Reuse as a UrinalUrine Container
It is widely assumed by scholars that the Romans used closed ceramic vessels of various kinds as urinals, with the urine collected in these turned over to fullers, who employed it as a solvent in various dyeing and laundering operations (Callender 1965: 30-34; Robinson 1993: 121—2; Adam 1994: 325; Wilson 2001: 275; van der Werff 2003: 111), and there is a modest amount of literary and archaeological evidence that amphorae were sometimes employed for this purpose.
In the realm of literary evidence, there are two passages that appear to refer to this practice. The first, from Varro (Saturae menippeae 192.104) states: divitum amphoras Chias ad communem revocat matellam [he/she retrieves the Chian amphorae of the wealthy for use as a common chamber pot]. The other, from Macrobius (Saturnalia 3.15.15) states: dum eunt, nulla est in angiporto amphora, quam non impleant, quippe qui vesicam plenam vini habeant
- FigURE 6.4. Dressel 2-4 amphora from Villa Regina, near Pompeii, with top removed and hole cut in wall, perhaps to facilitate reuse as urinal/urine container. Second example of same class with top removed set in opening at top. De Caro 1994: tav. 6A.
[as they went along the alley they failed to find an amphora that men with bladders full of wine might fill].
Turning to archaeological evidence, Pompeii has produced two modified amphorae that may be vessels adapted to serve as urinals/urine containers. The more fully documented of the two comes from the Villa Regina. In this case, a Dressel 2-4 with its top removed and with an aperture cut in its upper wall was found leaning against the wall in a corner of the villa's disused kitchen (De Caro 1994: 186-7 no. 176, 189 Figure 48.176, tav. 6.a.) (Figure 6.4). The top of the vessel had been sawn off just above the level of its shoulder. The aperture cut in the upper wall measured 8 cm wide x 10 cm high, with its upper edge ca. 5 cm below the line along which the vessel's top had been sawn away, and would have stood between ca. 60 and 70 cm above the ground when the vessel was propped in an upright position. A second example of this same class, also sawn off at roughly the level of the shoulder and containing a white, powdery substance, probably lime, was found inserted in the vessel's mouth. De Caro, the excavator, not unreasonably suggested that the lower container had been modified to serve as a urinal.10 The second such container comes from the Casa del Fabbro (Regio 1, Insula 10, doorway 7). In this case, the excavation of the house's latrine uncovered an amphora of unspecified class with an unspecified portion of its top removed that contained traces of an unidentified organic substance (De Vos and DeVos 1982: 89). The inference that this vessel was employed as a urinal/urine container is strengthened somewhat by the fact that the house in which it was found lies next door to a fullonica [fulling establishment].
Elsewhere, the excavation of a building of uncertain nature, though perhaps a military storage facility, at Alphen aan den Rijn, in the Netherlands, may have produced evidence for the reuse of amphorae as urinals or urine containers (van der Werff 2003: 111). In this case, the building, dated to ca. a.d. 125, contained eight Dressel 20s that had either their tops or their bottoms removed. The compositional analysis of an incrustation on the wall of one of these vessels, found set into the building's floor, indicated that it contained calcium and phosphate. On the strength of this evidence van der Werff concluded that this container, and perhaps all eight, likely had been employed as urinals.
As noted in Section 5.1, examples of some classes of fish products' amphorae have fairly large apertures cut into their shoulders. Although it is possible that these containers were modified for reuse as urinals, it seems more likely that the apertures in question were made for the purpose of facilitating the removal of these containers' content.
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