Glass containers and fluid identities: Unguentaria and social practice in Roman Britain

For the first time, this thesis presents a detailed study of Roman glass unguentaria from non-funerary contexts in Britain. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate Roman glass unguentaria systematically, to see what we might understand about their role in the construction of identities and the formation of social practices in Roman Britain. I used glass unguentaria as a proxy for the social practices implicit in their use, and it was possible to examine the emergence and extent of these behaviours in Britain. The dataset for this thesis is collated data from published Roman glass assemblages, mainly from the northeast and southeast of England.

The main finding of this study is that the consumption of unguentaria in Roman Britain seems to be a time-limited phenomenon that was restricted mainly to c. 60–125/150 CE. Before this period, unguentaria were limited to the large urban centres of Colchester and St. Albans. Rather than see the decline of unguentaria as an indicator of ‘failed Romanisation’ in Britain, it seems more nuanced and tenable to consider that they ceased to be a prominent part of the material culture ‘package’ which expressed urban and military identities in the second and third centuries CE - which they were in the first century CE in the north-western provinces. Unguentaria were marginally more common at sites in the South than those in the North.

I began an exploratory discussion of the various behaviours and elements of social practice in which unguentaria were likely involved, alongside a consideration of the sensory environments in which they were used. This research has highlighted the potential for unguentaria and Roman glass more broadly to address important research questions and points the way to future lines of research.