Daily Food Consumption in a Rural Roman Villa: Excavations at Lički Ribnik, Croatia

Abstract

Large volumes of work exist on Roman villas; however, what the inhabitants ate on a daily basis at these sites is frequently overlooked. Here we present archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological and pottery evidence to explore aspects of daily consumption patterns within the rural villa of Lički Ribnik, Croatia. The remains date from the second half of the 2nd to the first half of the 3rd century AD and provide the first evidence of villa consumption in the Lika region. The discovery of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) grains, domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and sheep (Ovis aries) bones suggest that they were consumed at the site. Different pottery types and fabrics also suggest a range of dishes were cooked, including the Roman dish patina. Although these conclusions are based on very limited data, the study shows the importance of looking at environmental evidence in conjunction with other archaeological material in order to explore local diet and economy in the Roman period. IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 53–63 Kelly Reed, Ivana Ožanić Roguljić, Siniša Radović, Tatjana Kolak: Daily Food Consumption in a Rural Roman Villa: Excavations at Lički Ribnik, Croatia 54 food system through the analyses of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological remains. Where examined, the evidence has contributed meaningfully to the reconstruction of Roman villa production, management and supply, the preparation and consumption of foods, as well as exploring aspects of group identity, social status and ritual/religious practices (e.g. Crabtree, 1990; King, 2001; Šoštarić, Küster, 2001; Olive, 2004; Padrós, Valenzuela Lamas, 2010; McCallum et al., 2013; Árpád et al., 2015). In Dalmatia, over 200 villae rusticae have been recognised or excavated and around 350 in regio X Venetia et Histria (Matijašić, 1998). However, few have provided evidence on diet and subsistence. Published deposits of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological remains dating to the Roman period (1st–5th Century AD) in Croatia are still relatively rare. For example, only 12 sites have published archaeobotanical remains (see Reed, 2016 for summary; Essert et al., 2018; Reed, Leleković, 2019; Reed et al., 2019) and only three of these are from villa sites: the 3rd–4th century AD rural villa at Danilo, Dalmatia (Šoštarić, 2003), the 1st–5th century AD rural villa at Veli Brijun, Istria (Šoštarić, Küster, 2001), and the 2nd–4th century AD urban villa of Osijek-Silos (Reed et al., 2019). Faunal data are even more underrepresented and only five Roman period sites being published in Croatia (Alvàs-Marion, 2001; Brajković, Paunović, 2001; Campadelli, 2007; Miculinić, 2018; Šimić-Kanaet et al., 2005; Šoštarić et al., 2015). Of these, only two are from villa sites: the 1st–2nd century rural estate of Crikvenica – Igralište, Vinodol area (Miculinić, 2018) and the maritime villa, villae maritimae, of Loron, Istria (Brajković, Paunović, 2001). This paper therefore presents the first evidence of Roman rural villa consumption in the Lika region of Dalmatia, examining the archaeobotanical, zooarchaelogical and pottery remains excavated from Lički Ribnik, Croatia. 2. The villa at Lički Ribnik Lički Ribnik is located in the meander of the river Lika, 6 km south of Gospić, in the Lika municipality (Figure 1). As a region, it can be characterized as a mountain plateau at altitudes between 450–700 m (Kokotović Kanazir et al., 2016). The region has a humid continental climate, but experiences high diurnal ranges, especially in summer, and frost has been recorded in every month except for July, with strong blizzards in the winter. Today, grain yields of field crops in the mountainous Lika region are considerably lower than in lowland areas of Croatia, mainly due to the poor soils and climatic limitations (Kovačević, Buzaši, 2005). In addition, the region suffers from a comparatively short growing period, due to the occurrence of late spring and early autumn frosts. Excavations began in 2012 after the discovery of tesserae from the Ribnik peninsula in the previous year. During the three-day trial excavation, architectural remains of a building were discovered along with fragments of a mosaic (Kolak, Figure 1. Location of Lički Ribnik and the other 12 sites with archaeobotanical remains dating to the Roman period. (1) Danilo, (2) Nadin-Gradina, (3) Port of Aenona/ Zaton, (4) Caska, (5) Flacius Street, Pula (6) Veli Brijun, (7) Poreč, (8) Sčitarjevo, (9) Vitrovitica Kiškorija – jug, (10) Osijek – Silos, and Osijek – Park kraljice Katarine Kosače (11) Illok. 0 100 km IANSA 2019 ● X/1 ● 53–63 Kelly Reed, Ivana Ožanić Roguljić, Siniša Radović, Tatjana Kolak: Daily Food Consumption in a Rural Roman Villa: Excavations at Lički Ribnik, Croatia 55 Figure 2. Plan of the Roman Villa at Lički Ribnik. Figure 3. Plan of the villa’s northern building at Lički Ribnik highlighting the stove within the villa kitchen where the archaeobotancial sample was collected. 0 40 m