Botijo

Woman drinking from a booty

A botijo (also boteja in Spanish America and búcaro in much of southern Spain) is a porous fired clay container, designed to drink and keep the water fresh. In pottery, it is defined as a vessel with a spheroidal body, a handle at the top, and with two or more holes. In general, the widest one is called mouth —by which it is filled—, and piton or spout to the other, which produces a fine stream ideal for drinking without too much waste.

The botijo is a typical object of Spanish culture, common in Castilla y León, Aragón and the southern third of the Peninsula (Extremadura, La Mancha, Levante and Andalusia), as well as in the wetter areas of the north or the territory insular.

Prehistoric sketch of the Arganic culture considered the oldest of those found on the Iberian peninsula (Beniakan)

The oldest specimen found in the Iberian Peninsula belongs to the Argaric culture and was found in the Puntarrón Chico necropolis (Beniaján), near the capital of the Murcian region, in whose archaeological museum it is preserved; An important piece in the historiography of ceramics because it is a 'closed work', with a single 2 cm hole and the handle placed on top; The size of the botijo is 11 x 9.5 cm.

Terminology

Apart from the RAE, it is known that there was the Latin term buttis, bottle, barrel, and then the medieval Latin butticula. Probably the mixture of Romance words of Latin origin with others from the Mozarabic culture formed its etymological trunk.

Sebastián de Covarrubias in the year 1611, described "botija", as "a pot-bellied earthen vessel with a narrow mouth and neck. Children when they are about to cry swell their cheeks and this is called becoming blunted".

In the Spanish geography, the botijo receives different names: in the south and southwest of Spain it alternates with terms such as boteja or botejo, "búcaro", "cachucho", &# 34;pimporro" or piporro, "pipo" or pipete, "pirulo" in the vegas of Granada and the Guadalquivir, "ñañe" and "pichilin" in Huelva, "piche" in Extremadura. In Aragon "rallo". In Valencian, the "botija", documented in plays since 1850, is pronounced [botíʤa], plural "botiges" and diminutive "botigeta". In the Basque Country, the closest would be the "txongila" from Cegama (Guipuzcoa). And in Catalonia, "càntir", which brings together a varied family of models and types.

Catalan pottery celebrates an annual fair in the Barcelona town of Argentona, which has one of the best monographic museums dedicated to ceramic jugs.

Other pieces of water pottery from the jug family are, for example, the barrel and the cart jug, with its potbellied shape and the spout as if it were the navel, with a flat back, so that it can be hung from the car. There is also a great variety of canarillas and botijas.

Operation

Statue of a booth in Éibar, pune or pawn between whose functions was to bring water to the local workshops.

The principle of operation of the botijo is as follows: the stored water is filtered through the pores of the clay and in contact with the dry external environment it evaporates, producing cooling (2,219 kilojoules per gram of evaporated water). The key to cooling is, therefore, in the evaporation of the exuded water, since this, in order to evaporate, extracts part of the thermal energy from the water stored inside the jug.

In some regions, before using it for the first time, it is cured by leaving it for a couple of days filled with water and a little aniseed. In coastal areas, to cure the mud, some marine pebbles are introduced through the loading mouth, left in water for a few days and rinsed well so that there is no salty aftertaste.

Physical formulation

In 1995, Gabriel Pinto and José Ignacio Zubizarreta of the Polytechnic University of Madrid developed a mathematical model for a spherical botijo. Two differential equations describe the process:

− − dVdt=K♫⋅ ⋅ a(Hs− − H){displaystyle -{frac {dV}{dt}}={K'}cdot a(H_{s}-H)}}

V⋅ ⋅ Cp⋅ ⋅ (dTdt)=hc⋅ ⋅ a⋅ ⋅ (Tg− − Ts)+f⋅ ⋅ ε ε ⋅ ⋅ σ σ ⋅ ⋅ (4π π r2− − s)⋅ ⋅ [chuckles](273+Tg)4− − (273+Ts)4]− − U⋅ ⋅ a⋅ ⋅ (T− − Ts)− − λ λ ω ω ⋅ ⋅ (dVdt)[sighs]

where:

V{displaystyle V} = water volume

t{displaystyle t} = time

Cp{displaystyle C_{p}} = water heat capacity

T{displaystyle T} = water temperature

Tg{displaystyle T_{g}} = air temperature

Ts{displaystyle T_{s}} = water surface temperature

a{displaystyle a} = area of the outer surface of the water

4π π r2{displaystyle 4pi r^{2}} = total surface area of the botijo

s{displaystyle s} = water area in contact with air

λ λ ω ω {displaystyle {lambda }_{omega }} = water vaporization heat

hc{displaystyle h_{c}} = convection coefficient

f⋅ ⋅ ε ε ⋅ ⋅ σ σ {displaystyle fcdot epsilon cdot sigma } = heat radiation coefficient

U{displaystyle U} = water heat transmission coefficient

K♫{displaystyle k'} = Mass transfer coefficient for water

Hs{displaystyle H_{s}} = saturation humidity

H{displaystyle H} = air humidity

Types and iconography

Botijeria varied in the Museo de Cerámica Nacional (Chinchilla)

Joaquín Sorolla, a Valencian luminist painter, painted a white jug on at least two occasions, similar to those of Agost. Around 1905, in an oil painting titled precisely El botijo, in which a girl helps a boy to drink from it. The painting, originally sold to an individual and despite not being particularly representative of his work, was one of the paintings selected in 1964 for the philatelic series dedicated to Sorolla, taking the image of the Spanish botijo to the most remote postal confines of the planet.. Years later, a similar jug appears on the left side of one of the many intimate scenes captured by Sorolla on the Valencian beaches: Mother and daughter. Valencia Beach, 1916.

• White rolls
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  The botijo (1905)

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  Mother and daughter (1916)

• Simple buttons
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  White botijo summer.

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  Botijo of red and styling clay.

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  Botijo de La Bisbal (Gerona), without staining (sometimes babe).

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  Botijo glazed with Moorish decoration, Teruel ceramics.

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  Fish pot or boat (Citadel, Menorca).

• complicated pieces
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  Broken botijo cheating(Totana).

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  Botijo Greek (Miravet).

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  Botijo de torre (Ateca).

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  Peineta boot (Alba de Tormes).