Rare Roman jug buried in 5th-century grave found almost intact in Moravia

Czech archaeologists have announced a remarkable discovery in south-eastern Moravia: an almost perfectly preserved Roman jug found in a 1,500-year-old grave. The vessel is thought to be several centuries older than the burial itself and survived even though the grave was robbed long ago.

The discovery was made in May during the construction of a cycle path near Nezamyslice, a small town just south of Olomouc. Archaeologists uncovered burials dating from several different periods, including the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Migration Period, when Germanic tribes moved across much of Europe.

It was in one of the latter graves that they found the Roman jug, says Pavel Fojtík of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Archaeology:

“Our preliminary assessment is that the grave dates from the 5th century AD. The jug itself is clearly older. It appears to have been made sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD in one of the Roman provinces, most likely in Pannonia or the Rhineland.”

Photo: History of the Institute for Archaeological Heritage

The find raises an obvious question. How did a vessel made hundreds of years earlier end up in a 5th-century grave? According to archaeologists, Roman luxury goods continued to circulate long after they had been produced and were prized by the Germanic peoples living beyond the Empire's borders.

“This type of pottery was highly prestigious. Roman provincial wares circulated across much of Europe for several centuries. By the Migration Period, the workshops that produced them had largely ceased to exist. People therefore valued older objects that still carried prestige and appeal. We believe that's what happened here.”

The jug itself is relatively small, holding no more than about one litre. Made from high-quality red pottery typical of Roman provincial workshops, it has been removed from the grave but has yet to undergo conservation work.

“Given its size, I would not think of it primarily as a water vessel. I would be more inclined to associate it with wine or perhaps oils. The vessel is now being examined at Palacký University in Olomouc, and with a bit of luck, specialists may find traces of wine stone that would confirm it once contained wine.”

Remarkably, the vessel survived even though the grave itself had already been robbed in antiquity, says Mr. Fojtík:

“The grave had been reopened. The human remains were completely disturbed, broken and scattered. Nothing remained in the grave except fragments of human bones and this ceramic vessel. The robbers were probably looking for objects made of gold and silver. The pottery was of no interest to them, which is why it remained in the grave.”

While archaeologists regularly uncover fragments of Roman pottery, finding a complete vessel like this is extremely unusual. According to Libor Fojtík, there may be only a handful of comparable discoveries in the Czech Republic.

Already several centuries old when it was placed in the grave, the jug is a reminder that the influence of Rome extended far beyond its borders and endured long after the Empire itself had begun to fade.