Recent major excavations in the Palatine East of Rome uncovered fragments from some 2,100 African cookware vessels which dated from c.AD 270-550. Although cooking pots are often overlooked in favour of finer tablewares, this study stresses the importance of the humble cooking pot as one of the most important inventions in the history of technology'. African cooking pots also reveal much about late Roman trade. Ikaheimo discusses the framework of the excavations, the fabrics of the vessels, most of which hailed from Tunisia, their varied forms, their production, place of origin and their...