In this talk, Caroline Cheung (2017 Fellow) discusses the importance of the largest type of pottery in the ancient world, dolia, for the Roman wine trade in her new book, Dolia: The Containers That Made Rome an Empire of Wine (2024), from Princeton University Press. Drawing on new archaeological discoveries and unpublished material, Cheung uncovers the industrial and technological developments, the wide variety of workers and skills, and the investments behind the Roman wine trade. As the trade expanded, potters developed new techniques to dolia for bulk fermentation, storage, and shipment. These containers not only determined the quantity of wine produced but also influenced its quality, becoming the backbone of the trade. As dolia swept across the Mediterranean and brought wine from the far reaches of the empire to the capital’s doorstep, these vessels also drove economic growth—from rural vineyards and ceramic workshops to the wine shops of Rome.

Cheung is assistant professor of classics at Princeton University. Her research primarily focuses on the history of the Roman Empire and draws on material and textual evidence to study the socioeconomic history of nonelites under Roman rule, ancient food and agriculture, craft production, and technology. She has participated in various archaeological projects in Italy and is currently the head of ceramics of the Tulane Pompeii I.14 Project. Cheung was the 2017 Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Rome Prize Fellow in ancient studies at the American Academy in Rome, where she worked on her doctoral dissertation that laid the groundwork for Dolia.