6533b839fe1ef96bd12a58e1

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A Late Roman industrial complex with glass furnaces in the northern area of Valencia

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Abstract Information from excavations in Conde de Trenor street (1997) and Cisneros square (1986 and 1998) has confirmed that this area situated in the north of Valencia was a river port district dedicated to commercial activities and storing goods during the Roman Imperial period and maybe also in the Republican period. At the end of the third century A.D. the function of these port buildings changed and the evidence suggests that they became industrial workshops. The bases of three circular furnaces were found with fragments of glass containers, bottles, glasses, window panes and some slag. The recent excavation which took place in 2004–2006 in the Palau Cervero , 4 Cisneros square also shows a situation where a port building of the High Imperial period was transformed into a workshop at the end of the third century. This incident can be related to the diverse violent episodes which took place in Valencia between 270 and 280 affecting both the residential zones and the forum. At sometime in the fourth century this workshop was shut down. This episode must be contextualised within the general processes of change which affected the whole city in the Late Roman period.