Cotta
About
This Atlantic coastal town south of Cap Spartel existed almost entirely to make garum, its salting vats sitting alongside an olive press, temple, bathhouse, and villa. Founded early in the 1st century CE under Roman rule, Cotta shipped its fish sauce across the Strait of Gibraltar to markets on both continents. By 117 CE the factory had operated for roughly a century, drawing on tuna runs passing the Moroccan Atlantic coast.
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.
In ancient writing
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.2
In his geographic catalog of Mauretania beyond the Pillars of Hercules, Pliny names Lixus and Cotte (Cotta) as two towns on the Atlantic coast.
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 →