1st-2nd century AD. A ceramic footed bowl with rounded rim, incised line to the equator, cursive inscription which is a simple recipe, mentioning bread and fish to be mixed or dressed with oil and wine, and to be used or served every Tuesday; the bowl was presumably intended and used for the preparation of this recipe, and the mentioning of ingredients makes sense as a reminder or as instruction to domestic staff not entirely familiar with the preparation: 'PANEM SARDINAS OLEI VINI (vacat) VNO(m) VAS AQ(u)ALE(?) / DIE MARTIS' which translates to: 'Bread, sardines, one water(?) bowl of oil (and) wine / on (every?) Tuesday’, or alternatively: 'Bread, sardines, of oil (and) wine; one water(?) bowl on (every?) Tuesday'. For reference to letter forms of Roman cursive in the 1st-2nd century refer to the standard handbook of E. Maunde Thompson, An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography, 1912, tables and samples on p.315-21. 559 grams, 17.5cm (6 3/4"). Property of a Middlesex gentleman; acquired in the 1980s. The M being left out in VNO(m) is a common spelling variant for VNVM and is common in graffiti e.g. from Pompeii, as the final M was already not pronounced anyway at this time, as in modern French and Italian. The reading seems certain but for AQ(u)ALE: the presumed Q looks like no other letter, but is not close to a normal cursive Q either, one must therefore presume that it was mis-written; there is no other Q in the inscription with which to compare it; also, if a Q, one must presume that the next letter V/U was left out (plausible enough, as Q was never used without V/U anyway on the other hand"). On the other hand, I cannot make sense of any other possible reading here. The shape of letter R is very different in SARDINAS compared to MARTIS, yet both readings must count as certain. Latin sarda or (as here) sardina was a small fish pickled or salted, possibly our sardine, but cut probably be used for any small fish thus prepared or conserved.