Rome's Mountain of Ancient Garbage

[@dysgeusia999]

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.

[@guardianbuilds9660]

toldinstone has renewed my love of Roman history. A true historian 😊

[@mm-dw2yh]

​@@geordiejones5618 Classical Numismatics?

[@justadildeau]

I'm there 😢​@@mm-dw2yh

[@averyshaw2142]

im only 20, but the older I get the more I find the anthological part of history infinitely more interesting than warfare

[@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.

[@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

[@Mr.Death101]

Obviously you're lying because there's pictures and giant boards that explain it everywhere around it.

[@biggbeefer]

@@Mr.Death101 I may have missed a sign if there was one but we walked right down Via Nicola Zabaglia to the Mercato Testaccio. Didn't see any signs. At the time I didn't know what Testaccio meant, but this video taught me that the market is named after the hill.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@adamwelch4336]

big olive oil never cleans up there messes!🤦

[@Fischjesicht]

Their*

[@MidnightatMidian]

Was that meant to be some kind of afro-american joke?? I don't get it.

[@adamwelch4336]

@@MidnightatMidian no i was comparing ancient Olive oil to modern oil industry so has nothing to do with African American or Africans in general

[@MidnightatMidian]

@@adamwelch4336 Well at least they didn't sold you aromatised cotton oil back then.. But I get it, olive oil business was always dirty somehow.

[@eljanrimsa5843]

@@MidnightatMidian Naive daisy! What do you think what they did to sell more of that expensive imported Spanish olive oil without having to import it?

[@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!

[@Jonathan_Doe_]

Seems like it’d be easy enough to find a way in and feign ignorance if you get caught.

[@SubTroppo]

@@Jonathan_Doe_ It was hot, it was lunch-time and I was with someone who was not that interested so...

[@oreodepup]

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

[@oreodepup]

@@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@kevinhouse7143]

Thanks for that great breakdown of the olive oil journey.

[@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. 😊

[@TravelingDude420]

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.

[@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.

[@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!

[@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!

[@petermoliner7250]

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

[@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.

[@axeldeblois3391]

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

[@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!

[@4ur3n]

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

[@RushWasABand]

5:31 there is no noticable amount of protein in olive oil

[@richdobbs6595]

@@WilliamSanderson86What amino acids does olive oil have? How do they exist except as trace contaminants?

[@DevinDTV]

​@@WilliamSanderson86amino acids are protein Olive oil is pure fat

[@entropyapathy]

@@WilliamSanderson86 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)

[@DevinDTV]

@@reeyees50 no

[@robstone9628]

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

[@Aeyekay0]

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

[@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.

[@jklm011]

In my parents home region in the center of portugal there is also some olive planting, before mechanization (perhaps up until the 60s) they were still using the log press mechanism! It's cool to know it's been like that since the romans. I have to add that the logs are much bigger than shown in the painting though... The ones I've seen are the size of entire trees. Perhaps things did evolve a bit from that time?

[@crwalker33]

Very much enjoy your videos! I am visiting Rome for the first time in a few weeks. Your videos have given me a good framework on where to go. Many thanks!

[@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...

[@I_am_nobody999]

@@g.g.1663 It has nothing to do with 'restoring nature' and everything to do with subjugating the people to the yolk of higher prices and fewer avenues for freedom. Farmers have always been traditionally conservative and independent and those are two things the EU despise.

[@choryferguson2196]

Fascinating. Thank you.

[@Veteran-Nurse]

Very good video.!😊 Thanks.

[@kirby282]

Really loved this video breakdown, so good!!

[@JayRappa]

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

[@wizzardofpaws2420]

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

[@Nagstersept109868]

that was a good one.

[@ianbray5946]

I was there yesterday mate. Always enjoy the area 👌

[@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.

[@eclecticx]

This was a superb presentation.

[@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.

[@RickLowrance]

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

[@Ghabeyki]

Fantastic and complete video, congratulations!

[@josephhargrove4319]

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

[@thomasfarley6052]

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

[@tom690]

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

[@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. 😊❤😊

[@jakegarvin7634]

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

[@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 ❤

[@chrisgrill6302]

I think it's an absolute outrage that we deliberately mash up all the garbage we dump in landfills by driving big machines with spiky metal wheels all over it. We leave future generations our waste and don't even have the decency to leave it intact.

[@Regsfoto]

"In a thousand years from now, future archeologists are going to be fascinated by our garbage, too lol." Indeed, and there will plenty of it for the to sift through still 10,000 years from now!

[@chrisgrill6302]

​@@RegsfotoJust one of our many crimes against humanity.

[@ryanmbira3968]

what a video, fantastic!

[@CDQTulbagh]

Great story!

[@brianantoniohuman]

Hanging in clubs burrowed into mt. Testaccio were some of my best times in Rome although hard as hell to catch a cab home

[@edgarsnake2857]

Outstanding video about some ancient garbage...with a story to tell. Thanks.

[@maxasaurus3008]

Bravo Doc! Great video!

[@Martial-Mat]

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?

[@TimothyWhittingtonYeOldeRufus]

Very cool. Thank you.

[@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!

[@nekononiaow]

The weight of the olive oil in those amphorae exceeded their weight several times over. I don't think there has been an era where the weight of the containers exceeded or even approached that of the content as this would make transport economically unviable.

[@bmetalfish3928]

If they could make plastic containers, plastic would break down by now. there are people older than the mass implementation of plastic alive and already plastic dissolving bacteria developed naturally.

[@johncreech6617]

I used to live in Southern Spain and still have family there that I visit yearly. I remember one field that had so much broken pottery that it seemed impossible to grow anything on it.

[@gracedixon125]

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

[@delphinazizumbo8674]

love tha show!!!

[@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.

[@albertseabra9226]

Amazing vídeo. We could almost see, smell and feel the Olive Oil!

[@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.

[@johnspizziri1919]

Excellent!!

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@wpjohn91]

I dont think it works that way

[@boxsterman77]

It’s not forested.

[@boxsterman77]

The pots haven’t broken down. And even if they did, clay is infamous for being inimical to plant life (it’s mostly silica) let alone forests. There are plenty of pictures on line that show the current state.

[@BobBrandon]

Very nice info!

[@appleplates]

I really enjoyed this storytelling style.

[@stevendesmond2685]

This is the secret to roman concrete. Adding an oil laden ceramic into concrete adds strength and repels water.

[@jefflanam]

My last night I stayed in the town of Fiumicino, near the airport. During the day, I walked to the site of Porto. You can still see the octagonal harbor, now called Lago Traiano, the lake of Trajan. There not a lot else there to see, though.

[@ProximaCentauri88]

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

[@conradnelson5283]

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

[@Jin-Ro]

I've got some in my living room in England. There's Roman Pottery everywhere in Rome.

[@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.

[@paoloviti6156]

Sorry that I'm writing only now but altrough I was living in Rome for about 8 years you can easily see the "Testaccio" coming or looking from certain directions especially crossing the Ponte Testaccio. I have been passing there many times but I have never visited this place. Really a shame I never visited this place! Thanks for sharing this very interesting video, when I will come back to Rome among other things to see I will do my best to visit this place hoping to take my 21 years old boy, thanks for sharing this very interesting video. I always knew they used amphora to carry oil or Garum but curiously I never knew that they using big amphora (?) that could hold over 70 lt!

[@Tysto]

This is fantastic. I’ve never heard of it before.

[@Rimpianto]

"Monte Testaccio" is the official name of the hill and it also gives the name to the surround neighbourhood "Testaccio". Roman people though often call the hill "Monte dei Cocci" which translate as " Rubbles Mountain" in Roman dialect.

[@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!

[@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....

[@alejandrofernandezalvarez2927]

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

[@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).

[@blacksage2375]

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

[@philipwatersdeaf]

Great video and great topic! I knew that there would be rubbish dumps in ancient Rome, but I didn't realise it was that much! Why didn't they just wash the amphorae in the river and then take it back to Spain to be reused? I suspect it would have costed more to do this, similar to the same reason why Coca Cola argues against reusing softdrink bottles!?

[@buzzyinurface]

3:25 is that Assassins Creed: Origins?! My favorite game

[@anthonyj7989]

You are wrong to say that Monte Testaccio is the world's largest ancient garbage tip. When the British arrived in Sydney Australia in 1788, the Aboriginal people had piled shell middens (garbage tip) 100 metres high and several hundred metres long all around the Sydney area with an age estimation of 3000 years (at the bottom). These shell middens were turned into cement, so the new arrivals to Sydney could build in stone. And there are still shell middens to be seen all around Australia. (The middens do contain other things, e.g. ash from fires and stone tools).

[@Tempestzzzz]

FANTASTIC!

[@joelwillems4081]

Reminds me of the beginning of "Moby Dick" where that harbor town's streets and yards are filled with broken shells.

[@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.

[@bobzeepl]

I moved to another city, with a view of a hill from by balcony. Not too high, maybe like 200m. Looked at it many times a day, without giving it a thought, but once I checked Google Maps to see what is it called, and the hill wasnt there. Turned out it was also a garbage dump, overgrown with vegetation.

[@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...

[@fernalicious]

Someday I'll see it.

[@ale_s45]

Wow I didn't know about that

[@pokefriend123]

The Ancient Romans perfectly summarizing my entire existance with a single monument. Our ancestors truly were magnicifent!

[@Sevenigma777]

3:00 Wow I didnt know mules had opposable thumbs! 😉

[@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.

[@catnhat1117]

Ancient Roman waste disposal: something I always wondered about.

[@RENATVS_IV]

So curious about that mountain

[@lucasa5363]

The intro music hits every time