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Monte Testaccio

Ancient Roman buildings and structures in RomeAncient Roman potteryEconomy of ancient RomeHills of RomeRoman sites in Lazio
Rome R. XX Testaccio
Testaccio monte dei cocci 051204 12 13
Testaccio monte dei cocci 051204 12 13

Monte Testaccio ([ˈmonte teˈstattʃo]; alternatively spelled Monte Testaceo; also known as Monte dei cocci) is an artificial mound in Rome composed almost entirely of testae (Italian: cocci), fragments of broken ancient Roman pottery, nearly all discarded amphorae dating from the time of the Roman Empire, some of which were labelled with tituli picti. It is one of the largest spoil heaps found anywhere in the ancient world, covering an area of 2 hectares (4.9 acres) at its base and with a volume of approximately 580,000 cubic metres (760,000 cu yd), containing the remains of an estimated 53 million amphorae. It has a circumference of nearly a kilometre (0.6 mi) and stands 35 metres (115 ft) high, though it was probably considerably higher in ancient times. It stands a short distance away from the east bank of the River Tiber, near the Horrea Galbae where the state-controlled reserve of olive oil was stored in the late 2nd century AD. The mound later had both religious and military significance.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Monte Testaccio (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Monte Testaccio
Via Nicola Zabaglia, Rome Municipio Roma I

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N 41.875952 ° E 12.475694 °
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Monte Testaccio (Monte de' Cocci)

Via Nicola Zabaglia
00153 Rome, Municipio Roma I
Lazio, Italy
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Testaccio monte dei cocci 051204 12 13
Testaccio monte dei cocci 051204 12 13
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Horrea Galbae
Horrea Galbae

The Horrea Galbae were warehouses (horrea) in the southern part of ancient Rome, located between the southern end of the Aventine Hill and the waste dump of Monte Testaccio. They ran for a substantial distance, possibly extending as far as the Porta Ostiensis in the east and the Porticus Aemilia on the banks of the Tiber. The horrea were most likely built on the site of a suburban villa owned by the Sulpicii Galbae, a distinguished noble family of whom the 1st century AD Roman Emperor Galba was a member. (There are many alternative spellings of the name: Galbana, Galbiana, Galbes and so on.)The tomb of Servius Sulpicius Galba (probably the consul of 108 BC, rather than his better-known father of the same name) stood in front of the warehouse complex. It is not clear when the horrea were founded, but presumably it was some time after the tomb was built. The complex was probably originally known as the Horrea Sulpicia, after the nomen of the gens Sulpicia, but acquired its later name during the time of the emperor Galba.Archaeological excavations and the remains of the Forma Urbis Romae show that the Horrea Galbae comprised three long rectangular courtyards set out in parallel, each surrounded by colonnades or arcades of tabernae, with a single entrance positioned on the axis at a short end. They were used to store the annona publica (the public grain supply) as well as olive oil, wine, foodstuffs, clothing and even marble. The size of the Horrea Galbae was enormous, even by modern standards; the horrea contained 140 rooms on the ground floor alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square feet (21,000 m2).It is thought that Monte Testaccio, the giant mound of broken amphorae that lay behind the Horrea Galbae, was associated with the complex. Olive oil imported from far-away Baetica (in modern Spain) was emptied into bulk containers, probably in the horrea, and the original import vessels were smashed and dumped on Monte Testaccio. The scale of the imports can be judged by the fact that Monte Testaccio is estimated to contain the remains of at least 53 million olive oil amphorae, in which some 6 billion litres (1.58 billion gallons) of oil were imported.Little now remains of the Horrea Galbae. Walls and brickwork, dating probably from the 1st century AD, have been discovered by archaeologists along with large lead pipes bearing inscriptions from Hadrian's reign in the following century.

Angel of Grief
Angel of Grief

Angel of Grief or the Weeping Angel is an 1894 sculpture by William Wetmore Story for the grave of his wife Emelyn Story at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Its full title bestowed by the creator was The Angel of Grief Weeping Over the Dismantled Altar of Life.This was Story's last major work prior to his death, dying a year after his wife. The statue's creation was documented in an 1896 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine: according to this account, his wife's death so devastated Story that he lost interest in sculpture, but was inspired to create the monument by his children, who recommended it as a means of memorializing the woman. Unlike the typical angelic grave art, "this dramatic life-size winged figure speaks more of the pain of those left behind" by appearing "collapsed, weeping and draped over the tomb".The term is now used to describe multiple grave stones throughout the world erected in the style of the Story stone. A feature in The Guardian called the design "one of the most copied images in the world". Story himself wrote that "It represents the angel of Grief, in utter abandonment, throwing herself with drooping wings and hidden face over a funeral altar. It represents what I feel. It represents Prostration. Yet to do it helps me."Prominent replicas of the Angel of Grief sculpture include the Henry Lathrop monument, located in the Stanford University Arboretum. Lathrop was the brother of Jane Stanford, the co-founder of the university. The original replica was built in 1901, but was severely damaged in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, leading to its replacement in 1908. After years of neglect, the 1908 replacement was fully restored in 2001. Another example is the Cassard angel, erected around 1908 in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.The image has also been used in popular culture, such as in an album covers for The Tea Party's The Edges of Twilight (1995), Evanescence’s EP (1998) and Nightwish's Once (2004) and in the 2012 film The Woman in Black.