Comares, Andalucia

The houses here were found to have had underground silos in which to store grain. The wealthier houses would have had two, probably situated in a small adjacent 'utility' room. These were carved with considerable skill into the rock. Villagers living nearby knew of many silos and more than a dozen were found, some near the alberca, others to the north of the area. The archaeologists found these had lids with a central hole, again carved with skill from stone and with a waterproof seal made from clay and lime.
In the eastern section of the area a large black flat carved rock with drainage grooves was found and archaeologists believed this to have been part of a prensa or lagar (grape) press. Originally it would have been housed in a wooden building with tiled surrounds. This black rock is still clearly visible.
A few metres to the north of this lagar, a wide horizontal rock was found measuring 9.3m by 9.2m, in the centre of which could be seen a circle, diameter 2.25m, and with an 8cm hole for a spindle or shaft. These were considered to be the remains of an almazara or oil mill.
West of the almazara was discovered a large rectangular deposito or oil store, 1.3m wide by 2.3m long and 2.4m deep. It was calculated to have held 7,000 litres of oil produced from the almazara.
South of the deposito was a nave, a building measuring 9.1m long 2.7m wide with a door on the north-west. This may have been part of the oil mill complex and may have had living quarters and a kitchen. In this nave was found a very large tinaja/storage jar weighing 120 kilos and 200 litres storage capacity. This is now in the Archaeology Museum in Málaga.

Back...