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« Ten Days in Sicily for AAR Fellows, with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
AAR Resident Mary Gibson FAAR’03 Explores History of Rome’s Prisons after Italian Unification »
Gabii Project, AAR in the News for Lead “Burrito” Casket Study Effort
The mysterious Roman imperial “lead burrito” coffin. Photo: Gabii Project
You may have seen the headlines: “Mysterious lead coffin found near Rome”. “Ancient lead sarcophagus contains Roman VIP”. “Lead ‘burrito’ sarcophagus near Rome may hold a gladiator or a Christian dignitary”. And perhaps most to the point, “What the hell is buried in this half-ton coffin?”
The news story in question has to do with an unusual Imperial Roman lead sarcophagus, excavated 11 miles east of Rome in summer 2009 by the Gabii Project. The Gabii Project for the past three years has been studying and (starting last year) excavating near Palestrina the ancient Latin city of Gabii, a city-state that was once very much a rival to Rome. The University of Michigan sponsors the Gabii Project, which is directed by Michigan’s Nicola Terrenato, with excavations receiving the patrocinio of the American Academy in Rome.
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Originally posted by cookiemonster32
reply to post by Destinyone
WOW fantastic thanks so much for the info it is incredible hopefully you get a reply with some updated news regarding the buritto whoever it was must have been a major player back then to warrant the expensive coffin.
Originally posted by cookiemonster32
reply to post by Flavian
yes you are probably right it's some senator or something making a lasting testament to his/her wealth I suppose we will only know when they take a look inside, Destinyone had some extra stuff on the dig site and emailed the lead archeologist so we might find out soon what was in the coffin
For winemakers in the Roman Empire, nothing but lead would do. When boiling crushed grapes, Roman vintners insisted on using lead pots or lead-lined copper kettles. "For, in the boiling," wrote Roman winemaker Columella, "brazen vessels throw off copper rust which has a disagreeable flavor." Lead’s sweet overtones, by contrast, were thought to add complementary flavors to wine and to food as well. (reference) The metal enhanced one-fifth of the 450 recipes in the Roman Apician Cookbook, a collection of first through fifth century recipes attributed to gastrophiles associated with Apicius, the famous Roman gourmet. From the Middle Ages on, people put lead acetate or "sugar of lead" into wine and other foods to make them sweeter. Lead touched many areas of Roman life. It made up pipes and dishes, cosmetics and coins, and paints. Eventually, as a host of mysterious maladies became more common, some Romans began to suspect a connection between the metal and these illnesses. But the culture’s habits never changed, and some historians believe that many among the Roman aristocracy suffered from lead poisoning.
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