Hazel Moore Roman Now

Key discoveries included:

| Site | Year | Significance | |------|------|--------------| | | 1962 | First evidence of a purpose‑built hazelnut press, suggesting commercial processing. | | Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) | 1964 | Large storage pits containing thousands of charred hazelnut shells, indicating bulk importation. | | York (Eboracum) | 1967 | Pollen analysis revealed a sudden spike in Corylus pollen coincident with the construction of a new market district. | hazel moore roman

These findings were compiled in her magisterial volume Hazel in the Roman World (1971). The book combined meticulous site reports with vivid narrative, earning praise for its accessibility: “A work that reads like a detective story while delivering hard‑won scientific data,” wrote The Times Literary Supplement . Never content to keep her discoveries confined to academia, Moore Roman turned to television and popular publishing in the 1970s. She hosted a six‑episode BBC series, “The Roman Kitchen,” which aired in 1974 and brought the everyday diet of Roman soldiers and provincials into living rooms across Britain. Episodes highlighted dishes such as puls (a millet porridge) spiced with hazelnuts, and demonstrated ancient cooking techniques using replica Roman ovens. Key discoveries included: | Site | Year |

Her seminal 1958 article in The Journal of Roman Studies presented the first systematic analysis of hazelnut shells (Corylus avellana) recovered from a Roman villa at . By applying microscopic pollen analysis and carbon‑14 dating, she demonstrated that the hazelnut—once thought to be a native British staple—had been cultivated and processed in Roman contexts long before the traditionally accepted 1st‑century AD timeline. The paper ignited a paradigm shift: scholars began to view botanical remains not as mere kitchen waste but as active participants in empire‑wide economic and cultural exchange. Fieldwork: The “Roman Hazel” Project In the early 1960s, Moore Roman launched what would become her most celebrated field undertaking: the “Roman Hazel” project across southern England. Funded jointly by the Leverhulme Trust and the British Council, the project aimed to map the distribution of hazelnut cultivation sites and correlate them with known Roman roads, settlements, and trade hubs. | These findings were compiled in her magisterial