Produce, Repair, Reuse, Adapt, and Recycle: The Multiple Biographies of a Roman Barrel

Abstract

By the time the Roman empire reached its greatest extent, in the early decades of the second century ad, wooden barrels were a key part of a trade network that supported a complex extended economy. These objects do not, however, routinely survive in the archaeological record and very few sites have yielded large, multi-phase, assemblages for study. Although relatively rare, individual finds and assemblages have been found sufficiently regularly to allow us to consider barrel production and use during the Roman period. These objects can have complex cultural biographies from their original production to their final deposition. Current and previous research at Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern Britain at the edge of the Roman empire, provides a context for reflection on these objects and their biographies. Emphasis is given to whether this material demonstrates repeated, possibly habituated, practices of adaption and recycling.

Life beyond life: Repair, reuse, and recycle—the many lives of wooden objects and the mutability of trees

“…Goodburn argues that the casks coming into London were also routinely recycled to create stylus tablets, and other objects, suggesting a clear production sequence for this process (Goodburn, 2016, 10 & Figure 6). Similar, complex patterns of use, reuse, adaption, and recycling have been proposed for material at Vindolanda, and a model for this biographical complexity suggested (Sands & Marlière, 2020). As noted above, such practices are definitively shown when vestigial, ‘out of place’, features are obvious, such as when a barrel is adapted and reformed to make other coppered items (Figure 8).…”

“…For many of these barrels their arrival at the fort was the final stage in a potentially long and complex journey, involving repeated use, possible changes in function, and having passed through multiple hands. Here, at the end of that physical journey, contents from across the empire were removed and used, and the barrel may then have rotted away, or been burnt, or reused for storage, or taken apart to be adapted or recycled (Sands & Marlière, 2020).…”

“…Their extended biographies are well understood in more recent times (e.g. Ross, 1985) and have also been explored in Roman contexts (Goodburn, 2016; Sands & Marlière, 2020). Importantly, barrels, of any period, are designed to be objects in motion, their bellied form facilitating the movement, and rotation, of an otherwise heavy object travelling through networks of owners and users.…”

“…Here, at the end of that physical journey, contents from across the empire were removed and used, and the barrel may then have rotted away, or been burnt, or reused for storage, or taken apart to be adapted or recycled (Sands & Marlière, 2020).…”

“…Bernard et al, 2012; Creasman, 2013; Ford, 2013; Labbas, 2019) and more rarely portable objects (e.g. Cartwright, 2019; Goodburn, 2016; Sands & Marlière, 2020).…”