The Farm and the Production of Garum
At the end of the 1st century BCE, the fortress was transformed into a farm connected with a cataria, or facility for manufacturing garum, a condiment which was extremely popular in Roman cuisine.
Historical sources attest to the existence of an economy in Populonia backed upon fishing activities. Archaeologically speaking, the Catarina (fish-sauce factory) at Poggio del Molino represents the most significant evidence of such activites in the territory.
Above is a photo of the vats the popular garum fish sauce were made in. There is a possibility there were more but part of the property fell into the sea.
Above is photo of evidence archeologist found of fishing methods used to catch fish. Similar to modern net fishing the inhabitants put pottery at the bottom of the sea to catch fish then pulled the pottery back up to retrieve the fish. The pottery in the exhibition is placed in the exact position the underwater archeologists found them on the seafloor.
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