The Romans used bone as a raw material for the production of many everyday objects. In the Museum we keep several examples of the skill of the artisans who, in ancient Baetulo, transformed the bone remains of goats, oxen or chickens into delicate objects of unquestionable value.

With this conference we will be able to learn in depth what the work of these eborarii was like, whose testimony has been preserved in the archaeological remains of the Roman city. This is a preliminary study, the result of a final degree project presented at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in June 2022, based on the objects or pieces of worked bone documented in the different excavations, and it wants to be a first approach to this topic, in general, little discussed.

The work focused on a chronological, typological and functional analysis, as well as research on the use and production of the different pieces, which was added to a previous study of some pieces from the decumanus area of Baetulo, which he did from a zooarchaeological point of view and that proposed the existence of a possible workshop in this area of the Roman city.

The chronology covering the eighty pieces studied goes from the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD. Most are from the imperial period, in line with the city’s heyday, but there are also some examples from the low imperial period.

Personal clothing and textiles stand out, but there are also some whose functions we will discover and which we will compare with other objects, of a similar type, that have been found in different areas of the ancient Roman Empire.

Conference by Maria Font Puigsech, archaeologist, and Esther Gurri Costa, archaeologist and curator of the Museum of Badalona.