BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Eating Salted Fish in Roman Judea

Reinterpreting Tel Dor’s purple dye factory

Aerial view of Tel Dor, where a factory for salted fish products was located during the Roman period. Courtesy Photo Companion to the Bible.

Excavated along the northern coast of Israel more than four decades ago, a large industrial site has long been understood as a Roman-era factory for purple dye, an incredibly valuable commodity in the ancient Mediterranean world. Now, a team of archaeologists has a new interpretation. Publishing in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, the team suggests that instead of being a production site for purple dye, the factory manufactured salted fish products, such as Roman garum, which became popular in Judean cuisine during the Roman period (c. 37 BCE–324 CE).

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Reassessing Archaeological Data

Utilizing archaeological data from long-concluded excavations can be challenging for many reasons, not the least of which is the evolution of archaeological techniques and technologies. Nonetheless, this was exactly what an international team did when they took a fresh look at the supposed purple dye factory of Tel Dor, located 8 miles north of Caesarea Maritima in Israel.

The industrial area, approximately 1,650 square feet in size, was excavated in the early 1980s. Built along the Roman-period coastline, the industrial area consisted of two large pools cut into the bedrock and connected to each other by a small channel. The southern pool was connected to the sea via another channel carved into the rock, while the northern pool was fed by a stone-built channel that collected fresh water from a local river. Next to the pools stood the industrial building, which incorporated several basins and vats that surrounded a central courtyard. Throughout the building, the excavators found Roman plaster, which likely made the vats, floors, and other surfaces waterproof.

Partly due to a large purple stain found in one of the rooms, the site was originally interpreted as a factory for the production of purple dye, known as Tyrian purple, tekhelet, or royal purple. Through much of antiquity, this incredibly valuable commodity was worth more than gold. The dye was created through the processing of the murex sea snail. Notably, an Iron Age Israelite factory for producing the dye was uncovered 14 miles to the north near Haifa.

Reconstruction of the Tel Dor cetaria. Reese et al.

However, when reanalyzing the data, the new team noticed something that the original excavators had missed. Instead of looking like a Roman purple dye factory, the architectural plan of the site is nearly identical to Roman cetariae found in the western Mediterranean. Cetariae were factories that produced salted fish and fermented fish sauces, especially the ubiquitous Roman garum, a condiment similar to modern Thai fish sauce. Garum became popular in the Levant around the Roman period. Later Talmudic literature even debates the cultic cleanliness of fish sauce made by gentiles compared to that made by Jews, indicating that garum had become a ubiquitous component of the Judean diet by that period.

Comparing the Tel Dor site with cetariae from Spain and Morocco, the team noticed that the western Mediterranean factories also featured central courtyards that incorporated similar rectangular vats and basins, as well as sources of both salt and fresh water. These sites were also plastered using the same style and technique found at Tel Dor. The various vessels were used for cleaning, filleting, salting, and fermenting fish to produce salted or fermented products. The rock-cut pools of Tel Dor are unique among the cetariae the team examined. However, similar pools are known from the period and were used for storing or even raising small fish of the exact sort that would be used to produce salted and fermented fish products.

So, how did a western-style cetaria end up at Tel Dor? One explanation connects to a second-century CE Roman governor of Judea and Syria, Gargilius Antiquus. Two inscriptions discovered at Tel Dor honor the governor as a patron of the town, which had grown into an important maritime city. The family of Gargilius Antiquus was originally from North Africa, and his son was even a governor of the province of Africa Proconsularis, a region well known for its western-style cetariae. Based on the ceramic finds from the Tel Dor factory, the date of its construction aligns well with the governorship of Gargilius Antiquus.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Inscription Reveals Governor of Judea Before the Bar-Kokhba Revolt

Ancient Israel’s Tyrian Purple Factory

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Arch-Tech: Purple Threads from the Days of David and Solomon

The Many Masters of Dor, Part 1: When Canaanites Became Phoenician Sailors

The Many Masters of Dor, Part 2: How Bad Was Ahab?