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A fishy tale from the University of Bradford

Archaeologists from the University of Bradford working on an Anglo-American project in Pompeii have discovered 'something fishy' while investigating the changing fortunes of the town's people.

Richer and poorer
Each summer, a team of more than 100 people from 30 countries descends on Pompeii to study the lives of the people who lived there centuries ago.

Since 1994, the team – led by University of Bradford archaeologists Rick Jones and Damian Robinson – has been studying a complete block of the ancient town: Insula VI,1. They have been applying the full range of modern archaeological methods including excavation and architectural analysis.

So far they have completed the investigation of the House of the Vestals, one of the largest and most luxurious residences of the town. They have also begun research on the insula's inn, bars and workshops, and are continuing on the commercial properties and on another large residence, the House of the Surgeon.

Fish tanks
So far, the project has revealed that, while Pompeii's rich got richer, its poor got poorer.

Analyses of tiny traces of bones and seeds show that the rich enjoyed a diet of expensive fish. The team is currently looking at a production and supply area where six fish tanks have been discovered.

The tanks, which measure about 1 metre deep and 0.5 metre wide and date to the 2nd century BC, may have been used to create a fish-based sauce called garum, a favourite of the affluent.

Production of the pungent sauce, made by leaving fish to rot in salted water and used as a condiment, was big business in Pompeii. From about the 1st century BC to the end of the Roman period, garum was probably produced in salting plants outside the city and exported in large quantities.

Intact skeleton
The six tanks could have been filled with water to keep fish fresh prior to sale at market. However, the Bradford archaeologists suspected that they had been used for small-scale garum production, but were unable to prove this.

The team has now discovered an intact fish skeleton, about the size of a sardine, in the residue of one of the tanks. This is being studied by Dr Andrew Jones, lecturer in archaeological sciences. The find appears to back up the theory that fish were left to rot in the tanks to make sauce. However, further tests need to be carried out at Bradford before this theory is proven conclusively.

Even more importantly, this is the first intact fish to be discovered in Pompeii, although excavations have found many hundreds of ancient fish bones.

Food of the rich
Dr Rick Jones, of the university's Department of Archaeological Sciences, says: 'In this part of Pompeii, we are dealing with some of the richest people of the town. They extended their home to take over what had been three or four small houses. The big house was made ever more luxurious – with elaborate gardens and water fountains, while the poor were squeezed into living in small shops and workshops.

'Because fish rots so quickly, it becomes expensive. It was the food of the rich – these Pompeians had pictures on their walls of the fish species they were actually eating.

'To find a complete fish like this is an exciting find. It means we can move on a step in understanding what people were actually doing in the town. The tanks we've found along the street were all built at the same time. Then they go out of use, also at the same time. Whatever exactly it was they were doing was suddenly stopped.'

Social inequality
The project's work is building an unparalleled understanding of the social range of the ancient urban community and revealing how this was created over five centuries. There is clear evidence for social inequality increasing sharply from the 1st century BC.

Rick says: 'The questions we're asking are: What was the life of Pompeii's ordinary citizens? How did economic and social life change in the centuries that led to Pompeii's violent destruction in AD 79?

'Now we're answering them. All our studies give a picture of rapidly changing social dynamics as the gaps between rich and poor became ever more sharply defined. One sign of this was who got to eat fresh fish and who didn't.'

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