Fish Processing in Italy and Sicily During Antiquity

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(1)Fish Processing in Italy and Sicily During Antiquity Emmanuel Botte. To cite this version: Emmanuel Botte. Fish Processing in Italy and Sicily During Antiquity. Journal of Maritime Archaeology, Springer Verlag (Germany), 2018, 13 (3), pp.377-387. �hal-01944327�. HAL Id: hal-01944327 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01944327 Submitted on 12 Dec 2018. HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers.. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés..

(2) Fish Processing in Italy and Sicily During Antiquity. Emmanuel Botte. Journal of Maritime Archaeology ISSN 1557-2285 Volume 13 Number 3 J Mari Arch (2018) 13:377-387 DOI 10.1007/s11457-018-9214-2. 1 23.

(3) Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to selfarchive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”.. 1 23.

(4) Author's personal copy Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11457-018-9214-2 ORIGINAL PAPER. Fish Processing in Italy and Sicily During Antiquity Emmanuel Botte1 Published online: 15 November 2018 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018. Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a short overview of the production and trade in marine resources in Italy and Sicily during Antiquity. As the results of this research have already been published in detail elsewhere, the aim of this short contribution is to summarise the most important data and to highlight some of the research questions that remain unsolved. The paper follows a chronological order, from the pre-Roman period to the 2nd century AD, as well as a geographical one, starting with Sicily, moving on to Magna Grecia in what is now southern Italy and then moving on to the rest of Italy. A major consideration, highlighted here, is that in many cases we are dealing with data from old excavations and precise archaeological information is rarely available. Keywords Salting vats · Amphorae · Salted fish · Sicily · Magna Grecia · Italy. State of the Current Research on the Pre‑Roman Period in Sicily1 There is archaeological evidence for a minimum of six fish-salting factories in Sicily dating from the period prior to the defeat of the Carthaginian fleet against the Romans, at the end of the First Punic War in the 3rd century BC (Fig. 1). They are mainly concentrated in two areas, on the north-western and on the south-eastern coast of the island, both areas with high fishing potential, where local fishing traditions developed. Indeed, these traditions never really stopped; Sicily was well known for its fishing at least until the middle of the 20th century. The particular significance of these installations lies in the fact that they are located on the two sides of the island which were culturally and politically different before the Roman conquest, the western part being under Punic influence while the eastern part was under Greek rule. It is particularly interesting to note that the fish salting factories differ in their spatial organization even though they functioned within the same chronological timeframe, originating in the 4th century BC. 1. The following discussion is presented in detail in Botte (2009), where an extensive bibliography can be found. Here bibliographic references are only indicative, aiming to emphasise certain topics, or they refer to publications that appeared after 2009. * Emmanuel Botte botte@mmsh.univ‑aix.fr 1. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CCJ, Aix‑en‑Provence, France. 13. Vol.:(0123456789).

(5) Author's personal copy 378. Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. Fig. 1 Maps of sites in Sicily mentioned in the text (© Botte). The main difference between the two areas with regard to the salting installations is that the Punic factories have quadrangular vats, as can be seen at San Vito lo Capo (Fig. 2) or at Isola delle Femmine, while the Greek ones are circular in plan, with a truncated section, as can be seen at Vendicari and Portopalo (Fig. 3). All the Punic factories that have been identified so far in the Mediterranean have quadrangular vats, with the notable exception of the earliest installations in Gadir (Bay of Cádiz) dating from the 5th century AD. It would appear that in the context of fish processing, circular vats are a specifically Greek feature.2 For this to be confirmed, they would need to be compared with those from other Greek factories but so far, apart from the Sicilian examples, none have been discovered. Apart from the vats, the presence of transport amphorae is a major marker for the production of processed fish products. Certain types of Punic amphorae are well-known for this specialised use, since there has been a considerable amount of research on this topic, some in recent years (Bechtold 2011; for a general overview of the Punic amphorae production see Ramon-Torres 1995). The same cannot be said for similar containers used on the Greek side of Sicily. One has to wonder why?3 Perhaps the level of production was not sufficient or significant enough to provide salted fish beyond what was needed to satisfy local demand, for which Syracuse must have been the main destination. It is possible that for those products destined for local markets, for example at Syracuse, non-ceramic containers such as baskets were used. These would leave no archaeological trace. For more distant trade, some other type of containers would be needed. We could hypothesise that. 2. For more details on this hypothesis see Botte (2016). It can be noted that Greek Sicily is not the only area where specialised containers for the trade of processed fish appear to be missing. See Bekker-Nielsen (2016) for the Black Sea; Lytle this volume for trade of Pontic fish in the Aegean in containers that are invisible archaeologically.. 3. 13.

(6) Author's personal copy Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. 379. Fig. 2 San Vito Lo Capo factory plan (Botte 2009: fig. 3–13). Fig. 3 Vendicari factory plan (Basile 1992: fig. 4). 13.

(7) Author's personal copy 380. Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. there was a locally produced imitation of the Punic repertoire, thus rendering these local vessels virtually invisible on morphological grounds. Petrographic analysis, undertaken on several examples of these types of amphorae, showed that they were produced in the Western part of the island. It is possible that a specific Greek amphora type was dedicated to the trade of fish products, but so far we have no evidence for that since no Greek amphorae carrying fish have been identified, even in shipwrecks. Did the producers put their product in Punic amphorae? If that was the case, it would mean firstly, that they did not consider their product important enough to require a specific container and secondly, that it would be impossible to demonstrate archaeologically. Finally, it is possible that containers other than amphorae were put to this use: coarse ware such as stamnoi or larger ceramic containers such as pithoi might be suitable. However, at present it is not possible to provide a definitive solution to the different hypotheses suggested here. Reading this synthesis on Pre-Roman Sicily, the reader may be surprised to see that almost nothing has been said about Magna Graecia. Although some ancient sources mention salted fish from this area, for example there is a quote by Euthydemus of Athens (ap. Ath, III, 116c) evoking the salted tuna of Tarentum transported in stamnoi, we do not have any archaeological evidence of a factory from this period. This is really all the more unfortunate because this being an area of Greek cultural influence, we could expect to find the circular vats that I have suggested were a specific feature of the Greek installations. Let us hope that future discoveries will improve our current state of knowledge and lead to promising advances in the field.. Production in Roman Sicily Several factories were built, reorganised or extended after the island passed under Roman domination. This is the case for the installations at Milazzo, Capo Pachino, Vendicari and Portopalo, but the best example is the complex of Cala Minnola on Levanzo island, west of Trapani. The Egadi islands, besides being part of a strategic archipelago during the First Punic War (Tusa and Royal 2012), were a perfect spot for tuna fishing and remained so until the middle of the 20th century.4 The site of Cala Minnola was discovered by a tourist in 1976, F. Bergonzoni, who published his find in the review Antiqua (Bergonzoni 1977), but the site was never really excavated and documented until 2014 (Botte et al. 2017). It can be concluded that the site has only one construction phase, with no subsequent modifications of the plan while the factory was active. Twenty-four vats were found neatly organised in a rectangular plan (28 × 7 m) (Fig. 4). The dimensions of the vats are quite homogenous (between 3 × 3.5 and 2 × 2.5 m), except for the southern vat (6.50 × 2 m). The organisation of the vats is similar to that of other factories in Spain dating from same period, for example in Almuñecar (Molina-Fajardo et al. 1983: 179–290). The chronology for the use of the factory at Levanzo (Fig. 4) is based on pottery dating. Its beginning is marked by the use of the Punic amphorae Ramon T.7.2.1.1. and T. 7.4.2.1, both produced during the first half of 2nd century BC. The end of production is dated by several fragments of African Red Slip (ARS), Hayes 8A and 9B, which were produced. 4 The investments of the Florio family in the Favignana island are the best illustration of the success of this economic endeavour (Lentini 1990, 2003).. 13.

(8) Author's personal copy 381. Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. trat subs eux roch. Levanzo, Cala Minnola (TP). MR 1. MR 18. 1. du poisson de Cala Minnola. 2 0. 5m. MR 2. 4. MR 3. 3. 6. MR 6. 5. MR 5. MR 4. 7. MR 19. 9. MR 9. 8. MR 8. MR 7. 10 MR 20. MR 12. 12. 13. MR 15. 11. MR 11. MR 10. 16. 14. MR 14. MR 13. 15. MR 16. 17. 22. 20. 21. 23. 24. MR 17. 18 MR 21. Fig. 4 Levanzo factory plan (Botte et al. 2017: fig. 5). during the second half of 2nd century AD. This suggests that the workshop was in use from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD.. 13.

(9) Author's personal copy 382. Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. Fig. 5 Tubular amphora (1: discovered in Corinth [Greece], from Bald-Romano 1994: pl. 27 n 70–71; 2: discovered in Maresha [Israel] drawing by G. Finkielsztejn). Roman containers used for the transport of salted fish are better known than their earlier counterparts (Botte 2013). These so called “tubular amphorae” (Fig. 5), were produced during the 2nd and 1st century BC, and were apparently produced for the oriental market. Indeed, these amphorae are mostly found in contexts in Greece including Crete, Turkey and Israel, often associated with Adriatic Lamboglia 2 wine amphorae. I think that we can consider that the tubular amphorae are secondary cargoes shipped with Lamboglia 2 amphorae over to the eastern Mediterranean, from Delos as a central place for redistribution, as the available evidence seems to demonstrate.. Production on the Tyrrhenian Coast of Italy from the 1st Century BC Onwards5 No fish factories on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy are securely attested before the 1st century BC. It has been proposed that in Pompeii vats used for fish processing have been identified as early as the 2nd century BC (Ellis 2011) but there are several problems with this interpretation that will not be discussed here.6 The reported installations are quite small. 5. For a general overview of the production and trade in this area see Botte (2017). The attribution of the Pompeian vats to fish processing (Ellis 2011) has been disputed and a paper dedicated to this issue is in preparation by the author in collaboration with N. Monteix and N. Garnier. 6. 13.

(10) Author's personal copy Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. 383. Fig. 6 Maps of sites in Central Italy mentioned in the text (© Botte). compared to those of other regions, especially those of Spain and the African shore, with a number of vats which never exceeds ten, as at the Tombolo della Feniglia (eight vats), Isola di Giannutri (7 vats currently recorded) or at the recently discovered site of Poggio del Molino (five vats currently recorded) (Fig. 6). Their spatial arrangement in a L- or Ushaped plan is similar to the larger ones from the provinces. Based on current documentation it appears that the Italian factories ceased production in the 2nd century AD. The containers used during this period are clearly the Dressel 21–22 amphorae (Fig. 7), which for a long time were believed to be dedicated to the transport of fruit (especially apples and cherries). I have amply demonstrated elsewhere that they were used for the trade of salted fish, mostly tuna (Botte 2009: 117–162). This proposal has been confirmed by the discovery at the Milazzo factory in Sicily of a large deposit with hundreds of fragments of Dressel 21 amphorae mixed with more than 500 fish bone fragments that were mostly of tuna Thunnus thynnus (Mangano 2009). So far, I have referred only to the production of salted fish and not of fish sauces (garum, liquamen, muria and allec). The reason is that, even though salted tuna is confirmed early on by several types of data, both literary and archaeological, there is still no evidence for the production and trade of fish sauces in Italy and Sicily prior to the 1st century AD. The situation changed during the Imperial period, when two different containers are known to have been used to carry fish sauces. The most famous is the Pompeian urceus (Fig. 8), a small ceramic bottle which was produced around the city to carry mostly garum and liquamen from several factories as indicated by the epigraphic evidence on them (Botte. 13.

(11) Author's personal copy 384. Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. Fig. 7 Dressel 21–22 amphorae (Botte 2009: fig. 4–45). 2009: 163–166). These ceramics are mainly known from Pompeii and the Vesuvian area, but there are also a few examples from harbour contexts in southern France which could have been sailors’ personal items (described below). The second type of fish sauce containers are known as “garum pots from Latium” (Fig. 9). Three production sites for these small coarseware pots have been identified around Rome, with a major period of production dated to the Flavian period (1st century AD). The discovery of 60 of these pots in a fluvial context at Arles in southern Gaul, many of which still contained traces of their original content, helped us to understand the nature of the product they were carrying (Djaoui et al. 2014). It was allec, which is a fish paste, and the ichthyological analysis showed it to be composed of a mix of mackerel (Scomber scombrus), shad (Alosa fallax) and sprat (Sprattus sprattus), with some anchovies (Engraulis encrasicolus). These pots appear to have been part of the sailors’ effects on board ship, and that is probably the reason why we only find them in harbour contexts, outside their region of production.. Production from the 2nd Century AD Although the function of fish factories on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy ceased in the 2nd century AD, this is not the case for the Sicilian factories, which continued to function until the 4th and 5th centuries AD. The production of the Dressel 21–22 amphorae, however, ended at the beginning of the 2nd century AD, and for that reason we may assume that a new container appeared on the market, which replaced the amphora. The barrel is a good. 13.

(12) Author's personal copy Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. 385. Fig. 8 The Pompeian urceus (Botte 2009: fig. 4–47). Fig. 9 The “garum pots from Latium” (Djaoui et al. 2014: fig. 2). 13.

(13) Author's personal copy 386. Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. candidate, offering convenience in terms of capacity and practicality.7 It is now commonly accepted that barrels replaced amphorae for the wine trade during the first half of 2nd century AD, and we could hypothesise that they were also used to transport salted fish products.. Conclusion Even in the short review presented in this paper, certain trends are evident. As the research stands currently, we have a clear overview of fish processing during the pre-Roman period in the Punic areas of Sicily. Several production sites are known and have been explored, and the repertoire of transport containers is well understood. By contrast, the situation is much less clear for the Greek areas of the island and even more so for Magna Grecia. In these regions, documenting the production of, and trade in, processed fish is rather challenging. On the one hand, relatively little research has focussed on fish processing installations and their material remains. On the other hand, significant changes in the configuration of coastlines since antiquity has led to formerly coastal features such as salting vats now being located up to several hundred meters inland, making any research difficult without the collaboration of geomorphologists. The Greek world is clearly the “poor relation” in this area of fish processing research. So it is clear that a number of open questions and hypotheses that have been summarily presented here can not be resolved unless new, interdisciplinary, targeted field research is undertaken.8 Acknowledgements I would like to thank to the reviewers of my contribution for their valuable feedback.. Compliance with Ethical Standards Conflict of interest The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.. References Bald-Romano I (1994) A Hellenistic deposit from Corinth. Evidence for interim period activity (146-44 B.C). Hesperia 63(1):57–104, pl. 14-32 Basile B (1992) Stabilimenti per la lavorazione del pesce lungo le coste siracusane: Vendicari et Portopalo. V Rassegna di Archeologia Subacquea, Giardini Naxos, 19–21 ottobre 1990, Messina, pp 55–86 Bechtold B (2011) Amphorae production in Punic Sicily (7th–3rd/2nd Centuries B.C.E.): an Overview. In: FACEM—provenance studies on fabrics of the central Mediterranean, electronic publication, version 06/06/2011. http://www.facem.at/project-papers.php. Accessed Nov 2018 Bekker-Nielsen T (2016) Ancient harvesting of marine resources from the Black Sea. In: Gertwagen R, Bekker-Nielsen T (eds) The inland seas: towards an ecohistory of the Mediterranean. Franz Steiner Publishers, Stuttgart, pp 287–307 Bergonzoni F (1977) Una industria romana nelle isole Egadi. Antiqua 7:26–31 Botte E (2009) Salaisons et sauces de poissons en Italie du sud et en Sicile durant l’Antiquité, Collection 31; Archéologie de l’artisanat antique 1. Centre Jean Bérard, Naples Botte E (2013) L’exportation du thon sicilien à l’époque tardo-républicaine. Mélanges de l’ École française de Rome-Antiquité 124(2):577–612. 7 8. For illustrations of typical barrels see Marlière and Torres Costa (2005) and Marlière (2002). For a similar conclusion see Mylona this volume.. 13.

(14) Author's personal copy Journal of Maritime Archaeology (2018) 13:377–387. 387. Botte E (2016) The exploitation of tuna in Greek Sicily during the classical and hellenistic periods: cultural transfer of Punic origin or technological innovation? In: Broekaert W, Nadeau R, Wilkins J (eds) Food, identity and cross-cultural exchange in the Ancient World, Collection Latomus, vol 354. Peeters, Leuven, pp 24–35 Botte E (2017) L’exploitation de la mer en Italie centrale tyrrhénienne (Étrurie et Latium): production et commerce durant l’Antiquité. Mélanges de l’ École française de Rome-Antiquité 129(2):475–521 Botte E, Tusa S, Chapelin G, Lemaire B, Boisson A (2017) L’installation de transformation du poisson de Levanzo (Sicile, Italie). In: Gonzalez-Villaescusa R, Schorle K, Rechin F, Gayet F (eds) L’exploitation des ressources maritimes de l’Antiquité. Activités productives et organisation des territoires, actes des XXXVIIe rencontres internationales d’archéologie et d’histoire d’Antibes & XIIe coll. Librairie archéologique, Bourgogne, Antibes, pp 273–284 Djaoui D, Piquès G, Botte E (2014) Nouvelles données sur les pots dits « à garum » du Latium, d’après les découvertes subaquatiques du Rhône (Arles). In: Botte E, Leitch V (eds) Fish and ships. Production et commerce des salsamenta durant l’Antiquité. Bibliothéque d ‘Archéologie Méditerranéenne et Africaine 17. Centre Camille Jullian, Aix-en-Provence, pp 175–197 Ellis SJR (2011) The rise and re-organization of the Pompeian salted fish-industry. In Ellis SJR (ed) The making of Pompeii. Studies in the history and urban development of an ancient town. Issue 85 of Journal of Roman Archaeology: Supplementary series. Portsmouth, RI, pp 59–88 Lentini R (1990) L’economia dei Florio Una famiglia di impreditori borghesi dell’800. Sellerio, Palermo Lentini R (2003) Favignana nella seconda metà dell’800: innovazioni e mercato. In: Doneddu G, Fiori A (eds) La pesca in Italia tra età moderna e contemporanea. Produzione, mercato, consumo. Editrice democratica sarda, Sassari, pp 507–520 Mangano G (2009) I resti faunistici del sito di Contrada Vaccarella a Milazzo. In: Tigano G (ed) Mylai II. Scavi e ricerche nell’area urbana (1996–2005). Regione Siciliana, Messina, p 271 Marlière E (2002) L’outre et le tonneau dans l’ Occident romain, Monographies Instrumentum, vol 22. Monique Mergoil, Montagnac Marlière E, Torres Costa J (2005) Tonneaux et amphores à Vindolanda: contribution à la connaissance de l’approvisionnement des troupes stationnées sur le mur d’Hadrien (II). In: Birley A, Blake J (eds) Vindolanda: the excavations of 2003–2004. Vindolanda Trust, Bardon Mill, pp 214–236 Molina Fajardo F, Fernández AR, Huertas Jiménez C (1983) Almuñécar Arqueología e Historia. Caja Provincial de Ahorros de Granada, Granada Ramon-Torres J (1995) Las anforas fenicio-punicas del Mediterraneo central y occidental, Col.leccio Instrumenta, vol 2. Edicions universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona Tusa S, Royal J (2012) The landscape of the naval battle at the Egadi Islands (241 B.C.). J Roman Archaeol 25:7–48. 13.

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