Alghero 381
century to see whether the bones of slaughtered animals point to some spe-
cific feature in the quarter vis-à-vis the rest of the city, based on large samples
of faunal finds mixed in the primary disposition. Finally, legumes and dried
fruit have always played a central role in the Jewish diet. Although remains
of walnut, almond, and hazelnut shells discovered in a late fifteenth- or early
sixteenth-century well filled with refuse in a section of the Jewish quarter are
not in themselves sufficient to enable the attribution of such traces to the daily
lives of the Jews of Alghero, they are an indicator of compatibility.60
5 Iberian Pottery in Catalan Alghero 61
In archaeology, the most frequently used material indicator for tracing the
history of commerce and identifying anthropological processes is hand-made
pottery, which, due to its indestructability by chemo-physical agents in the
soil, has been found in large quantities in the archaeological stratification
of Alghero. With the establishment of an organized Catalan community in
Alghero in the second half of the fourteenth century, the circulation of pottery
produced in Barcelona, in coastal centers of Catalonia, and the area around
Valencia became more regular, both in terms of glazed products for common
use (even simple cooking pots were imported from Catalonia), and higher
quality majolica items. It may be pertinent to emphasize the significance of
the existence of ceramics manufactured in Barcelona and Catalonia. There
was also an increase in domestic production from Alghero and elsewhere
on the island, which is characterized by a morphological repertory of a pro-
nounced Catalan mold; to some extent, such production has been transmitted
to the artisanal products of the present. The same forms of vases and their no-
menclature clearly betray Iberian influence: jugs, plates, and flasks precisely
copy similar manufactured items that Catalan merchants brought to Sardinia
in large quantities. For instance, the traditional flask or riding canteen (su
barilottu) corresponded to a popular product from central Spain, where it was
called a botijo calorifero, or in Catalonian, cantimplora.62 Between the late fif-
teenth and early sixteenth centuries, the jugs commonly used in Alghero for
retrieving water from wells were the typical glazed green poal imported from
60 Milanese, “Alghero. Le trasformazioni,” pp. 71–76.
61 Milanese and Carlini, “Ceramiche invetriate nella Sardegna nord-occidentale.” See also,
infra Biccone.
62 José Corredor Matheos and Jordi Gumi ́ Cardona, Ceràmica popular catalana (Barcelona,
1978), p. 91.