Ensuring food for tomorrow - Greek Colonies

The archaic establishment of Paliapolis of Empúries was located on the promontory now occupied by the town of Sant Martí d'Empúries. The advantageous location of the site to access the hinterland along the rivers Ter and Fluvià, had favored trade long before the existing late Bronze native settlement contacted Mediterranean merchants. The emergence of a community from Phocaea c. 580 BC did not meant the abandonment of the previous population and in archaeological excavations numerous indigenous materials have been found adjacent to vessels and amphorae from the eastern poleis and Massalia, the main center of Greek trade in the Western Mediterranean.

From c. 560 BC the town experienced structural changes, with the construction of rectangular houses with stone bases bound with clay and adobe walls, similar to those found in various settlements in the southern France and in the very city of Massalia. In the interior of these structures there have been found circular hearths defined by clay platforms. Although it has not been possible to date to clearly identify specific areas of activity, the presence of certain ceramic vessels show that tasks such food preparation and production of tissues were performed in these domestic units. It is possible, though not yet proved in the current state of research, that these activities were performed by native women living with the first Greek inhabitants of Empúries, as we know happened in some archaic Greek establishments, as Massalia.