6.5 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Botija (container) | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botija_(container) | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:14:21.533021+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Uses == Botijas were used to store, conserve, and transport solid and liquid goods. The botija was designed for liquid foods, and was used primarily for shipping wine, olive oil, and vinegar. Botijas were also used for solid items that would fit through the mouth of the jar. The ovoid to elongated top-heavy design of botijas, with pointed or rounded bottoms, is evidence they were not intended for long-term storage of liquids while sitting on the ground. Vessels with flat bottoms and wider mouths, such as tinajas and orzas were more suitable for storing liquids. Orzas were usually made with the same paste as ''botijas, making it difficult to assign many sherds to a particular style of container. Worth suggests that botijas intended for oil were lead-glazed to prevent the oil being absorbed by the walls of the botijas and becoming rancid. Botijas carrying wine were lined with pez (colofonia), a resin which sealed the ceramic from the wine. Pez could be removed and reapplied to the interior of botijas as needed. Spices and herbs could be added to the pez to help disguise the taste of the pez, and the botijas were rinsed with vinegar and water to remove some of taste before wine was added to the botijas. Warehouse records from the early 1590s in St. Augustine show botijas were used to store olive oil, wine, vinegar, and turpentine. Botijas sometimes also held almonds, capers, honey, medicinals, lard, hazelnuts, and syrup, with one botija of salt pork reported in the early 17th century in St. Augustine. Botijas were often re-used. Empty botijas and other containers were given to members of the presidio garrison and other residents in St. Augustine for their personal use. Botijas were also used to fill in domes over large spaces for acoustic enhancement, incorporated into roof vaults, walls, and gate arches, in drainage structures, and as finials on granaries, the last particularly in Asturias, Galicia, and Santiago de Cuba. Sherds were used as roof tiles and pavers.
== Tranportation == In the Spanish Empire, goods were shipped in crates, barrels, bundles, baskets, and other containers, but ceramic jars were usually the most numerous containers used for shipping. Botijas were wrapped with wicker or matting, which cushioned the jars and gave a means of handing the jars with attached handles of rope. They could be transported on land in carts, on horses, or by human porters. Botijas could be stacked to fit into irregular spaces in the holds of ships. Olive jars on the Conde de Tolosa and Neustra Senora de Guadalupe were often found chocked with wood, variously described as tree branches and firewood. Olive jars were often stacked in tiers, with large jars below and small jars above. Large jars on the bottom were often resting on hempline, while smaller jars were found resting on straw or plant matter, with hempline separating them. In the 16th-century the most common shipping containers on Spanish ships were botijas, but other types of containers generally had larger capacities than did botijas. For instance, most wine was transported in pipas (a wooden cask equivalent to the English pipe), which held 480 litres, equivalent to 22 large botijas. One ship that sailed in 1557 carried almost 3,500 botijas. In 1567, a ship passing through Havana to Florida carried 2,939 half-arroba jars of olive oil. Lists of contents of botijas shipped from Seville to the New World included wine, olive oil, olives, vinegar, chickpeas, capers, beans, honey, fish, rice, flour, soap, and pitch. Botijas have been found in shipwrecks that still contained olive pits, pitch, and soap. Based on records for seven ships that sailed in the 16th century, 51% of botijas held wine, 38% held olive oil, 9% held olives, 1% held vinegar, and 1% held other goods. Wine was primarily shipped in pipas, while olive oil was primarily shipped in botijas. Olives were mostly shipped in barrels, while vinegar was always shipped in botijas. Empty botijas were also shipped from Spain to the colonies. One ship carried 1,659 empty botijas to Honduras in 1557. The Tristán de Luna expedition acquired almost 1,000 empty botijas in Veracruz in 1559 while provisioning for the expedition to Ochuse.
== Notes ==
== References ==
== Sources == Beaman, Thomas E., Jr.; Mintz, John J. (Summer 1998). "Iberian Olive Jars at Brunswick Town and Other British Colonial Sites: Three Models for Consideration". Southeastern Archaeology. 17 (1): 92–102. JSTOR 41890392.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Busto-Zapico, Miguel (2020). "Standardization and units of measurement used in pottery production: the case of the post-medieval botijuella or Spanish olive jat made in Seville". Post-Medieval Archaeology. 54 (1): 42–59. doi:10.1080/00794236.2020.1750145. Carruthers, Clive (2003). "Spanish Botijas or Olive Jars from the Santo Domingo Monastery, La Antigua Guatemala". Historical Archaeology. 37 (4): 40–45. doi:10.1007/BF03376622. James, Stephen R., Jr. (1988). "A reassessment of the Chronological and Typological Framework of the Spanish Olive Jar". Historical Archaeology. 22 (1): 44–66. doi:10.1007/BF03374500 – via Springer Link.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Worth, John E. (2023). "Spanish Olive Jar and other shipping containers of sixteenth-century Florida: quantifying the documentary record". Southeastern Archaeology. 42 (4): 252–271. doi:10.1080/0734578X.2023.2240600.
== Further reading == Avery, George (1997). Pots as Packaging: The Spanish Olive Jar and Andalusian Transatlantic Commercial Activity, 16th to 18th Centuries (PhD thesis). University of Florida. Retrieved August 30, 2024. Escribano Cobo, G.; Mederos Martín, A. (1999). "Distribución y chronología de Las botijas en yacimientos aqueológicos subarticuáticos de la Península Ibérica, Baleares, y Canarias". Cuadernos de Aqueológico Marítima. 5: 177–221. Goggin, John M. (1960). The Spanish Olive Jar. An Introductory Study. Publications in Anthropology, No. 62. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University. Marken, Mitchell W. (1994). Pottery from Spanish Shipwrecks 1500-1800. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press. ISBN 0-8130-2299-1.
== External links == Rotatable 3-D view of botija Report on olive jars (botijas and orzas) found in a 1622 Spanish shipwreck in the Straits of Florida