Devanadera (Winder)

Their duties included family care, including caring for children, sick people and elderly members of the family; food preparation and meal preparation; home maintenance, including cleaning and organizing the house; and in wealthier families, supervision of male and female slaves. In addition, some women performed specialized trades, such as wet nurses or those in charge of nursing and caring for babies, hairdressers, sewists, and embroiderers. Building finds in Gipuzkoa, concentrated in Oiasso (present-day Irun), reveal a significant Roman presence in the region. The most notable discovery is the Roman baths at Oiasso, which include a large pool, rooms of different temperatures, and a sophisticated heating system. Together with other remains, such as a port, a necropolis, and mines, these findings indicate the existence of a Romanized population with a high social and economic level. Oiasso was a strategically important town on the Bay of Biscay, with an urban area of approximately fifteen hectares and a period of splendor between 70 and 150 AD. The presence of these sophisticated structures suggests that the local population had adopted the Roman lifestyle, including its hygiene and socializing practices. In addition to Irun, Roman remains have been found in other coastal locations such as San Sebastián, Zarautz, and Getaria, demonstrating a Roman influence spread throughout present-day Gipuzkoa.

The title of this exhibition pays tribute to all working women since ancient times, as well as connects ancient and contemporary objects of work from the point of view of the challenges and opportunities they pose for equality. This is where the title of the exhibition comes from, which plays on the words oikos, “house” in Greek, and ezohiko (“extraordinary”) in Basque. What is ordinary is the productive and reproductive work of women, who have always made a fundamental contribution to economies and society; what is extraordinary is that it has been consistently made invisible.