Muslim pottery kilns in Talamanca de Jarama
Muslim pottery of Talamanca de Jarama
Archaeological site on Calle Peligros s / n in Talamanca de Jarama
The site is located southwest of Talamanca de Jarama, outside the walls of the Muslim medina, in an elevated and flat area known as “el arrabal”, surrounded on its west side by the Valdejudíos stream.
The composition of the terrain is based on fine clays with very high plasticity. The place was chosen for pottery activity due to its proximity to the water and its location outside the medina, where it did not cause discomfort, remaining active for several centuries.
Pottery kilns were the best documented structures. They occupy practically the 5.000 m² of the deposit and are of three different types. They are in different states of conservation, since some break older ones for a better use of space. Several types have been identified:
Oven Type 1:
It is defined as a grill oven, with a square floor and horizontal channel feed. Between the boiler and the fireplace it has large quartzite edges that could constitute the separation between both areas. It is the type of convection oven most widespread throughout the Mediterranean since ancient times.
Type 2 oven:
They are structures with a circular or semicircular tendency, characterized by presenting a layering of quartzite edges as a protection area. Inside, the pieces were cooked. In the archaeological excavation, the presence of bricks or other constructive structures has not been documented, so it would be an open-air oven. It is the simplest and oldest form of kiln and also the oldest in the Talamanca site, which is why it has suffered the destruction and reuse of materials for the later structures.
Type 3 oven:
Morphologically it is characterized by a shallow rectangular moat, less than a meter. It is excavated in the natural terrain with quartzite edges, which serve to increase and maintain heat.
Other structures to highlight are the pits documented in the intervention, the result of the extraction of clay for pottery use, which were later filled with remains of defective ceramics due to firing or painting failures. Some of these graves were also used as garbage dumps, finding in them a large quantity of bones of domestic and hunting animals.
Another type of storage structures located to the north and southwest of the site contained small vessels, suitable for domestic use or large vessels, used for storage.
In the central area of the site, a quadrangular-shaped structure appeared, made with sand and lime mortar and reinforced with quartzite edges, whose function was to serve as a basin to moisten the vessels in a state of fresh clay or as a decantation basin for their own clay for later use.
The bone remains found are closely related to domestic textile work, although some punches could have been used in ceramic decoration, both for finishing and for making incisions and impressions.
Talamanca must have been an important pottery center throughout the Middle Ages. In the XNUMXth century, productions with a strong Hispano-Roman-Visigothic tradition would be developed in this town. The ovens with a circular or semicircular tendency belong to this first period.
The XNUMXth to XNUMXth centuries are those of its maximum political and military as well as social development, which is reflected in the wide ceramic production and the quality offered by its finishes. The ceramics are glazed and painted, with clear Islamic motifs even with an Eastern world background. The circular-shaped ovens belonged to this period, which at some point, between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, would be razed to continue production with grill ovens, although it is most likely that both lived together for a time.
In 1085 the taking of Toledo by Alfonso VI takes place, marking the beginning of the decline of Talamanca. The production is now carried out with rectangular kilns for the production of tiles, abandoning the previous ceramic activity. In the XNUMXth century the space for obtaining clay was practically exhausted and the gradual abandonment of this area as a production area occurs.
