'Empress' pepper pot from the Hoxne hoard
Roman Britain, buried in the 5th century AD
From Hoxne, Suffolk
A piperatorium
The Hoxne (pronounced 'Hoxon') hoard is the richest find of
treasure from Roman Britain. Alongside the approximately 15,000
coins were many other precious objects, buried for safety at a time
when Britain was passing out of Roman control.
This pepper-pot was one of four in the hoard. Pepper was first
imported into the Roman world from India in the first century AD,
but piperatoria, the special containers for this expensive
spice, are very rare finds. This example takes the form of a hollow
silver bust of an Imperial lady of the late-Roman period. Bronze
steelyard-weights of similar appearance are well known in the
late-Antique period and though many attempts have been made to see
in them a portrait of a specific empress, it is more likely that
they simply represent a generic Imperial image.
Details of the Empress's jewellery and rich clothing are gilded,
and she holds a scroll in her left hand. The pot has a disc in the
base which could be turned to three positions, one closed, one with
large openings to enable the pot to be filled with ground pepper,
and a third which revealed groups of small holes for
sprinkling.
T.W. Potter, Roman Britain, 2nd edition (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)
C.M. Johns and R. Bland, 'The Hoxne late Roman treasure', Britannia, 25 (1994), pp. 165-73
R. Bland and C.M. Johns, The Hoxne Treasure, an illustr (London, The British Museum Press, 1993)