Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T10:57:07.432Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘It all comes out in the wash’: Looking harder at the Roman fullonica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2015

Mark Bradley
Mark Bradley*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the Baths of Mithras at Ostia, a lead pipe from the public urinal carried fluids directly into a basement corridor which led to two small underground fullonicae (figs. 1-4). As must have happened in towns and cities all over the Roman world, this product of human excretion was flushed down the urinal to re-emerge as the quintessential industrial cleansing agent. The Roman fuller has achieved notoriety for his exploitation of urine for washing woollen cloth. In this paper, I intend first to attempt a definition of fulling, and to show that the process of identifying and reconstructing a fullonica requires us to think harder about Roman cleansing processes. I will argue that the topic of cleanliness is so culturally loaded that it is very difficult to reach a neutral account of fulling. Literary discourse on these processes and their agents offers us a set of contrasting responses, most notably in interpretations of urine. I will examine the ways in which the Romans played with some of these paradoxes in a world of limited chemistry. From this, I will suggest a topographical model of water and waste in which the fullonica was a significant unit, and examine how the proverbial smells it generated raise interesting archaeological questions about location and urban space. A final section addresses the social profile of fullers and the cultural stereotypes attached to this profession.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Roman Archaeology , Volume 15 , 2002 , pp. 20 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Journal of Roman Archaeology L.L.C. 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adam, J.-P. 1994. Roman building: materials and techniques (transl. by Mathews, A., London).Google Scholar
Aicher, P. 1995. Guide to the aqueducts of ancient Rome (Wauconda).Google Scholar
Ausbüttel, F. M. 1982. Untersuchungen zu den Vereinen im Westen des römischen Reiches (Kallmunz).Google Scholar
Binz, A. 1936. “Altes und neues über die technische Verwendung des Harnes,” Angew. Chemie 49, 355–60.Google Scholar
Bird, J. et al. 1993. “Porta Pia: excavations and survey in an area of suburban Rome,” PBSR 61, 51–113.Google Scholar
Blümner, H. 1912. Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern (Leipzig).Google Scholar
Bowkett, L. C. 1995. Well-built Mycenae: the Helleno-British excavations within the citadel at Mycenae, 1959-1969. (Fasc. 36, The Hellenistic dye-works) (Oxford).Google Scholar
Calza, G. and Becatti, G. 1974. Ostia (Rome).Google Scholar
Carcopino, J. 1939. La vie quotidienne a Rome à l'apogée de l'Empire (Paris).Google Scholar
Clark, C. O. 1950. “Ancient and modern in milling and scouring,” J. Soc. Dyers and Colorists 66, 187–90.Google Scholar
Coarelli, F. 1996. “Fregellae, Arpinum, Aquinum: lana e fullonicae nel Lazio meridionale,” in CollEFR 215, 199–206.Google Scholar
Connolly, P. 1979. Pompeii (Oxford).Google Scholar
Corcoran, S. 1996. The empire of the tetrarchs (Oxford).Google Scholar
Crine, S. 1981. Dirty linen: low pay in laundries, dry cleaners and launderettes (Low Pay Report No. 7, London).Google Scholar
Davidson, C. 1982. A woman's work is never done: a history of housework in the British Isles 1650-1950 (London).Google Scholar
Della Corte, F. 1921. “Fullones,” Solemne praeconium J. A. Galante tributum (Naples).Google Scholar
Deniaux, E. 1990. “L'activité des foulons d'Evreux et le contrôle impérial à l'époque d'Antonin,” in Recueil d'études en hommage à Lucien Musset (Cahiers des Annales de Normandie 23, 53–68).Google Scholar
Dobbins, J. 1994. “Chronology, decoration and urban design at Pompeii,” AJA 98, 629–94.Google Scholar
Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and danger: an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo (London).Google Scholar
Edgar, C. 1925–1951. Zenon papyri (Cairo).Google Scholar
Edwards, C. 1993. The politics of immorality in ancient Rome (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Evans, H. 1994. Water distribution in ancient Rome: the evidence of Frontinus (Ann Arbor).Google Scholar
Fagan, G. 2000. Bathing in public in the Roman world (Ann Arbor).Google Scholar
Feissel, D. 1985. “Deux listes de quartiers d'Antioche astreints au creusement d'un canal (73-74 après J.-C.),” Syria 72, 77–103.Google Scholar
Fox, G. E. 1905. “Notes on some probable traces of Roman fulling in Britain,” Archaeologia 59, 207–32.Google Scholar
Frank, T. (ed.) 1937. An economic survey of ancient Rome (Baltimore).Google Scholar
Frayn, J. M. 1984. Sheep-shearing and the wool trade in Italy during the Roman period (Liverpool).Google Scholar
Gott, B. 1800–1825. ”Prices and pieces” - some revolting recipes. (MS in Brotherton Library, Leeds).Google Scholar
Goudineau, C. 1980. “Les villes de la paix romaine,” in Duby, G. (ed.), Histoire de la France urbaine: La ville antique (Paris) 233–391.Google Scholar
Gowers, E. 1995. “The anatomy of Rome from Capitol to Cloaca ,” JRS 85, 23–32.Google Scholar
Granger-Taylor, H. 1987. “The emperor's clothes: the fold-lines,” CMABull 74, 114–23.Google Scholar
Hall, A. J. 1952. A handbook of textile finishing (London).Google Scholar
Hanson, A. E. 1979. “ P. MICH. INV. 1933: accounts of a textile establishment,” BASP 16, 75–83.Google Scholar
Henderson, J. 1999. Writing down Rome (Oxford).Google Scholar
Hermansen, G. 1981. Ostia: aspects of Roman city life (Edmonton).Google Scholar
Hijmans, B. J. et al. 1995. Apuleius Metamorphoses IX (Groningen).Google Scholar
Hodge, A. 1992. Roman aqueducts and water supply (London).Google Scholar
Hoy, S. 1995. Chasing dirt: the American pursuit of cleanliness (New York).Google Scholar
Hurst, H. 1994. Excavations at Carthage: the British mission, vol. II.i: the circular harbour, north side (Oxford).Google Scholar
Jansen, G. 1991. “Water systems and sanitation in the houses of Herculaneum,” MededRom 50, 145–65.Google Scholar
Jansen, G. 1997. “Private toilets at Pompeii: appearance and operation,” in Bon, S. E. and Jones, R. (edd.) Sequence and space in Pompeii, 121–33 (Oxford).Google Scholar
Jones, B. 2000. Vespasian (London).Google Scholar
Jongman, W. 1988. The economy and society of Pompeii (Amsterdam).Google Scholar
Kaster, R. 2001. “The dynamics of fastidium and the ideology of disgust,” TAPhA 131, 143–89.Google Scholar
Koga, M. 1992. “The surface drainage system of Pompeii,” OPomp 2, 57–72.Google Scholar
Lauffer, S. (ed.) 1971. Diokletians Preisedikt (Berlin).Google Scholar
Laurence, R. 1994. Roman Pompeii, space and society (London).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, M. 1997. Millstone and hammer: the origins of water-power (Hull).Google Scholar
Ling, R. 1991. Roman painting (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Lloyd, J., Reece, R., Reynolds, J. and Sear, F., 1978. Excavations at Sidi Khrebish, Benghazi (Berenice) vol. 1 (Libya Antiqua Suppl. 5, London).Google Scholar
Lohmann, H. 1979. “Beobachtungen zum Stadtplan von Timgad,” in Wohnungshaus im Altertum (Diskussionen zur archäologischen Bauforschung, Berlin) 3, 167–87.Google Scholar
Lutz, H. F. 1923. Textiles and costumes among the peoples of the ancient Near East (Leipzig).Google Scholar
Maiuri, A. 1958. Ercolano: i nuovi scavi (1927-1958) (Rome).Google Scholar
Maiuri, A. 1960. Pompeii (Novara).Google Scholar
Mau, A. 1899. Pompeii, its life and art (New York).Google Scholar
Meiggs, R. 1973. Roman Ostia (Oxford).Google Scholar
Merrifield, R. 1985. London: city of the Romans (London).Google Scholar
Moeller, W. O. 1976. The wool trade of ancient Pompeii (Leiden).Google Scholar
Musca, D. A. 1970. ”Lis fullonum de pensione non soluenda,” Labeo 16, 279–326.Google Scholar
Mygind, H. 1921. “Hygienische Verhältnisse im alten Pompeji,” Janus 25, 251-81, 324–85.Google Scholar
National Association of Bath Superintendents 1961. Modern baths and laundries (London).Google Scholar
Neudecker, R. 1994. Die Pracht der Latrine (Munich).Google Scholar
Nielsen, I. and Schiøler, T. 1980. “The water system in the Baths of Mithras at Ostia,” ARID 9, 149–59.Google Scholar
Nielsen, I. 1990. Thermae et balnea. The architecture and cultural history of Roman public baths (Aarhus).Google Scholar
Nissen, H. 1877. Pompeianische Studien zur Stadtkunde des Altertums (Leipzig).Google Scholar
Koloski-Ostrow, A. O. 1996. “Finding social meaning in the public latrines of Pompeii,” in de Haan, N. and Jansen, G. (edd.), Cura aquarum in Campania (Leiden) 79–86.Google Scholar
Overbeck, J. 1875. Pompeji in seinen Gebäuden, Alterthümern und Kunstwerken (Leipzig).Google Scholar
Pietrogrande, A. L. 1976. Le fulloniche (Scavi di Ostia 8, Rome).Google Scholar
Pugliese Carratelli, G. (ed.) 1990–1999. Pompei: pitture e mosaici (Rome).Google Scholar
Purcell, N. 1994. “The city of Roman and the plebs urbana in the late Republic,” in CAH IX (2nd ed., Cambridge) 644–88.Google Scholar
Reimers, P. 1989. ” Opus omnium dictu maximum: literary sources for the knowledge of Roman city drainage,” ORom 17, 137–41.Google Scholar
Reinhold, M. 1970. History of purple as a status symbol in antiquity (Bruxelles).Google Scholar
Reininger, W. 1939. “The Florentine textile industry of the Middle Ages,” Ciba Rev 27, 960–63.Google Scholar
Robaye, R. 1991. “Le foulon et le bijoutier à Rome: les risques du métier,” Revue Belge de Philologie et d'histoire 69, 1, 131–36.Google Scholar
Robertson, R. H. S. 1986. Fuller's earth: a history of calcium montmorillonite (Hythe).Google Scholar
Salvato, J. A. 1958. Environmental sanitation (New York).Google Scholar
Schaefer, G. 1947. “Some old-fashioned ways of cleaning textiles,” Ciba Rev 56, 2034–37.Google Scholar
Scobie, A. 1986. “Slums, sanitation and mortality in the Roman world,” Klio 68, 399–433.Google Scholar
Scott, E. 1931–1932. “Early cloth fulling and its machinery,” Trans. Newcomen Society 21, 31–52.Google Scholar
Sebesta, J. and Bonfante, L. 1993. The world of Roman costume (Madison).Google Scholar
Singer, C. et al. (edd.) 1956. A History of Technology (Oxford).Google Scholar
Sogliano, A. 1874. Giornale degli Scavi di Pompei (Napoli).Google Scholar
Sordes urbis: la eliminación de residuos en la ciudad romana (Rome 2000).Google Scholar
Spinazzola, V. 1953. Pompei alla luce degli scavi nuovi di via dell'Abbondanza: vol. 2 (Rome).Google Scholar
Squassi, F. 1954. L'arte idro-sanitaria degli antichi: epoche preromana e romana (Tolentino).Google Scholar
Squatriti, P. 1998. Water and society in early medieval Italy (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Stalybrass, P. and White, A. 1986. “The sewer, the gaze and the contaminating touch,” in The politics and poetics of transgression (London) 125–48.Google Scholar
Steinby, M. 1993. Lexicon topographicum urbis Romae vol. 1 (Rome).Google Scholar
Stone, D.L., Stirling, L.M. and Lazreg, N. Ben 1998. “Suburban land-use and ceramic production around Leptiminus (Tunisia): interim report,” JRA 11, 304–17.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. E. 1952 “Chichester excavations, 1947-50,” Sussex Archaeological Collections 90, 164–220.Google Scholar
Uscatescu, A. 1994. Fullonicae y tinctoriae en el mundo Romano (Barcelona).Google Scholar
Uytven, R. 1971. “The fulling mill: dynamics of the revolution in industrial attitudes,” Acta Historiae Neerlandica 5, 1–14.Google Scholar
Van Essen, C. C. 1956. “Venus Cloacina,” Mnemosyne 9, 137–44.Google Scholar
Van Nijf, O. 1997. The civic world of professional associations in the Roman East (Amsterdam).Google Scholar
Vigarello, G. 1988. Concepts of cleanliness: changing attitudes in France since the Middle Ages (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Vishnia, R. 1987. “Caius Flaminius and the lex Metilia de fullonibus ,” Athenaeum n.s. 65, 527–34.Google Scholar
Wallace-Hadrill, A. 1994. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Princeton).Google Scholar
Waltzing, J.-P. 1895–1900. Etude historique sur les corporations professionelles chez les Romains depuis les origines jusqu' à la chute de l'Empire de l'Occident (Louvain).Google Scholar
White, K. D. 1970. Roman farming (London).Google Scholar
White, K. D. 1984. Greek and Roman technology (London).Google Scholar
Whitney, W. D. 1889–1891. The century dictionary: an encyclopaedic lexicon of the English language (New York).Google Scholar
Whittaker, C. R. 1995. “Do theories of the ancient city matter?” in Cornell, T. J. and Lomas, K. (edd.) Urban society in Roman Italy (London) 9–26.Google Scholar
Wild, J. P. 1968. “The Roma flax-hackle (aena),” Museum Helveticum 25, 139–42.Google Scholar
Wild, J. P. 1976. “Textiles,” in Strong, D. and Brown, D. (edd.) Roman crafts (London) 167–78.Google Scholar
Wild, J. P. 1992. “Colorator” Glotta 70, 96–99.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. 1999. “Commerce and industry in Roman Sabratha,” Libyan Studies 30, 29–52.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. 2001. “Timgad and textile production,” in Mattingly, D. J. and Salmon, J. (edd.) Economies beyond agriculture the classical world (London) 271–96.Google Scholar
Wipszycka, E. 1965. L'industrie textile dans l'Egypte romaine (Warsaw).Google Scholar
Yegül, F. 1992. Baths and bathing in classical antiquity (Cambridge, MA).Google Scholar