DRINKING AND GAMING IN THE ROMAN FORT OF POROLISSUM. PRELIMINARY DATA OFFERED BY THE EXCAVATION AT BUILDING C3
DRINKING AND GAMING IN THE ROMAN FORT OF POROLISSUM. PRELIMINARY DATA OFFERED BY THE EXCAVATION AT BUILDING C3

Summary/Abstract: The evidence concerning conviviality in military contexts is scarce at the scale of the Roman Empire. Even if a considerable amount of research has been undertaken inside military forts, with only a few exceptions, the data which can be related to such activities is not straightforward. Modern research has emphasised lately two types of activities which could be related to such practices, each reflecting different social phenomena: the convivia set, usually, in triclinia functioning inside the praetorium or inside the centurion’s quarter and governed by specific regulations and social hierarchies and the public dining, involving gaming and drinking, which was, probably, opened to the entire community of soldiers stationed in the fort. Starting from the evidence offered by the archaeological research of building C3 located in the Roman auxiliary fort from Porolissum – Pomet Hill (Moigrad, Romania), the authors try to make a first assessment of the collected data. The structure, which functioned as a water basin in its first phases, was restructured at a certain point and provided with an upper storey. The finds identified in the layers related to this upper storey (glass and pottery counters, dice, glass and pottery tableware) represent a strong indication for the existence of a public dining place which operated inside the Roman fort from Porolissum in the last functional phase of the building, towards the middle of the 3rd century AD.

• Details
• Contents