Casserole

Fragment of a tripes casserole, which provides the almost complete profile of the shape, except for the central area of the bottom; It has a thickened edge, horizontal development, and legs with a circular section.

It is made of a medium-purified light gray paste (Munsell 7.5 YR 6/0-5/0), to which a degreaser consisting of medium-sized white inclusions and mica sheets has been added. The white inclusions, consistent and with angular contours, appear isolated in large fragments that can occasionally reach 4 mm. The outer surface receives a slip of the same color as the paste.

On the exterior bottom it has bundles of grooves that form an irregular surface, on which the legs that support it are applied, which favors its adhesion. The piece was located on the lot at Sepulcro Street, 1-15, on June 13, 1990, in the "Sondeo Central" sector, "Antiguo" level.

The casserole, caccabus, is an imported form that is incorporated into the kitchenware of the Iberian Peninsula along with various Italic productions from the Roman-Republican era. It is a container in which width predominates over depth. It was used for steaming, boiling and sautéing.

In the Ebro Valley we have a version of a casserole, of Italian origin, which since the beginning of the 1st century BC. It was successfully incorporated into kitchenware, having its peak throughout the 1st century AD. It is a self-supporting container with three legs, the tripes, which was mainly manufactured in medium and small sizes. This shape had previously been defined as a tripod bowl, but given the characteristics of its curved bottom and the relationship of its dimensions, we consider, at present, more appropriate to assign it to the casserole morphotype.

It has a wide mouth and a truncated conical body, its walls are low in height. The three legs that support it, with a generally circular and exceptionally square section, allow it to be placed for cooking among the embers of the hearth, as witnessed by the traces of use that smoke the bottom and exterior walls of many specimens.

We will find it made in various potteries in the Ebro Valley, fired either in an oxidizing or reducing atmosphere and made in a wide variety of pastes, with granitic, quartzite or sedimentary degreasers.

From the beginning of the 1st century AD, the edge lengthened with horizontal or pointed development and its end thickened, while the bottoms had greater curvature. The lids that covered these pots rested on the upper plane of the edges. The edge profile of the piece makes it identifiable with the shape documented in Celsa, CoT Celsa 79.84.