Quote of the Day: November 6, 2011

"Twenty-five million storage pots, a staggering number, were dumped here across three centuries. Most were used to ship olive oil—200 million gallons of it—from southern Spain to Rome, where urbanites put it on their food, washed with it, and burned it in their lamps. To stand on Monte Testaccio is to feel awe at what hungry humans can do. And this was just one of Rome’s artificial hills of garbage."

--Ian Morris, Why the West Rules--for Now

That's 2000 gallons a day--8000 liters, or 270000 ounces. For a population of Rome of 500,000, that's half an ounce of olive oil a day, or 125 calories of olive oil a day...