Large Roman Spoon, Bronze

Roman Spoon

This spoon is an enlarged replica of a find from Augusta Raurica. The type with a pear-shaped bowl and trapezoidal intermediate piece is widespread and dates roughly between 50 A.D. and 250 A.D. The length is around 16.5 cm.

Even though there are hardly any spoons in the archaeological finds that correspond to our modern habits in terms of shape and size, my customers keep asking me about them, whether they want to present a recreated Roman dish at home in proper style, whether they don't want to reach into the stew authentically with their fingers at a Roman festival or whether museums offer cooking courses based on ancient recipes. It was the enquiry from a nearby Roman museum that tipped the scales in favour of making this spoon.

I used the model of an archaeological find from Augusta Raurica to enlarge the spoon proportionally to a size that is common today.

The bronze itself, from which the spoon is made, is harmless to health. However, food components such as sulphur, salts or acids can attack the material and form unhealthy reaction products with the metal of the spoon or impair the flavour. For this reason, I also offer a version with a food-safe tin-plated spoon, which makes the spoon more resistant.

Nevertheless, the legal notice also applies here:

This item is a historical prop that is produced in limited quantities and is therefore not certified for food contact.

For this reason, we must point this out: Prop - not certified for food contact.

Roman table culture

Roman table manners differed significantly from what we are used to today. Eating with the fingers was common, cutlery - and especially knives - was considered indecent at best. The food was chopped up in the kitchen for the finer company and, if necessary, distributed to the guests' plates with tongs or serving spoons. Soups were drunk straight from the bowl.

One exception is the small spoons called cochlearia, which were probably used to scrape snails out of their shells and eat them. 

This is why larger spoons, as we are used to today, are very rare in archaeological finds and are usually referred to as ligulae;