This is an artificial hill formed between 140 BC and 250 AD exclusively by the fragments or potsherd (in Latin "testae" hence the name of Testaccio) of millions of amphorae used to transport goods that were unloaded from the ships in the nearby river port in the Roman Age. The hill has a base perimeter of about 3,330 feet and a height of 150 feet above the sea level. It constitutes an important source of historical documentation about the economic development of the Roman Empire, the commercial relations between the Capitol and its Provinces, as well as the food habits of the Romans. In fact many of the amphorae that came mainly from Baetica (current Andalusia) and Bizacena (North Africa) containing olive oil, have the trademark impressed on their handles, while others present the tituli picti, i.e. notes written with a brush that specify the name of the exporter, indications of the contents, and the controls performed during the shipment and the date. Calculations based onthe number of amphorae accumulated on Monte Testaccio allowed to establish the amount of oil that reached Rome in this period, which was of about 6 kg of oil per person per year, for a population of about one million persons.