Amphora

A buff ware amphora (Dressel 2-4 type). This vessel would have contained fish sauce, a delicacy imported into Britain for use in savoury Roman dishes. A painted inscription on the neck of the amphora reads: LIQUAM / ANTIPOL / EXC / L TETTI AFRI / CANI / AFRI, which translates as: 'Lucius Tettius Africanus supplies the finest fish sauce, the product coming from Antipolis', modern day Antibes, southern France.

Africanus must have been a producer or shipper from the Mediterranean coast. The container was found lying on the foreshore of the Thames in Southwark. It was empty except for a few mackerel bones; the remains of the fish sauce.