Vulnerability of complex production-networks along the Atlantic coast of southern Hispania

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Besides mining and farming, the maritime economy with its distinctive fish sauce production (garum) should be acknowledged amongst the pillars of the proverbial flourishing of the Roman Hispanic provinces. The focus of this interdisciplinary research project is particularly the vulnerability of this fish-processing industry, as well as its complex production networks, when confronted with short and long-term natural phenomena occurring at the highly dynamic Atlantic coast. The dominance of Hispanic fish sauce on the market relied on the coincidence of favourable natural circumstances, a stable political and economic context, as well as highly specialized production networks. The value chains connected via sea routes involved fisheries, salt mines and amphorae-production workshops and processing facilities. The currently available data form the south of Hispania indicate a sharp decline in this industry`s output during the middle Roman Imperial period. This slump seems to have been caused by one or more extreme events (tsunami, severe storm) and/or a phase of climatic deterioration. However, the indubitable recovery of the fishing industry is noteworthy - in particular the recovery of the industry at the Atlantic coast of Lusitania, which is manifest in the reorganization of both the production facilities and the means of distribution. Nonetheless, towards the end of the 5th century AD the simultaneous environmental change and decline of the local and empire-wide networks of production and distribution triggered the final collapse of the fish production industry in the entire Hispania, which was particularly dependent on product export. This multidisciplinary project will selectively analyse archaeological and geological records (production facilities and sediment archives) in three areas along the Atlantic coast, in order to detect the reasons for drastic changes in fish-sauce production. Within the framework of the project, a robust chronology will be established for the first time, as a prerequisite for obtaining information about the synchronicity of these changes in the study area and at the sites related to fish processing. Consequently, a primary concern will be to reconstruct the former geomorphological and environmental setting and to evaluate if and to which extent it reflects the development of the settlement structures. Furthermore, the long-debated production networks will be outlined using specific examples. Conversely, attested local extreme events will be traced with geoarchaeological methods and cross-checked with historical accounts about natural catastrophes and their long-range impacts to be estimated. The maritime economy of the Roman Empire is a focal point of recent discourses within Classics. This is evident from the SPP 1630 (Harbours and Ports - from Roman Imperial until Medieval Times) and the GDK 1878 (The Archaeology of the Pre-modern Economies), as well as by the ERC projects RoMP (S. Keay) and EPNet (J. Remesal)