Praia do Naso Salting Factory
About
On a narrow beach on the island of Arousa, Galician fishermen ran a salting works that left behind stone vats and rubble walls, now studied under the EU-funded Galtfish project on ancient Gallaecia. Pottery and glass recovered here date the operation across the first through early third centuries CE, squarely inside Trajan's Galicia. DNA extracted from the fish waste recently confirmed what the amphorae always implied: European sardines were the raw material, processed just steps from where they were caught. It sits within a dense cluster of Roman salteries ringing the Rías Baixas.
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
- Rodríguez Nóvoa et al., 'La factoría de salazón romana de Praia do Naso (Illa de Arousa, Pontevedra)', researchgate.net
- Cambridge, Antiquity journal, 'Roman Atlantic garum: DNA confirms sardine use...'
Nearby
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