{"id":2463,"date":"2018-04-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jeanleon.com\/2018\/04\/26\/font-la-canya-archaeological-site-the-arrival-of-wine-in-the-penedes\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T13:45:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T13:45:05","slug":"font-la-canya-archaeological-site-the-arrival-of-wine-in-the-penedes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanleon.com\/en\/font-la-canya-archaeological-site-the-arrival-of-wine-in-the-penedes\/","title":{"rendered":"Font de la Canya Archaeological Site: the Arrival of Wine in the Pened\u00e8s"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Jean Leon, we want to learn about our local region and give it the value and importance it deserves. In our case, this region is the Pened\u00e8s. It\u2019s the land where we live, where we grow, and that we respect every day; where the words wine and vine are intrinsic to it and where there are many other deep-rooted customs and traditions we want to highlight. So, with this article we\u2019re kicking off a new category in the blog, which we\u2019ll call \u201c<\/span>Getting to Know the Pened\u00e8s,\u201d <\/span>where you\u2019ll be able to find content about the typical products from the area and the sub-areas within the DO Pened\u00e8s, as well as other stories related to the region.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re visiting <\/span>one of the most important Iberian sites in Catalonia: Font de la Canya, located in Avinyonet del Pened\u00e8s. It\u2019s home to an exhibition that\u2019s the result of 18 years of excavating, focused on the origin and arrival of wine in our region.<\/p>\n

In the words of Daniel L\u00f3pez, the archaeologist and project manager for the past 20 years, the arrival of wine in the Pened\u00e8s \u201c<\/span>is a complex process, linked to contact between Mediterranean peoples and the native communities on the Catalan coast. The findings at Font de La Canya explain this process and mark the beginning of wine-growing activity that has ended up shaping the identity of a region, what we call the \u2018DO Vin\u00edfera.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Font de la Canya is the site that provides the most information about these beginnings. It shows us that wine came from the Phoenicians (a culture of great traders) and was soon accepted by all the indigenous communities in the area. Alcoholic beverages like beer were already known at that time, but wine had more qualities. For instance? Its intoxicating power and the fact that it was a product that kept better than beer.<\/p>\n

Over two hectares and 600 years of history<\/b><\/p>\n

The archaeological excavations have made it possible to delimit the area of the site within a total of 2.5 hectares. From all the findings that have been extracted, we can tell that Font de la Canya was a hub dedicated to the storage and redistribution of basic products and prestigious goods that were coming from Europe and the Mediterranean. As L\u00f3pez explains,<\/span> \u201c<\/span>It was a kind of ancient market complex, and that gave it a clear commercial, strategic, and transformative character, because from there it was possible to control society and supply it with all the basic essentials.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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The Iberian site of Font de la Canya dates from the 7th<\/sup> century BC (650 BC) to the 1st<\/sup> century BC. \u201c<\/span>We have 600 years of history here, a very long period, which has allowed us to learn about the influence of the arrival of wine in a region like the Pened\u00e8s and how it changed.\u201d <\/span><\/em>This arrival had very significant social consequences, both in the area of agriculture as well as on a social level<\/b>. Crops based on cereals and pulses (immediate yield) stopped being planted in the fields, while crops with a delayed yield (four or five years) began to spread. \u201c<\/span>This shows us that the people who could grow these types of crops had very high purchasing power, because they didn\u2019t need them to live and they could speculate.<\/em>\u201d<\/em> <\/span>This coincides with the arrival of robust architecture. \u201c<\/span>There\u2019s control of the territory, the farms are permanent, and social inequalities begin to appear. The vines root the population to a territory.\u201d <\/span><\/em>Ultimately, the vines and the stone architecture lay the foundations for what is Pened\u00e8s today.<\/p>\n

To better understand what the Font de la Canya site represents in the historical context, we can summarize it in four large phases:<\/p>\n