a full recipe or a settled reconstruction.
The paper does not specify that the sampled dolia were fixed into the floor, built into a counter, or portable.
Cited in: Six vessels, not a built vat; What the residue study supports; Reading the site photographs
PompeiiinPicturesPhotographic reference · Archaeological site context
I.12.8 Pompeii. Casa e Officina del Garum degli Umbricii. Part 4The page captions a March 2009 image as five dolia in the north-west corner of the peristyle garden and a December 2018 image as dolia in the same garden area.
The site photographs document the appearance and setting of dolia at I.12.8, but the captions do not identify them as the exact six specimens analyzed in the 2018 chemistry paper.
The page gives courtesy credit for the December 2018 photo to Aude Durand but no reuse licence for it.
Cited in: Reading the site photographs