Researchers from the University of Cadiz have started new excavations looking for the ‘garum’ in Baelo Claudia these days. During the last three weeks of July, the HUM-440 research group from the UCA is leading archaeological activities in the Tarifa’s Archaeological Complex, which are focussed in the study of fisheries and the salting industry from this important Hispano-Roman city from conventus Gaditanus.

The study zone coincides with the meridional neighbourhood of the city, where the cetariae were set up in the Roman time. The cetariae were industries where tuna was produced in salt and sauces like garum, which “so many fame gave to the people from Cádiz of that time”, explains Doctor Dario Bernal, researcher responsible. It has been identified two new canning buildings, named Conjunto Industrial XI and Conjunto Industrial XII (Industrial Complex XI and Industrial Complex XII), which have been partially dig and have allowed the exhumation of salting or sinks to make the salting process of the fish that conserved in their interior rests of the last conserves.

This interdisciplinary study has been done by a group of archaeologists, archaeo-zoologists, palinologists and chemical engineers –food technologists- to reproduce experimentally the canned food in order to understand the process of manufacturing and packaging.