On the storage capacity of the Roman rural horrea: Theory of Quantitative Skepticism

Abstract

We present the information provided by archaeobotanical analysis for the study of cereal storage in Roman times that required optimal conditions of temperature and humidity for its preservation. The aim of this article is to question some proposals on the capacity of the Roman horrea indicating the multiple factors that determine not only their construction, but also the organization and disposition of the stored cereal. In short, we try to raise the Theory of Quantitative Skepticism (TEC) in order to address the problem of calculations of storage capacity from an archaeological point of view.

Keywords

• economía romana
• arqueobotánica
• cereal
• almacenaje
• horrea
• capacidad.