Ana Patrícia Magalhães

Trabalhos desenvolvidos pela equipa de arqueologia
do troiaresort, responsável pelas Ruínas Romanas
de Tróia desde 2006, revelaram dados novos
para a interpretação do edifício conhecido como
«basílica paleocristã». Permitiram ainda a identificação
de uma pintura cristã que ornamentava a cabeceira
de uma sepultura situada na orla do estuário do
Sado.

This study aims to compare ancient field notebooks and other records from the excavations carried out in Tróia in the fifties to the materials recovered by these excavations and kept at the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia (M.N.A.). The vat chosen, R.22, was named by F. Bandeira Ferreira, and corresponds to a fish-salting vat from the factory located near the baths, which was excavated in 1958-59 by that researcher in a project of the Junta Nacional de Educação.
The study of all the materials from vat R.22 in M.N.A. showed chronology well integrated in the late Antiquity. The digging methodology by artificial plans and the shortage of materials found, does not invalidate the recovery of important data for the understanding of the largest fish-salting factory.

The general research on the geographical diffusion of African cooking ware only recognizes the presence of this type of ceramics in far south Lusitanian sites. The main purpose of this study is to document the presence of these vessels at Tróia and add this archaeological site to the distribution charts. Comparisons with other sites of Lusitania will give a more accurate perception of the widespread of this African type of ceramic.
The collection of African cooking ware recovered at the site includes materials both from ancient excavations, stored at the National Museum of Archeology (Lisbon) and from recent works carried out at the site since 2007.
These materials represent a significant collection with a variety of forms that is similar to other large assemblages of African cooking ware, demonstrating the trade of this wares to the western part of the Empire.
This collection has never been published and may enrich the overall knowledge of African imports at Tróia and Lusitania as well as complement the ceramics studies previously made.

Apresentam-se os resultados de uma sondagem realizada na oficina de salga 1 do complexo de produção de preparados de peixe de Tróia, junto à parede sudeste da escadaria de acesso ao poço situado no pátio dessa oficina. Esta sondagem, necessária aos trabalhos de conservação da referida parede do poço, revelou-se uma oportunidade para obter dados sobre a construção do poço e sobre o faseamento da própria oficina. Embora a interpretação dos resultados não seja tão clara quanto seria de desejar, afigura-se como uma evidência que o poço não pertence ao primeiro momento de construção da oficina e que foi construído no século II d.C., ainda na primeira fase de ocupação.

The main purpose of this paper is to contribute for the understanding of the abandonment of a workshop of the largest fish-salting factory known in the Roman site of Tróia (Portugal). This workshop with nineteen tanks excavated and other ones still under the dune is known as Workshop 1 and is located near the bath complex.
Recently, as part of a master thesis at the University of Lisbon, I have been studying the field reports and the ceramics, in particular African Red Slip Ware (ARS), from the first excavations in Workshop 1.
These materials where collected by F. Bandeira Ferreira, who discovered the Workshop in 1956 and worked in this factory during the late fifties of the twentieth century. Later on, in the beginning of the sixties, M. Farinha dos Santos uncovered the northeast part of this Workshop.
Although some of the information registered during these excavations was lost, some field reports and letters exchanged by the investigators were preserved and are worth an attentive study, besides allowing the interpretation of an impressive volume of ceramics, which may enrich the knowledge of Workshop 1.
Besides the excavations, the workshop was interpreted by R. Étienne, Y. Makaroun e F. Mayet and their results were published in 1994. One of the proposals made by this team was that the abandonment of the fish-salting production took place in the middle of the fifth century (Étienne; Makaroun and Mayet, 1994, p. 48).
This study confirms their conclusion, revealing that the latest imports in Workshop 1 were mainly ARS ware type D indicating that the abandonment of the fish-salting production occurred during the first half of the fifth century.

The recent works preparing the redevelopment and presentation of the ruins of Tróia led to the identification of a level of construction from the time of Tiberius, including materials from Augustan times, associated with the walls belonging to the largest fish-salting factory at Tróia. These new stratigraphic data pre-date the Claudian era, to which the foundation of Roman Tróia was previously attributed. This makes more plausible the connection between Cornelius Bocchus and the fish-salting production center, where an inscription dedicated to him was found.
The main purpose is to bring to light the 25 fish-salting workshops identified in the archaeological site of Tróia and the
outstanding production capacity of this settlement. As some of the workshops have not been totally excavated, many of them are half destroyed by the tides, and others still lie hidden under the dunes, the production capacity that can currently be estimated and that is reported in these pages may be considerably less than the true capacity of this exceptionally large production center.