This week, Theoni Baniou and Alexandra Livarda visited the archaeological site of Mas dels Frares at Tarragona to take samples for organic residue and starch analysis in the framework of a new collaboration between the archaeobotany group at GIAP-ICAC and the archaeologists Francesc Rodríguez, Itziar Gutiérrez and Josep Maria Macias (MIRMED group). Dr Rodríguez is directing the excavation research project at Mas dels Frares, located at the area of Constantí, which have revealed a rural site dated to the 2nd c BCE to the 7th CE. The central part of the settlement is a rural villa that seems to have focused on the production of wine. The two teams have joined forces in a pilot project that endeavours to investigate the potential of the material to yield organic remains and shed more light in the production practices of the villa.
Mas dels Frares is financed by the project ‘quadriennal del Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya “Estudi i difusió de la vil·la romana de Mas dels Frares i el seu entorn (Constantí, Tarragonès), II Fase (CLT009/22/00033).
