The Hoxne (pronounced 'Hoxon') hoard is the richest find of treasure from Roman Britain. Consisting of over 15,000 gold and silver coins, and gold jewellery, the 1,600 year old hoard was discovered in 1992. On November 16th Eric Lawes was exploring an area of Suffolk, England with a metal detector, when he made one of the greatest discoveries of Roman archaeology in the country. He immediately reported the find and did not remove all the objects from the ground. This responsible conduct enabled the Suffolk Archaeological Unit to carry out a controlled excavation of the deposit, which greatly enhanced our understanding of the find.
This pepper pot is one of four from the Hoxne hoard. Alongside the approximately 15,000 coins were many other precious objects, buried for safety at a time when Britain was passing out of Roman control.
Pepper was first imported into the Roman world from India in the first century AD, but piperatoria, the special containers for this expensive spice, are very rare finds. This example takes the form of a hollow silver bust of a woman.
The pot has a disc in the base which could be turned to three positions, one closed, one with large openings to enable the pot to be filled with ground pepper, and a third which revealed groups of small holes for sprinkling.
