Haltern 70, with its ‘initial’ shape deriving from Ovoid Type 4, c. 30-20 BC (Figure), and ‘classic’ Augustan-Tiberian form emerging c. 20-15 BC (e.g. on the Culip VIII wreck), ended its production c. AD 90 (Berni 2011; García Vargas, E., de Almeida, R.R., González Cesteros, H. 2011, 242-248; García Vargas, González Cesteros, de Almeida 2019, 74-79; Carreras Monfort 2016; Carreras Monfort and Berni 2016). The type was produced primarily in Baetica, first on the coast – Cadiz-Algeciras, in workshops producing both wine and fish amphorae  – and then along the Guadalquivir, with imitations appearing also in Lusitania.

Djaoui (2016) recently reviewed all the known dipintos found on Baetican examples of this type – a mere 26 examples. Those on eight amphorae indicate that the form carried olives, primarily black but also green (albae/white) of various types (e.g. poseae, dulces) preserved in defrutum (e.g. OLIVA(E) NIG(RAE)/ EX DEFR(VTO)/PENVAR(IAE)/EXCELL(ENTES)/C. RVTILI[…]ICIS and OL[IVAE]/ A[LBAE]/ DVLCI). Olivae penuariae are ‘stored’, hence ‘preserved’ in defrutum. Six dipintos refer to the carrying of defrutum alone (e.g. DEF/EXC/ C ANTONI RVSTICI). Dipintos referring to fish sauce on eleven Haltern 70 amphorae were the result of secondary use. 

Note that a version of Haltern 70 was produced in Lyon (Lyonnais Type 7A), which was succeeded by Lyonnais 7B/Augst 21, from the late 1st or first quarter of the 2nd century. These contained olives, with 5 or 8 dipintos on Augst 21 (found in Vienne, Gallia Belgica, Germania and Britannia) referring to ‘white olives in sweet wine’ but not ‘black olives in defrutum’, which has led Djaoui to suggest that Spanish olives were transferred to these Gallic amphorae in Lyon, from barrels, following the end of production of Haltern 70.

Defrutum is must, boiled down from wine to a thick black alcoholic liquid (Flower and Rosenbaum 1958, 23-24: Palladius states that wine boiled down less than that, to two-thirds of its volume, was called caroenum, with sapa being that reduced to one-third). Defrutum served to enrich wines that were poor in glucose as well as a sweetener and liquid for conserves (e.g. Apicius I.XII.3, defritum (sic) added with honey to a jar (vas) of quinces; I.XII.6, sapa added to blackberries in a glass vessel (in vitreo vase)) and was an ingredient in medicinal remedies (Djaoui 2016, note 14).  Though the recipes of Apicius abound with references to the addition of liquamen, pounded with herbs in mortaria, sometimes mixed with wine, only a few refer to the similar use of certain types of defrutum: II.II.8,  defrutum of quinces or of dried figs, for a thick sauce added to meat rissoles. There are also references to the addition of caroenum or sapa, mulsum (wine mixed with honey), passum (sweet wine made from sun-dried grapes, well-attested from dipintos on early Imperial Cretan amphorae as well as the ‘pinched handle’ amphorae of western-‘Rough’ Cilicia, the Agora G 199 type). Apicius also refers to (unfermented) must as mustum (e.g. I.III.2: lemon leaves added to a jar in dolium musti, for 40 days, to which one could add honey when serving).

Cato tells his readers how to preserve lentils, green olives in vinegar (in acetum) or in must (mustum) and vinegar in a jar (in orculam) (De Agricultura, 117-118). There are also frequent references to vinegar in Apicius, for example I.VII.1: mustard prepared with vinegar (also referred to by Columella, De Re Rustica, XII.57); I.IX.1-2: for preserving fish or oysters, in a pitched vessel-vasculum picitum; I.XII.8-9: with honey, for preserving turnips; I.XII.11: for preserving peaches in a jar (in vas); as an ingredient with spices and liquamen for sauces: I.XV.1-2 (oyster sauce); (I.XVI.1-2: silphium sauce). The importance of the trade of vinegar also needs to be taken into account. A letter on a wax tablet (part of the Sulpicii archive) found in a villa outside Pompeii, from a Theophilus to his brother Aphrodisius, refers to the imminent arrival (probably in Puteoli) of the Octa, a ship carrying for him a cargo of ‘six medium-sized amphorae of wine, and seventy-seven of vinegar; sixteen Sicilian jars of honey, and ten of m(…..), one amphora of grape syrup [i.e. mustum or defrutum], one of s(…..)….’ (Opaiţ 2021, 357; Terpestra 2017,51, note 21: TPSulp. 80).

The combination of wine derivatives and olives in Haltern 70 amphorae presents a challenge for contents analysis as traces of both would otherwise suggest re-use. Contents analysis previously detected wine in one Haltern 70 chosen for sampling (Bernal-Casasola, Pecci and Sáez 2019). The finds of large numbers of Haltern 70 in the El Olivillo rubbish dump offered a good opportunity to analyse a quantitatively significant sample – 14 vessels – as part of the RACA-Med I project. The results so far indicate the presence of wine in all examples, with additional products (i.e. olives?) or re-use.