23 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Ancient fish processing factories were discovered in ancient Roman city of Balsa, Portugal

In the Roman city of Balsa, one of the most important and symbolic archaeological sites in southern Portugal, archaeologists have unearthed a complex in which fish sauces and pastes were produced in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

Tanks and a villa site were unearthed by the Unidad de Geodetección team of the University of Cádiz to produce fish preparations such as garum, known as cetarias, located in the ancient Roman city of Balsa, near Tavira.

This year’s campaign focused on land from the old Quinta das Antas in a peripheral area of that ancient Roman city and concluded last Friday -July 15th.

According to a statement from the Municipality of Tavira, “a geomagnetometer and a tomograph were used by the Unidad de Geodetección team at the University of Cádiz, with the aim of crossing the readings collected from the subsoil by these devices with the data obtained by georadar, in previous years,”.

In addition to the explanation: the data indicate that these factories, or part of them in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD and were controlled by a large and wealthy house (villa) located on a platform a little over 100 meters high.

These factories were found during the last round of digs carried out this year in Quinta das Antas. Photo: Municipality of Tavira

Archaeologists believe that when the villa was abandoned in the 4th century, at least some of the factories continued to operate until the 4th or maybe 5th century, based on pottery discovered under the fall of a roof that filled one of the excavation tanks.

Digs also centred on the remains of the house, on top of which a “structured grave with large rocks” was set up, centuries after the house was abandoned – by then, its remains had become buried and were no longer visible.

Say the researchers, the grave shows “some typical characteristics from the first Christian graves known to exist in the region starting in the 5th century AD.”

The archaeological project entitled ‘Balsa, Searching the Origins of Algarve’ is financed by CRESC 2020 and is coordinated by the University of the Algarve and backed by the Tavira Living Science Centre, Tavira Council, and Regional Culture Board.

What is the Garum?

Garum is a fermented fish sauce that was used as a condiment in the cuisines of Phoenicia, ancient Greece, Rome, Carthage, and later Byzantium.

Municipality of Tavira

Related Articles

‘Roman numerals’ discovered on Stone of Destiny ahead of King Charles III coronation

8 April 2023

8 April 2023

New research has revealed previously unrecorded markings that appear to be Roman numerals on the Stone of Destiny, considered one...

New Study: Middle Paleolithic Human Diet was More Diverse than Previously Thought

30 November 2023

30 November 2023

In a newly published study, archaeologists from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen...

Polish archaeologists discovered new petroglyphs dating back to the 3rd century in Colorado

14 December 2023

14 December 2023

Archaeologists from the Jagiellonian University, southern Poland, have made a significant discovery of ancient indigenous paintings and carvings in the...

A rare Roman cornu mouthpiece found at Vindolanda

23 September 2022

23 September 2022

Just south of Hadrian’s Wall, archaeologists have discovered an extremely rare Roman cornu mouthpiece beneath the remains of the ancient...

The Discovery of nobleman Khuwy could rewrite Egypt history

25 October 2021

25 October 2021

The mummified corpse of an ancient Egyptian nobleman named Khuwy, discovered in 2019, showed the ancient Egyptians were carrying out...

A 900-year-old Crusader sword was found by a diver off Israel’s Carmen coast

18 October 2021

18 October 2021

A meter-long sword dating back to the Crusader period was found by an amateur diver on the seabed off the...

The 5,000-Year-Old Beaded Burials that Reveal Women’s Power in Copper Age Iberia: Over 270,000 Beads

6 February 2025

6 February 2025

Archaeologists investigating the Montelirio tholos burial site in southwestern Spain, dating back approximately 5,000 years, have uncovered that the women...

Rare ivory plaques from First Temple Period were discovered in Jerusalem

8 September 2022

8 September 2022

An extraordinary find was made in Jerusalem: an assemblage of ivory plaques from the First Temple period, one of only...

First European farmers’ heights did not meet expectations

9 April 2022

9 April 2022

A combined study of genetics and skeletal remains shows that the switch from primarily hunting, gathering and foraging to farming...

Researchers decipher enigmatic ancient ‘Unknown Kushan Script’

13 July 2023

13 July 2023

A research team at the University of Cologne’s Department of Linguistics deciphered a writing system belonging to the Kushan Empire,...

What Did Mummies Smell Like in Ancient Egypt? The Surprisingly Pleasant Results Revealed

1 April 2025

1 April 2025

A groundbreaking study led by researchers from University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage and the University of Ljubljana has...

10,000-year-old Sculptures and Figurines holding Phallus of the Taş Tepeler in the southeast Turkey

17 June 2022

17 June 2022

One of the common features of male depictions with similar features found in the region called Taş Tepeler (Stone Hills),...

A unique discovery in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, the city famous for its sculptors in the Roman World, “As if he were a breathing God”

30 July 2024

30 July 2024

A marble ‘Zeus head’ was found in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, located within the borders of the Geyre neighborhood...

Theater of Perinthos Ancient City to be unearthed

9 August 2021

9 August 2021

The theater area in the Ancient City of Perinthos, whose history dates back to 600 BC, will be unearthed during...

9 Synagogues in Izmir to Reopen as Museum

26 March 2022

26 March 2022

As part of a Jewish heritage project in Izmir, Turkey, nine historic synagogues will be reopened as museums. Built by...