Two jars with a lot of history

During the excavation process of a ditch on February 28, 2018, for the installation of a new sanitation collector in the urban center of the city of Albacete, a cavity was discovered in which several jars could be seen, so the works were stopped, bringing the discovery to the attention of the Cultural Service of the Provincial Directorate of Education, Culture and Sports of Albacete.

Thus, between April of that same year and July 2019, several archaeological excavation campaigns were carried out at the site, which ended up uncovering an underground warehouse that was located on Calle Albarderos in the city of Albacete, practically at the confluence of this street with the Calle de las Portadas, Calle Carnicería and the Plaza Mayor, as reflected in the following image.

The cave-winery

The tradition of cellar caves seems to go back to the Late Middle Ages or the beginning of the Modern Age, enduring to this day as an infallible method to preserve the thermal conditions necessary for the fermentation and preservation of wine, so we can find them in many places in Castilla La Mancha, the Tomelloso being well known, which had nearly 2,000 perforated caves in its subsoil.

In our case, the cave-cellar excavated in the basement of Albarderos Street in Albacete develops about twelve meters in maximum length in an east-west direction following the route of the street under which it is located. Its development basically consists of a central corridor along which a series of niches are opened up in which the jars that were kept in it were housed. We located here a total of twelve jars in very good condition, of which we were able to rescue a complete seven of them. The location and position of these pieces inside the cave, and their development, can be seen in the following image.

The floor of the structure maintains a practically horizontal level about 3.80/3.85 m below the ground level of the current street, providing a free space from floor to ceiling inside the cave of about 1.85 - 1.95 m in the center of the corridor along which the jars would be distributed in the niches mentioned above.

The jars

In addition to the jars mentioned above, among the layer of earth that surrounded them, we found various ceramic materials such as several glazed ceramic jarrites-catavinos, as well as a glass damajuana that was preserved intact inside one of the jars.

Focusing on the latter, we can say that, with the exception of one of them from the Madrid tinajero center of Colmenar de Oreja, all the others have their origin in the Albacete town of Villarrobledo.

With regard to the tinajera production in Villarrobledo, the first news we have dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, when there was already talk of the ceramic production of the town, including that of Tenaxeros, led by the manufacture of jars. In the middle of the 18th century, the existence of at least ten kilns for cooking jars was confirmed; while, during the 19th century, the Villarrobledo tinajería went from being an artisanal profession to a small industry that would welcome numerous families. The industry will continue to grow during the second half of the 19th century until it reached its peak in the 30s of the 20th century, after which it began its decline until the manufacture of the last large jar around 1966 (García, Mª .D. 1993).

Chronologically, most of the rescued jars can be dated to the mid-late 19th century, the time of maximum expansion of this industry in the production center, although there are two jars, Ti-06 and Ti-08, which, based on the seal and signature they present (in accordance with the selfless collaboration of Professor D. Jesús María Lizcano Tejado), could be dated towards the end of the 16th century — the beginning of the tinajera production in the town of Villarrobledo where they come from.

Jar number 6 was found inside one of the niches in a vertical position, almost as it should have been while the warehouse was in operation. This piece has, in addition to the seal and the signature, a repair work on an old break by means of plating on the base and lower side. While jar number 8 was found lying down with its mouth facing the center of the cellar corridor.

In both cases, their bodies appear ridged by the horizontal marks of the “strings”, the cords or branches of espartum that were used in the manufacturing process of the jars while strips of clay or work were superimposed to lift the body of the vessel. Every 20 or 25 cm, a “strap” is placed, that is, a tight esparto rope that surrounds the jar so that the freshly welded clay does not crack or open. When this work dries, the said rope comes off, leaving a characteristic mark on the jar.

On the edge of the lip, both have two fingers that are almost identical, like potter's marks, except that in the case of jar 6 they appear filled with plaster.

Signature and seal

As we say, these two jars show, at shoulder height, two elements that lead us to date these pieces to the end of the 16th century — the beginning of the 17th century as we have done.

On the one hand, we found a signature engraved on the still soft clay, with a very elaborate development that is perfectly comparable with other signatures of characters from the late 16th - early 17th centuries, as we can see in the following image, in which we reproduce a signature of King Philip III h.1586, another by Miguel de Cervantes h.1580 and another by Gonzalo de Cervantes h.1581 and those represented in our jars.

In all cases, we see clear parallels in the use of straight vertical lines crossed by other curved lines in the shape of eights or closed axes, typical of the signatures of the time.

Along with these signatures, in both cases, there is a mark made by printing at least three seals combined to form a cruciform figure in the center of which a quadrangular seal is formed into which we distinguish what we interpret as a “calvary”, formed by three triangular figures shaped like mountains with a cross on the mountain that is at the center of the design. Some oblique lines to the right and left on the cross, perhaps interpretable as rays of “divine” light, and other small vertical lines under the mountains, complete this seal.

Facing the sides of this square seal, ogival shapes have been printed that resemble Gothic porches, with the folds that form them highlighted and surrounded by short radial lines.

Finally, in the four corners of the central square, circular shapes are printed with a central nine-pointed star surrounded, again, by short radial strokes that complete the seals.

The uneven arrangement of this composition within the same figure confirms, in any case, that these are particular stamps applied individually to form this complex image.

As for “calvaries”, according to Rocío Ramiro and others (2018), they fall within what we could call cruciform motifs, as are orbs and simple crosses. The representation of Calvary will be generalized and popularized starting in the 15th century in Castile thanks to the Way of the Cross. This importance seems to have increased throughout the Modern Age, probably the result of the Counter-Reformation that will strengthen iconographic representations of Calvary (Ramiro, R. et al., 2018).

According to those same authors, the period between the 16th and 18th centuries would be when most of the calvaries found in the area of La Mancha should be framed, such as those on the wooden railing of the Casa del Hidalgo in Alcázar de San Juan, or those located on the walls of the church of San Juan Bautista de Consuegra, inside the tower of the parish church of Argamasilla de Calatrava or in numerous buildings and buildings in the city of Toledo.

Several examples of this type of motif have been documented in several rock stations in La Mancha Centro (Ramiro). et al. , 2018), thus, in enclaves such as Pozos de Navarro, an important repertoire of calvary crosses was found, including a triple one, and which the authors do not hesitate to date in that interval of centuries that we have been citing in the previous paragraphs, which reinforces the chronological framework that we consider for our jars.

Bibliography

• Garcia Gómez, M. Dolores (1993): Four centuries of tinajera pottery in Villarrobledo. Institute of Albacete Studies, Albacete.
• Puche, O. and Mazadiego, L.F. (1999): “Madrilenian Ceramic Industry: Colmenar de Oreja's historic kilns for cooking jars”. Geological and Mining Bulletin. Vol. 110-2 Year 1999 (215-224).
• Romero, A. and Cabasa, S. (1999). Traditional tinware in Spanish ceramics. Barcelona: CEAC.
• Romero, R. et al. (2018). Rock carvings in the center of La Mancha: documentation and study of an unknown heritage. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.