Boundless delights for the palate.

Whether turnip, onion or celery, apple, pear or cherry and chicken: the Romans carried today's familiar vegetables, fruit and poultry into the provinces of their empire for the first time. In the Germanic provinces, Roman estates ensured the supply of the military camps, towns and villages. Of course, the Romans living far from home did not forego the usual pleasures in this country either - and so olive oil, fish sauce and wine, figs, dates and peppercorns reached the northwest of the empire as luxurious imported goods.

Using the example of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne) and its environs, the exhibition traced the culinary Romanization of a region - from cultivation to feasting: local and Mediterranean culinary habits combined to create a culinary delight that was "boundless" in both senses of the word.

In the exhibition, however, not only civilian but also military life was illuminated. What was the diet of the soldiers like, who were required to perform at a high level of physical exertion?
The exhibition, which was developed in cooperation with the Laboratory for Archaeobotany at the University of Cologne, showed that a refined eating culture was already established in the Lower Rhine 2000 years ago. Not only recently excavated finds from the LVR Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments and antiquities from the LVR State Museum in Bonn and the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne, but also new archaeobotanical research results provided exciting insights into the eating culture of 2000 years ago. To ensure that the senses were not neglected, there was plenty for young and old to touch, try out, see and hear.