Roman Britain / Learning resources
Trade and daily life
Trace a Roman food container
Follow an amphora from its material and shape to questions about transport, trade and the limits of a cargo story.
Start here
Open Museum Wales’s record for the amphora from Caerleon. Start with the object’s shape, including its handles, neck and base. Use a blank map to explore connections between the Mediterranean and Britain without assuming that the exact voyage is known.
Try the activity
- Record the catalogue’s identification of the vessel and its cargo. Keep a note of which details come from the record rather than from your own observation.
- Sketch the jar and label two features that could matter when loading, carrying or securing it. Explain your reasoning.
- Draw a possible route to Britain with a dashed line. Add a key stating that it is a proposed journey, not a documented itinerary for this jar.
- Write a short account of the workers needed to move a container from producer to consumer. Mark imagined examples as possibilities.
Discuss and check
- Does finding an imported jar tell us where its final user was born?
- What could residue analysis add to a study of shape?
- Why might a jar travel more than once or be reused?
Review your work
Your map should communicate uncertainty as clearly as distance. Compare the named findspot with the catalogue’s wider geographical description, and avoid inventing a port or ship. Finish with one question about the jar’s life after its contents had been used.
Sources and further reading
Romans in Britain · People · Places · Learning resources