Serrat dels Espinyers (Isona i Conca Dellà, Lleida, Catalonia), a multi-period storage site in the Pre-Pyrenees

Abstract

Until recently, the archaeological record for the Iberian culture (Second Iron Age) in Pallars Jussà (Pre-Pyrenees in the province of Lleida) was poorly known; consequently, nothing could be said about cereal storage systems. The panorama changed radically after a number of archaeological rescue excavations between 2004 and 2010, especially at Serrat dels Espinyers. Although the site, which lies in the suburban area of the Iberian and Roman city of Aeso (Isona), was only partially excavated, it reveals surprising continuity in the grain storage function, showing changes and adaptations in the systems used, from a complex of grain storage pits (usually known as a ‘camp de sitges’ in Catalan or a ‘camp de silos’ in Spanish) with a hermetic atmosphere in the Iberian and Ibero-Roman periods, to a large well-ventilated double horreum built on pillars, in which the atmosphere could be renewed, in the first centuries of the Roman Empire.