Rome's Mountain of Ancient Garbage

Rome's Monte Testaccio, the ancient world's largest garbage dump, is estimated to contain 53 million broken amphorae.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:17 Spanish olive groves
2:03 From olives to oil
3:47 The voyage to Portus
5:15 The emperor's oil
6:15 Up the Tiber
7:09 Romanis Magicae
8:02 The warehouse district
9:30 Monte Testaccio
11:12 Significance of a dump
11:46 Visiting Monte Testaccio

[@willbuzzerd8785]

I can’t wait for my upcoming family vacation to experience in person the wonders of THE MOUNTAIN OF ANCIENT GARBAGE

[@Jive33]

Same. I just booked my flight!

[@ecurewitz]

I so want to do that

[@syrehn7684]

its not special because its an ancient pile of garbage, its special because its a pile of ancient garbage!

[@michaelday4598]

Very good restaurant in the "hill". Book a walking tour though Testaccio there is also an excellent market.

[@craigbhill]

The single greatest town-within-a dumping ground I've seen is Garbage City on the outskirts of Cairo, which produces townhouses of great Coptic wealth tight alongside the mountains of a certain type of garbage I could not smell. You drive through its complex thoroughfares in a tuktuk, the only vehicles small enough to navigate its mountain ranges. Highly recommended. Generally NOT included in the guide books.

[@michaelmcnally9737]

Young me would not believe current me that a Roman garbage dump is more exciting than yet another description of the battle of Cannae

[@geordiejones5618]

That's how you know when you've gone deep down the Rome rabbit hole. I get so many niche topics in my algorithm. Have you gotten into coins yet? Lol.

[@112steinway]

Hey everyone, this is Matthew Blair. I write "Romanis Magicae" and wanted to extend a HUGE thank you to Dr. Ryan and the channel for helping us out again! I've been a fan of the channel for a while now, and it's an honor to be a part of it. We've put a lot of care and passion into this comic and we hope you can help us make the second issue a reality. We've got a lot of cool rewards and who knows, maybe Monte Testaccio will make an appearance in future issues :).

[@SchizoMelody]

The comic looks awesome

[@112steinway]

​@SchizoMelody Thank you! The art is by a gentleman by the name of Paul Peart Smith, who has done work for a lot of the big British comic book publishers and the colors are done by Eva de la Cruz, who has done coloring work for everyone. Also, we have covers from Charlie Gillespie, Charlie Adlard (who did the Walking Dead comic), and Sean Phillips. Hope you enjoy it!

[@neutronalchemist3241]

The sponsor placement in this video was spot on.

[@nunyabiznes33]

I can already imagine some titanoboa slithering through it.

[@112steinway]

@nunyabiznes33 Also a good idea.

[@dj-kq4fz]

The amphora union really controlled the "single use only" narrative. The dump is amazingly similar (despite it being only one product) to landfills today, isn't it! Thanks!

[@lkrnpk]

Amphora buyer in Spain “They will be recycled when they arrive in Rome I hope” Amphora maker union “Sure, 100%. They are making a mountain with a beautiful view out of them”

[@dj-kq4fz]

@@lkrnpk Nice!

[@SECONDQUEST]

Just like all garbage dumps. It's uninformed to assume this is only similar to modern day. Trash has to go somewhere for every civilization

[@SECONDQUEST]

​@@lkrnpkyou sound either 100 years old or a psiop. Thanks goodbye.

[@dj-kq4fz]

@@SECONDQUEST Modern day is the only one I have lived in. Sorry.

[@biggbeefer]

I was JUST visiting the large market right next to this hill on my trip to Rome and I was actually wondering what this hill was. I found it odd that there was a big hilltop in Rome with nothing on top of it. Then you drop this video, about this very hill, just a cool moment of the stars aligning

[@69waveydavey]

You still find giant amphora around rural areas of Spain and Portugal, I know they still used them to hold/carry water into the 1960's/70's. As to the age of some of them, it's hard to tell, the potters carried on making the classic shapes until recently.

[@Breakfast_of_Champions]

These antique amphorae were still more than a thousand years before the introduction of glazed stoneware in Europe. Like wineskins they were only sealed with resins that didn't last much longer than the one journey.

[@liamnacinovich8232]

Funny how some things never change. On Long Island we have ‘Merrick Mountain’ which is one the highest ‘peaks’ of our south shore and it’s a man made trash heap which we dubbed a ‘mountain’

[@impguardwarhamer]

what long island?

[@xBINARYGODx]

@@impguardwarhamer that was so lame, I think it gave my neighbor's cat anus-cancer

[@xBINARYGODx]

@OP "By the end of 2024, the Brookhaven Landfill will stop accepting thousands of tons of construction and demolition debris, which is the majority of waste dumped there. Long Island will need to find alternative solutions for materials like bricks, concrete, and storm debris. The landfill is expected to remain open until completely filled, as per New York State engineers and space limitations. The town of Brookhaven plans to stop accepting C&D waste at the landfill by the end of 2024 and anticipates running out of capacity for ash within two years after that."

[@Traderjoe]

I’m from Long Island too. But never heard of this. I’ll have to look into it

[@liamnacinovich8232]

@@Traderjoe it’s kinda cool I used to run the for cross country… if you’re in the south shore on Long Island I’d say it’s worth a visit but there’s so many sites to see on this island you’d be forgiven for checking out some of our other beautiful parks

[@jamesmoore4023]

I live in Cayman and we have Mount Trashmore here. Headed to Rome this fall and look forward to sharing this knowledge with my wife.

[@princecharon]

It seems like most places in America that have a large enough landfill call it 'Mount Trashmore.'

[@jamesmoore4023]

@@princecharon there's a lot of American influence so that makes sense.

[@HighWealder]

The Forum itself looks like a dump.

[@RushWasABand]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="331">5:31</a> there is no noticable amount of protein in olive oil

[@WilliamSanderson-zh9dq]

True, but it has lots of essential amino acids important to the diet of the place and time. I think it’s a mistake, but it’s not totally wrong.

[@richdobbs6595]

@@WilliamSanderson-zh9dqWhat amino acids does olive oil have? How do they exist except as trace contaminants?

[@DevinDTV]

​@@WilliamSanderson-zh9dqamino acids are protein Olive oil is pure fat

[@entropyapathy]

@@WilliamSanderson-zh9dq Why spout nonsense when the nutritional content can easily be looked up? It has no protein and no amino acids.

[@reeyees50]

Olive oil+ bread= simple protein (bean stew like)

[@kevinhouse7143]

Thanks for that great breakdown of the olive oil journey.

[@SubTroppo]

I am amazed that the hill is not freely open to tourists on a daily basis, and I didn't bother to make the phone call for the "if & when" guided tour . Instead I made do with an excellent lunch in a restaurant cut into the base of the hill, where through glass doors at the back one can see the stacked fragments. On request, the staff opened a glass door, and a cool breeze wafted in from the hill. Magical!

[@CalledTurnAGundam]

You know people relished hucking pottery on to the pile and getting that satisfying shattering sound.

[@KanyeKetchup]

Yea bruh !!!

[@MariaMartinez-researcher]

For a Chilean, Testaccio has a very special meaning. We have a famous musical piece called "El Mercado de Testaccio" - Testaccio Market. The folk music group Inti Illimani was touring when the 1973 coup happened. Knowing of the artists that had been imprisoned or murdered, they stayed in Europe, settling in Italy until 1988, when they could come back. You can find the song in KZbin. The channel barcata has an old video recorded in situ. The channel ChileVuelve has a 1982 version recorded on Swiss TV, where all the instruments can be seen.

[@Elephantine999]

Loved this one. Emperors and legions and gladiators are all very well, but a look at everyday life and commerce--and garbage dumps--is fascinating, too.

[@adamwelch4336]

big olive oil never cleans up there messes!🤦

[@Fischjesicht]

Their*

[@patrickdoak7813]

You can see them in a restaurant built into this called Flavio al Velavevodetto in Testaccio. Pretty neat and a really good place to eat too!

[@michaelday4598]

Really good place to eat.🍞🧀🍝🍷

[@nudan77]

Yes! I kept thinking of this place the whole time watching the video. 😊

[@Perebynis]

Great Video again! For over one century, my home town had a flourishing porcelain industry. The steepest slope and tallest hill in the city still belongs to a trash heap that completely is made of "broken china": cracked plates and cups that didn´t survive the burning process, rejects, damaged forms, dummies etc. Nowadays it´s completely covered by trees and bushes. By sight you would not guess it´s origin.

[@gracedixon125]

i think about this stuff every time i put a bunch of strange things in the garbage

[@StrikeEagle784]

As someone who was a university student of archaeology, I always get excited by garbage and garbage dumps. There’s so much we can learn about the past from the garbage they leave behind. In a thousand years from now, future archeologists are going to be fascinated by our garbage, too lol. Wonderful video as always ❤

[@Avraham420]

I love how you build the story to explain why Monte Testaccio exists. You have always been an entertainingly informative channel. I really appreciate your work.

[@axeldeblois3391]

This guy is so good. This is the type of content history lovers die for.

[@4ur3n]

that clears up why I saw so many weird stones piled up like that, during my early years around the Mediterranean

[@leoquesto9183]

Bravo. Roman organizational structures - societal, governance, architecture, military - have long been a source of fascination for me, their solutions for refuse, included. I often heard about Monte Testaccio in childhood. This is a very good overview.

[@johnkeck]

Garrett, it amazes me how you keep coming up with fascinating topics to explore the realities of life in ancient Rome. Keep up the great work!

[@zeedub8560]

I had recently heard of Monte Testaccio, probably on another Roman channel, but I had never heard of Porto. I jumped right into Google Maps to have a look and there is the perfectly hexagonal lake that I'd never noticed when zooming in on the ruins of Ostia. Everything I learn about ancient Rome just increases my awareness of my ignorance. Which is great. I never want to think that there's nothing else to learn.

[@tom690]

In Virginia there is a hill/park named 'Mt.Trashmore' that used to be a landfill

[@Nagstersept109868]

that was a good one.

[@Maldunn]

I just finished listening to your second book on audiobook yesterday. It was really good and was perfect to listen to as I commuted to and from work this week. Looking forward to more videos and your next book, thanks!

[@JayRappa]

Very interesting to see such a busy industry within classical antiquity had such a problem to contend with.

[@HristoUzunov]

I really love how you explained the whole journey and its context in this video. One of my favorite videos in this channel, and I almost missed it because I already knew about the hill's origins. 😅 Glad to learn much more.

[@petervanackeren5227]

Visited the site some 6-7 years ago... the excellent info in this video would have added a lot of value and context to that particular trip.

[@sforza209]

It’s hard to imagine how shipping goods back then was nothing like modern times. The weight of the load was almost entirely made up of the container to hold the contents. Just imagine if the Romans had figured out how to make plastic lightweight containers!

[@jtd8719]

An appropriate video in my feed - I'm currently reading David Gibbins' 'A History of the world in Twelve Shipwrecks' and just finished the chapter covering a wreck from the period circa the reign of Severus that was carrying a cargo of (among other items) oil amphorae - likely to Rome, in which I learned that this heap existed. Probably a good thing for archaeology that nobody found a use for all the oil amphorae scraps as we can now better understand the history of olive oil importation into Rome.

[@matbroomfield]

Just finished your second book. Enjoyed most of it. It was a lot more statistical than the first with contrasting wild flights of whimsy. I hope that you will find a middle ground for your third book. You ARE writing a third book aren't you Garrett?

[@Aeyekay0]

Well, who knew a garbage dump could be so interesting. Cool video, good work

[@robstone9628]

This is one of your best videos yet! thank you.

[@a24-45]

toldinstone videos are always interesting...but this has to be the best ever! love this content, about what I REALLY want to know about the ancient world!

[@RickLowrance]

Really interesting subject. I did not know that dump existed.

[@petermoliner7250]

What a wonderful captivating presentation! As entertaining as each book chapter you’ve written!

[@kirby282]

Really loved this video breakdown, so good!!

[@maxasaurus3008]

Bravo Doc! Great video!

[@Veteran-Nurse]

Very good video.!😊 Thanks.

[@wizzardofpaws2420]

Excellent! I'm just glad things like this exist for us today.

[@choryferguson2196]

Fascinating. Thank you.

[@ianbray5946]

I was there yesterday mate. Always enjoy the area 👌

[@Carlton-B]

I was hoping you would cover Monte Testaccio. It's one of the places I would see if I ever visited Rome.

[@thomasfarley6052]

This was so interesting, thanks so much for this video.

[@justarando8290]

Great video, but I'm confused about the olive oil having protein. Was their olive oil different from ours or is this a mistake? Thanks

[@lkrnpk]

mistake I believe

[@thomaseriksen6885]

Better to cook in ducks fat either way

[@galaxyspace76]

he's probably right though the ancient stuff was probably a lot more crude than today's, or at least the stuff for commoners, but I'm just guessing here I haven't looked into it

[@spencer4732]

very interesting! reduce, reuse, recycle (unless covered in oil)

[@LookingforRomans]

Great video. Can wait to see the garbage dump this fall that I missed last visit.

[@professorsogol5824]

I appreciate your discussions of the lesser known elements that were essential to Roman society and culture. Were there no locks on the Tiber to help move barges up and down between the city and the port? Wikipedia says locks were known to Ptolemy in 273 BC. Another potential topic: the breeding and use of mules to support transportation of goods and armies in the classical world.

[@toldinstone]

Glad to hear it! No, there were no locks on the Tiber. The river floods too frequently to make that sort of infrastructure practical.

[@chrigdichein]

Now that was an interesting journey again 😀

[@darylwilliams7883]

Coming from a part of the world where a building that's been around for a century is considered 'old', this story just blows me away....

[@ProximaCentauri88]

I love stories like this of seemingly mundane places that actually have symbolic significance once their origins are unearthed.

[@appleplates]

I really enjoyed this storytelling style.

[@jakegarvin7634]

OH MY GOD THANK YOU FOR DOING AN EPISODE ON MONTE TESTACCIO

[@johnspizziri1919]

Excellent!!

[@alejandrofernandezalvarez2927]

Greetings from Andalucía, the land of olive oil. Keep up the good work!

[@TimothyWhittingtonYeOldeRufus]

Very cool. Thank you.

[@robot4jarvis836]

It's interesting to see how, after 2000 years, the region in Spain that produces most of the olive oil in the world is still the same!

[@g.g.1663]

Here from the Baetica. Now in Europe there is an strange European Commission objective that says nature must be restored. So a 30% of the agricultural land must be abandoned in 2030! They are also removing water reservoirs/dams. And olive oil price has soared the last year! People doesn't like that...

[@ryanmbira3968]

what a video, fantastic!

[@markstott6689]

I've known about Monte Testacchio for a good few years. Rachel Roddy has a food column in The Guardian newspaper, which I read every Monday. Where she lives with her husband and son is close by to the crockery mountain. It's featured many a time along with snippets about the local area. It's great to see what the area looks like and its history. 😊❤😊

[@inmodulo]

Did you try the restaurants at the bottom. Most amazing use of the "other" cuts of meat I have ever tried

[@toldinstone]

I got an offal sandwich at the nearby market, and it was fantastic.

[@blacksage2375]

Finally something to head my "must see in Rome" list.

[@CDQTulbagh]

Great story!

[@gregoryferraro7379]

Imagine archeologists 1000 years from now digging in our modern dumps. There would be so much plastic, still in recognizable shapes. And old Nokia phones, of course.

[@mistermonsieur2924]

My house in the country has a barely visible path going around a fifth of a mile into the woods, where people from 1880 until 1950 used to dump their garbage. Most of the garbage was brass makeup compacts, glass bottles, and tinned food cans. The glass survives, some of it fully intact and recognizable, the compacts survive, but the cans and paint cans are fully degraded in situ. You can tell what they were, and where they laid. We would dig lightly with sticks after every heavy rain and let nature keep washing the piles. Got more intact bottles this way.

[@josephhargrove4319]

Thanks for your succinct account of the eighth hill of Rome. richard --

[@delphinazizumbo8674]

love tha show!!!

[@Tempestzzzz]

FANTASTIC!

[@elliottferris5929]

When I was kid that was one of my favorites places..my middle school it is just right in front..not to mention the Non-Catholics cemetery where I work today.

[@conradnelson5283]

That was very detailed and very interesting. The Romans were very organized. As were all that served them.

[@13garage._]

2000 years later - and we still throw away stuff in piles, that wasted resource and man power instead of reusing it 🤧 will we ever evolve and become smarter ???.....

[@lucasa5363]

The intro music hits every time

[@ale_s45]

Wow I didn't know about that

[@RENATVS_IV]

So curious about that mountain

[@nanky432]

You know it’s likely the entire hill is forested now not just because the clay pots broke down into clay soil, but also because of all the mule crap that loitered on the ground for decades. When you combined that with local birds dropping seeds on the ground and wind moving seeds across the surface, you literally find the hill itself is not just an historical wonder but also a ecological symbol of the life cycles of nature.

[@HighWealder]

Amphora are made of earthenware, which is normally porous. So how could it contain oil and wine ?

[@nunyabiznes33]

From what I read, the oil in the amphorae react with the lime in concrete to produce soap, so yeah can't be reused for construction. I suppose it's just not economical to clean them (they're likely unglazed).

[@buzzyinurface]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="205">3:25</a> is that Assassins Creed: Origins?! My favorite game

[@luigidisanpietro3720]

Question: Was there a considerable amount of air pollution in Rome during its peak in as much as firewood was used as fuel?

[@toldinstone]

We assume so, though of course there's no way to quantify how dirty the air was.

[@luigidisanpietro3720]

​@@toldinstone Thank you very much, I really like your work Dr. Your topics are very interesting.👍

[@luigidisanpietro3720]

​@@toldinstone I just wondered if there were instances like that of "the Great Smog of London" during the Roman Period causing a spike of respiratory illnesses amongst citizens...

[@cougar2013]

The spiritual brother channel of History for Granite somehow

[@catnhat1117]

Ancient Roman waste disposal: something I always wondered about.

[@hellboy7424]

The strong syllable, the accent, in the word "Córdoba" is on the first syllable: [CÓRdoba]. In case anyone is interested.

[@MiciusPorcius]

An old desire to play Caesar iv has reemerged

[@craigbhill]

A beautiful essay ending on a sabi-wabi wistful note.

[@paperclip9558]

Man its weird, but I want to see how ancient landfill looks like 🤣

[@FranssensM]

That was really interesting. Was the site used as a dump for general waste as well? It would be worth excavating if it was. If it was just used amphora where was the city dump? So much to learn from what the ancient people discarded.

[@fernalicious]

Someday I'll see it.

[@mikki3961]

My cousin asked if he could take a shard, everyone thought that was an odd request.

[@ltbrowne]

I always found Monte Testaccio fascinating and had a walk there on my last trip to Rome. Unfortunately it seemed to be closed at the time so we couldn't get on there but you could still see many areas where the broken amphorae were visible through the fence. I wonder how many are there?

[@toldinstone]

Estimates vary; the figure I've seen cited most often is 53 million amphorae

[@ltbrowne]

@@toldinstone thanks for the response. Big fan of your content, would love to join you on one of your excursions one day!

[@sawahtb]

It's similar to a midden, except it seems to be strictly clay amphora. I'm imagining it would be impossible to build on because of drainage issues, and it stank for a long time. Is there any remaining odor? Where I live land fills are created and then covered over. It's sill not land that can be built on, too much gas and again, you can't run sewer lines and drains.

[@toldinstone]

There's no odor now, though a faint whiff of oil might linger deep inside the dump.

[@pierren___]

Have you heard about the mount of pots in Alexandria that is rumoured to be next to Alexander tomb ?

[@zenosAnalytic]

what a cool story.

[@ArbitraryArbiter]

The trash mountain is definitely my fave rome fact

[@thomasechols8834]

Skara Brae was built into a midden heap which is just another word for a garbage dump. Skara Brae was built and occupied around 3500 BC, and the midden heap took a long time itself to be made so that midden heap is older than 3500 BC, how is this roman garbage dump the oldest in the world when it is dated to about 200 BC?

[@RRRRRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH]

this makes me think of shellmounds/shell middens

[@nickshaffer8115]

I'm pretty sure the Song dynasty matched Ancient Rome in terms of consumption, not to mention the Ming and Qing

[@kaloarepo288]

The good thing about it is that this rubbish is relatively inert and not likely to create problems of toxicity and emissions further down the track, Our modern rubbish has lots of plastics in it and other non degradables and also emits methane. However, in the book called "The City in history" the writer talks about the vast amount of organic rubbish produced by the ancient Romans including the carcasses of slaughtered animals from the games, of executed people and all that and the smell of all this is still palpable in the pits and what have you in central Rome.

[@kaloarepo288]

The book in question is Lewis Mumford's "The City in History" and is about the evolution of all cities not just Rome.

[@abandoninplace2751]

People seem to love this hill. i'm sure it's much nicer now, with less slaves and no overwhelming rancidness.

[@elliottferris5929]

By the way , Do you happen to know the name and the author of the painting at 10'20"? I will much appreciate!