This paper examines ceramic vessels from Roman-period funerary contexts in Essex. Using correspondence analysis, it charts changes in the choice of funerary pottery and isolates the elements in pottery assemblages that unite or differentiate sites. The paper finds that the status of sites can be distinguished on ceramic grounds, reflecting cultural differences in life. Jars and beakers are characteristic of settlement cemeteries, while cups are more typical of high-status burials. Flagons and samian ware are common between them. Underlying funerary traditions are rooted in continuity from the Late Iron Age, rather than post-conquest change. The study also suggests that funerary pottery was selected out of the supply intended for domestic use.Market forces and designer trends, which have conquered so many aspects of life, have now reached the one frontier that had seemed beyond their advance: the way in which we depart from this world.Jonathan Romain, The Times, February 21, 2004 In recent times, funerary archaeology of Roman Britain has held academic attention like few other subjects. The past few years have witnessed the publication of extensive Roman cemeteries in Brougham in Cumbria (Cool 2004) and London (Barber and Bowsher 2000) and a volume of collected papers (Pearce et al. 2000), which itself was hot on the heels -in archaeological terms, at least -of the published proceedings of an international funerary conference (Struck 1993). It is perhaps surprising, then, that gaps in our understanding remain. More surprising is that many of these concern ceramic vessels, the best-represented class of grave-goods. How was pottery acquired for funerary use? Why were certain vessels chosen, and what did they mean in terms of the social status and identity of the deceased? How were burial assemblages affected by the Roman conquest, the economy and pottery supply? These are questions seeking fuller answers. In his recent paper, Howard Williams (2004) has moved some way towards resolving these long-standing issues. He places a social meaning on the selection of funerary pottery, arguing that ceramics, associated with consumption and sacrifice, provided a potent means of remembering the dead and representing the act of cremation. His paper addresses the question of why pottery was selected. This study, in contrast, attempts to clarify what pottery was selected and to assess any differences between sites.

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Summary.  Wear‐patterns inside Roman samian ware vessels provide a clue as to how the pots were used. The wear repeatedly seen in the cups, Dragendorff 27 and Dragendorff 33, is particularly distinctive. This paper reports the results of using reproduction cups to replicate the patterns in order to discover how these may have been formed. The results suggest that Dragendorff 27 was used in the kitchen as a mortar, while Dragendorff 33 was a wine‐drinking vessel. Evidence from historical sources and graffiti supports this view, and suggests that the inhabitants of Roman Britain were conversant with Roman ways of cooking and dining.

Food is often one of the most distinctive expressions of social, religious, cultural or ethnic groups. However, the archaeological identification of specific religious dietary practices, including the Jewish tradition of keeping kosher, associated with ritual food practices and taboos, is very rare. This is arguably one of the oldest known diets across the world and, for an observant Jew, maintaining dietary laws (known as Kashruth) is a fundamental part of everyday life. Recent excavations in the early medieval Oxford Jewish quarter yielded a remarkable assemblage of animal bones, marked by a complete absence of pig specimens and a dominance of kosher (permitted) birds, domestic fowl and goose. To our knowledge, this is the first identification of a Jewish dietary signature in British zooarchaeology, which contrasted markedly with the previous Saxon phase where pig bones were present in quantity and bird bones were barely seen. Lipid residue analysis of pottery from St Aldates showed that vessels from the possible Jewish houses were solely used to process ruminant carcass products, with an avoidance of pig product processing, correlating well with the faunal data. In contrast, lipid analysis of pottery from comparative assemblages from the previous Saxon phase at the site and a contemporaneous site in the city, The Queen’s College, shows that the majority of these vessels appear to have been used to process mixtures of both ruminant and non-ruminant (pig) products. Here, the combination of organic residue analysis, site excavation and animal and fish bone evidence was consistent with the presence of Jewish houses in eleventh- and twelfth-century St Aldates, Oxford, hitherto only suspected through documentary information. This is the first identification of specific religious dietary practices using lipid residue analysis, verifying that, at least 800 years ago, medieval Jewish Oxford communities practised dietary laws known as Kashruth.