Roman Basins in Lampedusa
The Roman Basins in Lampedusa represent remains of a fish processing plant dating back to the mid-2nd century. B.C .. The production capacity of this plant, which is spread over three terraced levels on the rocky slope of Cala Salina, was very high given the high number of tanks identified and the extent of the land occupied.
The structure of this work industrial takes up the pattern of the Roman cetariae, present in various sites along the coasts of the western Mediterranean, ie the fish salting tanks. In these tanks the fish was placed to dry in the middle of layers of salt.
The construction technique of these plants responds to precise functional criteria: the groups of basins are aligned at ground level and arranged symmetrically in order to balance the pressure of the contents on the walls of the tanks. The tanks have a quadrangular shape and variable dimensions, and were built with the bottom dug into the rock and the walls built in height with walls in cement mixture, opus caementicium, composed of small stones bound with mortar. The internal surface is covered with a waterproof layer of hydraulic mortar and has a convex bead inserted between the bottom and the walls to facilitate the collection of the contents and the cleaning operations.
It is believed that the irregularity of the shapes and the size of the various pools is, in general, simply linked to the need to adapt the system to the irregular and steep course of the rocky slope. However, the presence of small circular pits near the shore has led to the hypothesis that these were used to macerate the entrails of fish and obtain garum, a sauce used by the Romans to flavor dishes.
