Carcaboso
CáceresExtremadura
From the Latin caccabus 'pot, clay vessel', with the augmentative suffix -oso: 'place of clay pots, pottery'. Documented since the 13th century in reference to the area's pottery activity, linked to the clays of the river Jerte.
The Latin noun caccabus, taken from the Greek kakkábē, designated a clay cooking pot or vessel (also the root of Castilian cacharro, 'household utensil, especially of clay'). The Late Latin augmentative suffix -oso indicated 'abundance of' or 'place characterised by': caccaboso = 'place abundant in clay pots / pottery place'. The toponym describes the medieval economic reality of the village: Carcaboso was a pottery centre documented from the 13th century, taking advantage of the Tertiary clays of the river Jerte. The activity survived until mid-20th century, when industrial ceramics displaced local craft. And an extraordinary fact: three Roman milestones are preserved in situ within the municipal boundary —the only ones from Via XXIV still planted in the exact spot where Augustus' legions placed them in 6 BC—. Each milestone, a cylindrical granite column about 3 metres tall, bears the emperor's inscription in Latin. The pilgrim walks beside the Roman kilometre marker without imagining that the column is still indicating what it indicated 2,000 years ago.
Evolution of the name
- caccabus Latin (sobre griego kakkábē) 1st century BC — 5th
- Carcaboso medieval Castilian from the 13th century
Glossary
- Roman road
- A stone-paved Roman highway, part of the imperial communications network (Via Aquitana, Via Augusta, Iter ab Asturica); many such roads became medieval routes and, later, stretches of the Camino de Santiago.
Sources
- Roldán Hervás, J.M. — Itineraria Hispana
- Corominas, J. — Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico
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Vía de la Plata