The archaeological site of Torrox Lighthouse (Málaga) preserves vestiges of having been a strategic Hispano-Roman port area in the Mediterranean. Its adaptation to the coastal profile opened the doors of flourishing maritime trade with Rome and North Africa. It would be a former lighthouse keeper, Tomás García Ruiz, who made the decision in 1905 to unearth the first remains. From those clearing, cleaning and excavation works, surprising wall and mosaic structures emerged in the southwestern area of the extraordinary pars urbana of Caviclum.
Before the Augustan period, this municipality had been configured as residence or official stop in the middle of the Herculean or Heraclea route, which linked Cartagonova (Cartagena) with Gades (Cádiz). It had been managed by the Roman state administration for the housing businessmen and supplying the legions in its transit through Baetica.
For this reason, new sections of the villa by the seathe imposing salting factory transformed in the late period into a necropolis, a potter’s workshop with two kilns for the supply of salsa and oleic amphorae, the thermal complex and the ruins of the rural part. Anthropic traces suggest that the enclave was inhabited at least until the 6th century AD, although experts do not know the volume and destination of the economic activities that were carried out.
Mosaic of the peristyle of the town of Cavilum.
In the western sector of the town, there are several rectangular pools and other smaller circular pools intended for the manufacture of sauces and salting. They are built in the work of signsmaterial made from small pieces of tiles or bricks mixed with lime and crushed by tamper. Industrial production focused on the handling of fish as varied as horse mackerel, turbot, sardines, mackerel and remains of red tuna stirred in brine with which the prestigious Roman sauce called long.
In these pools, workers added the exact proportion of spices, oil and vinegar, exposing this mixture to the sun which they stirred to induce fermentation. It remained in operation during the 1st century AD until it was abandoned in the 3rd century AD The old factory building it was reused as a mausoleumsurrounded by a necropolis in the late imperial period (4th century AD). The pools changed their original functionality when they became burial tombs, some of which were looted.
Burial identified in the Cavilum necropolis.
Square masonry tombs have also appeared. Among the latest findings, the location of bone remains of an individual in a supine position with an approximate height of 1.58 meters and of advanced age, who suffered from scoliosis and osteoarthritis in the lumbar vertebrae. On the other hand, ostreids have been recovered, which could indicate the existence of an important oyster farming facility near the sea.
Maximum splendor
As a result of the prospecting program promoted in 1940 after the visit of the general commissioner of Archaeological Excavations, Julio Martínez Santa Olalla, researchers have exhumed structures of two Roman ceramic kilns circular in plan, covered with half-barrel vaults and equipped with a grill, combustion chambers and forecourt or narrow hallway. The accumulation of construction materials and sealed earth African, tiles, kitchen ceramics (mortars, casseroles, bowls, basins, lids, pots…) and high imperial amphorae for the transport and distribution of longsalting and oil demonstrate an intense and prolonged manufacturing specialization.
The chronology of these potteries would extend from the 1st century AD to the dawn of the 5th century AD, although fragments of vessels from the Republican period (2nd-1st centuries BC) have also emerged. As a curiosity, it should be noted that, together with the forecourt from one of the ovens, it was discovered a human jaw which, according to experts, would correspond to the new funerary use that was imposed on the area of the salting factory and its surroundings between the 4th and 6th centuries AD.
The private baths were built at the end of the 1st century AD or the beginning of the 2nd century AD, coinciding with the period of maximum splendor of Caviclum. The thermal complex shows traces of the caldarium (hot water pool), tepidarium (warm water) and laconium or sauna. These bathrooms have seats for access and rest for clients and some They preserve the marble with which they were covered. The underground heating system or hypocaustarticulated by brick arches, supports and uniformly heats the upper room. These baths are founded in masonry, joined with mortar but with little use of ashlars and brick.
Vestiges of the Roman baths at the Faro de Torrox site.
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The secrets of the town
Accommodated to the model of villa by the seanear the Torrox lighthouse, was provided with a small pier that facilitated the marketing of salted fish and long. It is about a spectacular local noble residence where its small atrium with colonnade and the rain or source for collecting rainwater.
The rooms preserve profusely decorated pavements with remains of bichrome and polychrome geometric mosaics from the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. C. The ornamental theme is very diverse: decoration with two winged Victories, scenery of a bird perched on the edge of a krater or the representation of an astral wheel. Likewise, its walls are shown covered with reddish plaster or stucco while the walls are built in masonry and local ashlars assembled with lime and sand.
In conclusion, there is no doubt about the enormous archaeological and museographic potential of the structures exhumed in the pars urbana where the residence Cavilum. But, to this day, still There is much left to excavate in the area. of the Lighthouse for the enjoyment of both researchers and the rest of society.