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Caetaria (Portus Albus)
About
A fishing settlement called Caetaria on the Strait of Gibraltar took its very name from the salting vats, or cetariae, that anchored its economy. The surviving tanks, now preserved in a public park, cured fish caught in the same strait that fed Baelo Claudia's factories just up the coast. Spain declared the site a protected cultural asset in 2002.
What happened here
Rows of stone vats sunk into the ground beside the sea, and the smell reaches a long way inland. Small fish and the guts of larger ones are layered with salt and left in the sun for weeks; the liquid that separates off is drawn away as fish sauce and the residue is sold cheaply as paste. Grades run from a luxury sauce that costs more than good wine down to the version bought by everyone else. Tunny is netted in season from lookout towers on the headland, and the fishing, salting, potting and shipping all happen within a few hundred metres. Amphorae are stamped with the maker's name. Towns built on this are rich, and they are built downwind of themselves.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →