Las excavaciones del edificio de la Antigua Fábrica de Tabacos (Gijón, Asturias, España). Los materiales orgánicos

Con autorización de la editorial para este capítulo.The Tobacco Factory of Gijón (Asturias, Spain), at the heart of Cimadevilla district, has been an emblematic building of the city for 200 years. After it was closed in 2002, La Tabacalera was subject to various documentary and archaeological studies. These have brought to light not only the remains of the baroque convent, but also a far older structure: a Roman well and water reservoir, whose filling has provided an exceptional record of Roman and Medieval Gijón. A large collapse had in the 13th century sealed the remains of a Roman well-deposit (reservoir). During some 300 years, between the structure’s abandonment (end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries) and the end of the 8th or early 9th century, the deposit had been filled with silt, clay and all sorts of refuse. In this paper the fill stratigraphy and the items recovered are presented. This rather exceptional structure was able to collect and store underground water in a 6 × 6 m reservoir (20x20 Roman feet), 4 m deep. It is believed that it could store 100-150 m3 of water. Only the subterranean part of the structure has remained. The well was still briefly used without its cover until final abandonment ensued in the transition from the 5th to the 6th centuries. At that time, refuse filling began. The sediments that silted up the well also have kept a large amount of organic remains, conserved through the absence of oxygen –i. e. anaerobic environment–. Some wooden items, rarely found in archaeological contexts, are deservedly highlighted. Many of them provide information from daily life, such as table and kitchenware –both ceramic and wooden–, furniture –a wooden chair–, farming instruments, wooden and metal buckets, basketry remains, and leather shoes. Their frail state, however, has required careful restoration. The organic and inorganic remains which had been filling the well have been jointly studied by archaeologists, geoarchaeologists and archaeobiologists. This site has been an exceptional occasion for interdisciplinary collaboration, providing rich – and often surprising– information. Two hand drill cores, 1.45 m and 1.65 m long, were taken and analyzed from the stratigraphic, geochemical and geochronological points of view. An extraordinary amount of vegetal remains have been preserved in the: wood (branches, artefacts, lumber …), seeds and pollen. No less abundant are the faunal remains obtained; they suggest that this well-reservoir played a triple role as a midden, dump and natural trap. Domestic faunas, birds and micro-vertebrates have been largely documented. In the case of domesticates, though all economically relevant species are present, the most common elements are the house animals, in particular dogs. One of the most outstanding find is an Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes icneumon widdringtoni). Sea fauna is also represented as well as a small mollusk assemblage. Finally, the results of micro faunal remains (still partial) are presented: the analysis of the oribatid acari assemblages, using the bio-indicator quality of many of the documented taxa.La edición del presente Coloquio corrió a cargo del Proyecto de Investigación “Paisaje y territorio militarizado en la Hispania romana: movilidad y transferencia cultural (siglos II a. C.-IV d. C.)” (I+D HAR2017-85929-P), financiado por Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) y el Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), cuyos investigadores principales son Ángel Morillo y Cruces Blázquez