Remains of Portimão’s Roman past have been uncovered by workers at the Mabor building on the waterfront of the city near the old bridge.
The archaeological work has been carried out by Paulo Botelho of AES Archaeology, with the involvement of specialist staff from Portimão museum who carefully have uncovered and recorded a unique insight into Roman riverside life.
A report in today’s news service Sul Informação describes the ruins as those of an industrial zone for fish paste preparation with at least five Roman cetárias, or tanks which were used to make the garum,* popular in Rome.
These tanks were dug from the soft limestone bedrock along the banks of the River Arade.
The development works at the Mabor building and the car park area to the north of the site have uncovered old calçada, remains of walls and the tanks themselves which date from the 4th of 5th century AD.
The Mabor building has been empty for years but now is being developed into shops, offices and apartments in an additional floor, all made possible with money from the Jessica fund and the project owner, the Dutch businessman Erik de Vlieger.
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To look at the full report from Sul Informação in Portuguese and a series of fascinating pictures, click on:
For the original news of the Mabor development, click on:
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/2869-iconic-portimao-ruin-to-be-redeveloped
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* Garum was a fermented fish sauce used as a condiment in the cuisines of ancient Greece, Rome, and Byzantium.
Although it enjoyed its greatest popularity in the Roman world, the sauce was earlier used by the Greeks.
The Romans thought the Latin word garum derived from the Greek garos, a fish from which it was supposed to have been originally made, but this fish-name is unknown in classical Greek.
It is believed to have resembled the fermented anchovy sauce colatura di alici still produced today in Campania, Italy.
