RAP 18.1.indd - Revista d'Arqueologia de Ponent

Fig. 2. Roman villa of Sant Hilari (Abrera). The geometric figure indicates the area where Roman ceramic fragments werefound.et al. 2003) were associated with large landscapetransformations occurred between 2400 and 1500 B.P.Archaeological sites: (1) Iberian settlement locatedbetween the Torrent Gran d’Abrera and the Hostaldel Pi Street (41˚ 30’ 48” N, 1˚ 53’ 58” E; altitude:119 m). New findings included the following items:clumped broken stones that contained mineral iron,remains of iron manufacture (with large amountsof cast iron), and at least 16 underground silos forgrain storage, which contained ceramic fragmentsattributed to the third and second centuries B.C.;(2) the Roman villa of Sant Hilari (41˚ 31’ 18” N,1˚ 54’ 46” E; altitude: 69 m); (a) large numbers ofRoman ceramic fragments preliminarily attributedto the period between the first century B.C. and thefifth century A.D; (b) the remains of a large oven forceramic production and another one (presumably forlime production); (c) cast iron and slag; (d) ceramicfragments of amphoras found in river margins andislands of the Llobregat river at Abrera (fig. 2). Also,the finding of fragments of Roman “African ceramics”suggests trade of agriculture products betweenthe study area and the Roman possessions of NorthernAfrica across the Mediterranean Sea (see alsoBl á z q u e z-Ma r t í n e z 2002, for other localities in theprovince of Barcelona).Like other human settlements of the 2400-2100B.P. period in the Llobregat river valley, the Iberiansettlement of Abrera (Hostal del Pi Street) is locatedin high lands, far away from the river, while the Romanvilla (Sant Hilari) is placed on the river margin.Nevertheless, both human settlements probably establishedregular interchange and trade of agriculturalproducts and sheep with other regions throughout theLlobregat river and the Mediterranean Sea (Gu i x etal. 2001, Be r m ú d e z-Ló p e z et al. 2003).The Torrent Gran d’Abrera and its tributaries are aMediterranean drainage system that presents severalwater emergences with high concentrations of ironoxide (from 20.7 to 94.3 mg Fe/litre), which indicatesthe existence of large amounts of underground ironin the zone. This iron availability could have influencedor even conditioned the Iberian occupation andthe existence of the settlement of the Hostal del PiStreet (in fact, nowadays, large amounts of yellowochre clay are still found at the surface soil in thisarchaeological settlement). On the other hand, manyof the Roman settlements of the Comarca del BaixLlobregat, such as the Sant Hilari villa were highlyassociated to the Llobregat river, not only becauseof the floodplain fertility and water irrigation, butalso, and especially due to the trade of agricultural141