Alfares onubensesproducción y comercio cerámico en el occidente de la Baetica

Abstract

This work presents an updated overview of the process of presence and Romanization of Huelva, as it has involved the compilation, creation and revision of the first catalogue of Roman sites registered in the present province of Huelva with samples in its ceramic material register, describing more of 350 sites. The study and analysis of the extensive ceramic repertoire, as economic and chronological indicators, has allowed to deepen in different historical aspects, as the periodization of occupation of the same ones, the economic connection with the environment, the use of available resources, commercial relations short, medium and long range ... The database created is an exceptional tool for those lines of research focused on the commercial and distribution circuits of many of the defined repertoires. In this case, the main contributions have been focused on the definition of different pottery spaces of Roman times, distributed according to the fluvial currents that run through this area to the west of the Baetica, and that are present from high imperial period until the first half from the 6th century AD. It describes 32 pottery areas, analysed according to their historiography, preserved pottery structures (clay treatment area, ovens, drying area, ...), their production (common ceramics, lamps, building material, amphoras, ...) and its economic and commercial context from the documented ceramic register. In these workshops, the multiplicity of manufactures to which they were dedicated, not specialized in a single type of containers, but above all to a diversity of uses of the invoiced elements stands out. Although we can appreciate, the pre-eminence of the production of amphoras on the coast, containers of storage and conservation in the interior, and construction material in those linked to urban spaces. Within the amphoras, the high number of productions destined to the packaging of salted fish and sauces of fish, indicative of the disposition to the use of the fishing resources of the coast of western Andalusia stands out. Likewise, it is remarkable the continuity of this type of activities from the first century, until, at least, the sixth century AD, including the barely known economic activity developed in the third century AD. Indirectly, the manufacture of these containers also demonstrates the operation of a canning industry intended to supply local, regional, Mediterranean and Atlantic markets. Among the types represented, Beltrán IIB stands out for the first centuries and the Almagro 51C for the fourth and fifth centuries, since they are shown as the most recurrent. Together with the receptacles destined to fish products, we have represented specimens for the commercial production of vines. In addition, we must emphasize that they are the first fully Romanized forms that are produced in Huelva, confirming the importance of winemaking in the Tierra Llana for these dates. Equally significant is the practically absent manufacture of containers for oil packaging, which, for the moment, cannot be attributed to any of the workshops described. Although, in different territorial areas, the cultivation of olive groves and the storage of their fruits in dolía seems to be evidenced, so that these containers had to be acquired in one of the numerous pottery dedicated to these manufactures in the Guadalquivir Valley. The "typological revolution" in the Huelva potters entails the creation of new local repertories identified for the end of the 5th century and beginning of the 6th century AD. (Terrón 1, Terrón 2, Eucaliptal 1, Eucaliptal 2, Eucaliptal 3, Eucaliptal 4, Eucaliptal 5 and La Orden).