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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botija (container) | 1/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container) | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:14:21.533021+00:00 | kb-cron |
Botija is a term used by archaeologists for a style of ceramic vessel produced in Seville, Spain from early in the 16th-century through the middle of the 19th century. It was radially symmetrical, widest near the top, tapering down to a rounded or nearly pointed bottom. It had a fairly small mouth, and did not have any handles or protusions. While the measurements of individual botijas vary, they tend to cluster around roughly standard sizes. They were sealed with cork stoppers. Botijas were widely used for shipping and storing liquids and some solids, and whole or broken botijas are found almost everywhere the Spanish Empire reached, as well as areas that the Spanish never controlled. Changes to certain elements of botijas over time, documented from jars found in shipwrecks of known date, allow whole jars and sherds found in archaeological sites to be roughly dated.
== Names == Spanish records refer to botijas peruleras, botijas medias, botijuelas, botijuelas peruleras, and botixuelas. In colonial Guatemala, the terms botija de vino (wine), botija da aceite (oil), and botija de aceitunas (olives) are attested. Larger jars were commonly called botijas perulera or just peruleras, while the smaller ones were often called botijuellas. Perulera may derive from "Peru" or from the perula, a glazed pitcher. (Perulera was also used for boxes, crates, and bundles.) The term botijuella was not used consistently. It might have sometimes been used for larger jars, but when used in the same context with botija, it always meant the smaller jar. American archaeologists have generally called bojitas found at archaeological sites "olive jars" or "Spanish olive jars". Archaeologists have been inconsistent in use of "olive jar", varying between "olive jar" as a name for all Spanish ceramics, and as name for the most common type, the botija. Other types of Spanish ceramics that are sometimes called "olive jars", and sometimes "Spanish storage jars", include the cantimplora, tinaja, and orza. American archaeologists recognize that olive jars were used to transport and store many products other than olives, but the term is in wide-spread use, and not easily replaced.
== Form == Botijas were widest near the top with a rounded to pointed bottom and a narrow neck, resembling amphorae, from which they are believed to have been derived. Botijas are a continuation of classic Mediterranean traditions. Another theory is that Botijas evolved out of the dolium, an ancient storage vessel, in the first half of the 16th century. (Dolia were used in the construction of the Seville Cathedral, in the way botijas were later used in construction.) Most of Europe used wooden casks for storing and transporting goods while Spain continued to also use ceramic jars, probably because it lacked sufficient supplies of timber suitable for making large quantities of casks.
Many botijas were egg-shaped, while others were globular, carrot-shaped, or had long, more or less tubular bottoms. Rims around the mouths of early botijas were thin, but in the 1560s to the 1580s the rims became thicker, with a "donut" shape. Rim forms changed gradually from a triangular cross-section in the late-16th and early 17th centuries to more rounded in the mid-17th century to very rounded with a protruding lip by the early 18th century. Those changes can help date archaeological sites, although not precisely.
== Sealing == The small size of mouths of botijas allowed them to be closed with cork stoppers. Cork has been found associated with jars. Jar rims found in the wrecks of the Santa Margarita and Nuestra Senora de Atocha still had cork stoppers in place, including two that had pitch attaching the cork to the rim. Many of the jars found in the Conde de Tolosa and Neustra Senora de Guadalupe, which wrecked in Samana Bay in 1774, had corks inside them, even if the jars were otherwise empty. One jar from those wrecks, containing pitch, had a thin piece of leather placed over the opening with a cork stopper inserted over it, so that the leather may have acted as a gasket. Other ways of sealing jars are known. Discs of flattened, unglazed clay were found with jars at the Fortress of Louisbourg, and a jar dredged from the River Rance in Brittany contained two ceramic stoppers, both with tapered sides, one of which had a handle.
== Classification ==
=== Goggin === John Mann Goggin created a typology in the mid-20th century for the ceramic containers found at archaeological sites associated with Spanish presence which are commonly called "olive jars" or "Spanish olive jars". He recognized Early, Middle, and Late styles based primarily on the stratigraphic sequence of styles and of the paste used in jars found at several archaeological sites. While all three of Goggin's styles were made with very similar pastes, the Early Style differed considerably from the later styles, being round in profile and somewhat flattened in cross section, and having two handles at the top. Goggin's Early Style is now recognized as the cantimplora. The cantimplora was not used past the 16th-century for shipping to the Americas. Goggin's Middle and Late styles are botijas, which appeared early in the 16th-century, overlapping with the cantimplora. Goggin recognized three forms in the Middle Style, and four forms in the Late Style. Form A is egg shaped, long, tapering slowly from the widest point just below the rim to a rounded bottom. Form B is nearly globular. Form C is widest further below the rim than form A, and tapers down to a narrower bottom than form A. Form C is rare, and documented only from Santo Domingo. Form D, known only from the Late Style, is widest somewhat below the rim, tapers in quickly, and has a long narrow, tubular bottom.