Saúl Martín González
ESP: Saúl Martín González es un historiador, arqueólogo, escritor y profesor español . Sus líneas de investigación principales son la Arqueología del Paisaje y la Historia socioeconómica, especialmente aplicada al mundo rural hispánico, en un abanico temporal que incluye la Iberia protohistórica, la Hispania romana y la Spania tardoantigua, si bien ha realizado investigaciones en otros periodos, como la Historia Contemporánea de España. Es Co-Director del Equipo Arqueológico Driebes-Caraca (Driebes, Guadalajara, España) que investiga desde 2016 hasta la fecha la civitas hispanorromana (de emplazamiento desconocido o no plenamente demostrado hasta 2.016) de Caraca, en la antigua Hispania Citerior/Tarraconensis. www.proyectodriebes.blogspot.com
Como arqueólogo ha participado en numerosos proyectos en Italia (mansio de Ad Novas en Cesenatico, territorio de Rávena, 2.012, 2.013 y 2.014; y Foro Romano Republicano 2.002 bajo la dirección del Dr. Andrea Carandini), Portugal (tres intervenciones en la zona del Valle del Tajo) y España, destacando sus direcciones de proyectos de excavación de áreas funerarias y villae rusticae en la periferia de Mérida, a los que habría que añadir otros proyectos en zonas tan sugerentes como Las Hurdes, Toledo, Numancia o Madrid. Ha intervenido en sendos Coloquios nacionales e internacionales y publicado en torno a una treintena de trabajos y artículos de investigación, a la que hay que añadir otros actualmente en prensa. Entre julio de 2.010 y junio de 2.011 dirigió un proyecto arqueológico en la comarca de Las Hurdes (Cáceres), otro de los territorios objetos de su investigación. Desde septiembre de 2.011 dirige y presenta además en la emisora madrileña Radio Enlace 107.5 F.M. el programa de divulgación histórica "Las Arenas de Cronos" (www.lasarenasdecronos.blogspot.com) abierto a la participación de cualquier equipo de trabajo o profesional en los terrenos de la Historia y/o la Arqueología.
ENG: Saúl Martín González is a Spanish archeologist, historian, author and professor. His research is mainly focused to Landscape Archaeology and Social and Economic History, specially applied to Hispanic countryside from Protohistoric (Iron Age) Iberia, Roman Hispania to Late Antique Spania. However, he has developed also some research about the Spanish Contemporary History. He is currently one of the Co-Directors of the Driebes-Caraca Archaeological Team (Driebes, Guadalajara, España) since 2016 to present day. This team actually researchs the (unknown settlement before 2016) Hispano-Roman civitas of Caraca, on the former Roman province of Hispania Citerior/Tarraconensis. www.proyectodriebes.blogspot.com
As an archaeologist he participated in many projects on Italy (mansio of Ad Novas -Cesenatico, territory of Ravenna 2012-13-14; Republican Forum in Rome under Dr. Andrea Carandini), Portugal (three excavations on the Tagus Valley) ans Spain. Here several directions of archaelogical works on Mérida and its periphery could be remarked, aside of other suggestive projects on Las Hurdes, Numancia, Toledo or Madrid, among others. He participated on many national and international Congresses and published around thirty research papers. Since September 2011 onwards, on the other hand, he actually directs in Radio Enlace the divulgative radio broadcast "Las Arenas de Cronos" (www.lasarenasdecronos.blogspot.com) open to any project or researcher in the fields of History and Archaelogy.
Como arqueólogo ha participado en numerosos proyectos en Italia (mansio de Ad Novas en Cesenatico, territorio de Rávena, 2.012, 2.013 y 2.014; y Foro Romano Republicano 2.002 bajo la dirección del Dr. Andrea Carandini), Portugal (tres intervenciones en la zona del Valle del Tajo) y España, destacando sus direcciones de proyectos de excavación de áreas funerarias y villae rusticae en la periferia de Mérida, a los que habría que añadir otros proyectos en zonas tan sugerentes como Las Hurdes, Toledo, Numancia o Madrid. Ha intervenido en sendos Coloquios nacionales e internacionales y publicado en torno a una treintena de trabajos y artículos de investigación, a la que hay que añadir otros actualmente en prensa. Entre julio de 2.010 y junio de 2.011 dirigió un proyecto arqueológico en la comarca de Las Hurdes (Cáceres), otro de los territorios objetos de su investigación. Desde septiembre de 2.011 dirige y presenta además en la emisora madrileña Radio Enlace 107.5 F.M. el programa de divulgación histórica "Las Arenas de Cronos" (www.lasarenasdecronos.blogspot.com) abierto a la participación de cualquier equipo de trabajo o profesional en los terrenos de la Historia y/o la Arqueología.
ENG: Saúl Martín González is a Spanish archeologist, historian, author and professor. His research is mainly focused to Landscape Archaeology and Social and Economic History, specially applied to Hispanic countryside from Protohistoric (Iron Age) Iberia, Roman Hispania to Late Antique Spania. However, he has developed also some research about the Spanish Contemporary History. He is currently one of the Co-Directors of the Driebes-Caraca Archaeological Team (Driebes, Guadalajara, España) since 2016 to present day. This team actually researchs the (unknown settlement before 2016) Hispano-Roman civitas of Caraca, on the former Roman province of Hispania Citerior/Tarraconensis. www.proyectodriebes.blogspot.com
As an archaeologist he participated in many projects on Italy (mansio of Ad Novas -Cesenatico, territory of Ravenna 2012-13-14; Republican Forum in Rome under Dr. Andrea Carandini), Portugal (three excavations on the Tagus Valley) ans Spain. Here several directions of archaelogical works on Mérida and its periphery could be remarked, aside of other suggestive projects on Las Hurdes, Numancia, Toledo or Madrid, among others. He participated on many national and international Congresses and published around thirty research papers. Since September 2011 onwards, on the other hand, he actually directs in Radio Enlace the divulgative radio broadcast "Las Arenas de Cronos" (www.lasarenasdecronos.blogspot.com) open to any project or researcher in the fields of History and Archaelogy.
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Agradeciendo su interés, reciba usted, estimado lector, un cordial saludo
El autor
AUDIOPAPERS OF DE SAÚL MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ: Every scientific paper on this page, uploaded to this profile of Academia.edu with full text, is also available on audiobook format on Ivoox: https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-saul-martin-gonzalez-bibliografiacientifica_sq_f1884515_1.html
Thankful because your interest, I wish all the best to every reader
Author
Papers and more stuff by Saúl Martín González
sufrido un intenso repunte en los últimos años, como consecuencia de las diversas campañas desarrolladas en los pantanos,
por iniciativa del Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. A tal efecto,
debe destacarse la concentración de actuaciones en el embalse cacereño de Valdecañas, cuyos resultados, ya expuestos preliminarmente en algunos artículos científicos (Gamo et alii, 2022),
verán próximamente la luz en una monografía específica (Ar-
cos, 2023).
Por contraste, la arqueología desarrollada en el medio fluvial supone aún un gran vacío en el panorama hispánico y, de-
jando a un lado los trabajos en rías, conceptual y metodológica-
mente más afines al medio marítimo, son pocas las experiencias
que pueden reseñarse, y menos aun las que han sido publicadas
(Nieto, 2009).
La casuística arqueológica, y por ende histórica, ha conocido una progresión geométrica en las últimas décadas en España y otros países. Con frecuencia, empero, no siempre los vocablos académicos comunes al acervo de la Antigüedad y la Antigüedad Tardía ocultan (o mejor, son empleadas para designar) los mismos conceptos. Es por ello que antes de pasar a desarrollar ulteriores temáticas, resulta obligado detenerse a sentar unas sólidas bases propedéuticas, en pro de clarificar conceptos y de unificar criterios. Así, en las siguientes líneas queremos centrarnos en
un análisis teórico de aquel entorno físico que condensa y resume buena parte de la realidad material, valores e ideología de las aristocracias terratenientes: la villa rustica. Estableceremos, a modo de simple ilustración y no pudiendo ser exhaustivos por motivos de espacio, algunas relaciones con ciertas villae del ager emeritensis.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Villa rustica; aristocracia terrateniente; Romanización;
territorium emeritensis; Arqueología Doméstica.
ABSTRACT
On last decades, archeological casuistry has experienced a geometrical
progression on Spain and beyond. However, before the study of other subjects it is mandatory to set some solid propaedeutic bases in order to clarify concepts and to unify criteria. Thus, on the following lines we aspire to focus on a theoretical analysis based on the physical environment of the villa rustica model. This condenses and summarizes the best part of the material reality, values and ideology of the landowner aristocracies on the whole Hispano-Roman countryside, and the territorium emeritensis in particular. Reasons of extension turn impossible to be exhaustive about
Such a vast territory, but we will manage some the examples anyway as a way to illustrate our speech.
KEY WORDS: Villa rustica; landowner aristocracy; Romanization; territorium emeritensis; Household Archaeology.
eventual study much harder.
This city played a key role on Hispania Tarraconensis’ communication system, and in particular on the Complutum-Carthago Nova Roman road, as it is placed in the midst of the cities of Complutum and Segobriga.
Likewise, the control of the fords of the Tagus River necessarily had to be a crucial factor for both the Carpetanian and Roman periods as the current evidences imply a series of major clashes in the time of the
Second Punic and the Sertorian Wars. On this matter, we suggest that the eminent Battle of Hannibal on the Tagus (220 BC) happened in the surroundings of the present municipalities of Illana and Driebes. The Carpetani and the Vettones were defeated by Hannibal because of an intelligent use of the fords by the Carthaginian commander. This proposal is based on combined geological, historic and archaeological criteria. Two silver hoards were found on the river bank in 1597 and 1945. Both were put aside in the last decades of the 3rd century BC. Because of this and their similar typology it is probable that their deposition was interconnected. In fact, both may be linked to the Second Punic War.
Some classical written sources even mention Caraca. Ptolemy placed this civitas on Carpetanian territory at the Southwestern territory of Complutum while Plutarch described the city’s siege by Quintus Sertorius in the year 77 BC. Finally, the Ravenna Cosmography placed the site on the Complutum-Carthago Nova road between Complutum and Segobriga. All these sources concur with the archaeological evidence.
The most recent research on the site was started by San Valero because of the above-mentioned hoard found in 1945, because the construction of the Canal de Estremera. It is actually composed by 13.8 kg of silver pieces, and displayed today at Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid. In the 1980s, professors Jorge SánchezLafuente and Juan Manuel Abascal carried out several archaeological surveys at the Cerro de la Virgen de la Muela and hypothesized about this could be the seat of the Roman city of Caraca. Regarding such identification, an interesting historiographical debate arose from the XVIth century up to the present day, still with no definitive agreement.
To prove the aforesaid hypothesis, a multidisciplinary research team demonstrated in 2016 the existence of a Roman complex urban planning on the Cerro de la Virgen de la Muela. Although certain scholars assumed this location was a vicus, the actual discovery of a forum challenged that notion. In fact, the evidence implied this site received a plenty urban status according to the Roman law under the Flavian dynasty. The full urban planning, which it is dated at the 1st-2nd AD centuries, was partially revealed after several archaeological campaigns. They combined surface, geophysical and aerial surveys, in addition of the use of the Spanish National Geographic Institute’s collection of aerial photographs to detect crop marks.
The city was organised in 27 blocks divided by a NW-SE Cardo Maximus. Besides the forum, several building facilities have been detected as a public baths and a 500m² peristyle domus (block 2).
The archaeological campaigns have remarkably developed our nowledge of the civitas and its immediate outskirts. The forum was excavated in 2017. It was paved with big stone slabs and supported by terraces on
several chryptoportici. This campaign focused on three aims. First, a two-store building placed on the forum, used as a taberna in the inferior level and as a public space in the upper floor. Its original purpose ended in the 2nd century AD, even if a squatter reuse was detected by the III century AD. The Southern Portico of the forum was also excavated. A layer of ash representative of a fire dated in the Republican era was detected, perhaps connected with the Sertorian War. Likewise, a section of the Decumanus Maximus was also excavated. Public baths were excavated in 2018, showing actually a similar pattern to the nearby Segobriga´s ones. The analytics carried out by C.S.I.C. were useful to reconstruct the paleo-landscape of Caraca. An intact segment of the 3 km aqueduct was unearthed in 2019. Three silt pools, used to slow down the water speed and clean the impurities, came also to light. Additionally, the I.G.M.E. carried out several analytics at the aqueduct’s caput aquae, placed at the Lucos spring, to study the composition of the water. Finally, the archaeological excavation and survey of 2020 found several post-holes and militaria equipment perhaps connected, as Plutarch described, with the siege of Caraca in the year 77 BC.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Atocha, esparto, manufactura textil, Vía Espartaria, transhumancia, cuenca del Tajo
ABSTRACT: The aim of this work is to provide a first approach to a so evanescent matter as the textile handicrafts on Roman Caraca. Facing the scarcity of positive archaeological sources, we shall perform an interdisciplinary and holistic reading of both Ancient and Modern written sources, the palynological analysis, imprints and undirect elements such as pondera or needles. From this starting point, we trust in to be able to develop this matter on the research to come.
KEYWORDS: Esparto, textile handicraft, “Spartarian Way”, transhumance, Tagus basin
PALABRAS CLAVE: Las Hurdes, minería aurífera, caminería antigua, Romanización, Cáparra
ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH: This paper is our first global approaching to the Archaeology of the Sierra de Francia (Western Spain) and, more exactly, to the Hurdeshire. This is one of the most western segments in the Sistema Central mountain range, an exciting but often bad-known and misunderstood territory, where a noticeable pre-Roman background actually exists. A further approach to this territory also shows some scarce but highly significant traces of Romanization. According to these traces, a Roman road system comes set re-using the ancestral footpaths to cross these mountains, adding possibly also some improvements. This “Hurdanian route” was also connected with the major road system in the Roman Hispania through the most important civitates in the area. On next pages we shall try to stablish some bases, in order to develop further studies, about the deep impact of the Protohistorical (Iron Age II) and Roman phases on this region.
KEYWORDS: Hurdeshire, petroglyphs, gold mining, Roman road system, Romanization, Cáparra
apresenta dados muito relevantespara a análise dos padrões de povoamento rural. Embora considerando as variaçõesregionais, parece claro que o modelo da
villa rustica clássica não sobrevive para além demeados do século V. Este colapso traz novos organizações na paisagem e novos modelosde gestão das propriedades rurais. Por vezes surgem no interior da mesma estrutura quecompunha a
villa rustica. No presente estudo, abordamos a construção de estruturas cris-tãs, como igrejas, altares, eremitérios, e o seu papel nos padrões de povoamento da paisa-gem tardo-antiga cristã. Após a primeira abordagem feita pela Prof. Rosa Sanz Serrano,procuramos analisar o registo arqueológico e uma leitura interdisciplinar deste processo.
PALAVRAS CHAVE - Villa, villula, ecclesia, parochial, paisagem rural, Iberia, transformação.
ABSTRACT - Late Antique Iberia has one of its most interesting and signi?cant sub- jects, in our opinion, in the analysis of settlement patterns in the countryside. Althoughit depends on every regional and local reality, we can assume that the model of Classical
villa rustica doesn´t survive the ?rst half of 5th Century. Tis end brings, however, newrealities of settlements and new manner in order to manage the Iberian countrysides. Tey emerge, sometimes, even over the same structures and sites where the former villae rusticae were placed. We have already studied, in previous works, the ?rst phase ofthese Late Antique rural realities (the so-called, in the written sources,
“villulae”).
Here,in the other hand, we shall try to look for another di?erent phenomenon: the erectionof Christian structures, such churches, parishes, altars,
eremitoria,
etc… and their rolein the new pattern of the Late Antique Christian landscape. After the ?rst look to thissubject made in the last pages by Prof. Dra. Sanz Serrano though texts, we shall managemainly, in the other hand, the archaeological record. In this way we shall try to o?er acombined interdisciplinary approaching to this phenomenon.
KEYWORDS – Villa, villula, ecclesia, parochia,
landscape, Iberia, countryside, transformation
PALABRAS CLAVE: Radio Enlace, alta divulgación, nuevas tecnologías, jóvenes investigadores, punto de encuentro, pedagogía social
ABSTRACT: In next pages we shall tell about our personal experience at managing “Las arenas del tiempo” (“The sands of time”), an historical and archaeological oriented radio broadcast, on air from September 2,011 in the Madridian station Radio Enlace 107.5 F.M. This space employs the new technologies in communication, aiming the working sinergies between researchers, both younger and veteran ones. The final target lays in to build a meeting point for scholars, but specially in to offer stimulating way fo the knowledge of the Past and the Science for the general public, a really important point today. In this sense, this broadcast wants to follow the concept, developed by the English-speaking Historiography, of “high divulgation”.
KEYWORDS: Radio Enlace, high divulgation, new technologies, young researchers, meeting point, social pedagogy.
KEYWORDS: Hurdeshire, petroglyphs, gold mining, ancient Roman road system, Romanization, Cáparra
PALABRAS CLAVE: Reocupación, castros, Romanización, desromanización, Tardoantigüedad
ABSTRACT: One of the most interesting but also unknown phenomena at Late Antiquity is the resettlement over hilltops. Thus, is not uncommon to find new Late Antique phases over ancient Iron Age castra and oppida, abandoned long ago by Romanization. On next pages we shall point the main patterns of this phenomenon in the context of the Late Antique Iberia, but also we shall wonder about who starred it: local powers defending their own interests, “fugitive” population trying to find a shelter or perhaps both initiatives, depending on each case.
KEYWORDS: Resettlement, hillforts, Romanization, Unromanization, Late Antiquity
PALABRAS CLAVE: Reocupación, castros, Romanización, desromanización, Tardoantigüedad
ABSTRACT: One of the most interesting but also unknown phenomena at Late Antiquity is the resettlement over hilltops. Thus, is not uncommon to find new Late Antique phases over ancient Iron Age castra and oppida, abandoned long ago by Romanization. On next pages we shall point the main patterns of this phenomenon in the context of the Late Antique Iberia, but also we shall wonder about who starred it: local powers defending their own interests, “fugitive” population trying to find a shelter or perhaps both initiatives, depending on each case.
KEYWORDS: Resettlement, hillforts, Romanization, Unromanization, Late Antiquity
Palabras clave: Transición, poblamiento, reocupación, dialéctica centros vs periferias
Abstract: This paper is focused upon transition for Late Antiquity (3th-8th centuries) settlement models in the Northern part of the Spanish Central plateau. This ambit, with its own local patterns, maybe works as an excellent theatre for the different transitional solutions between Roman Hispania and the Early Middle Ages Hispanic kingdoms. Our analysis comes mainly through archaeological methodology, but however we won´t forget another different historical sources anyway, in order to stablish an accurate and indispensable interdisciplinary view in the studies upon the Past. It helps also to the necessary overcoming of the heavy localist view that Spanish scholarship have shown in last decades. This view has provided sometimes even the lack of general perspective about main processes in which Iberia is involved in this basic period of its History.
Keywords: Transition, settlement, resettlement, centres vs peripheries dialectics
RESUMEN:En el presente trabajo nos ocupamos de la figura de dos santas cristianas, Eulalia deMérida y Melania la Joven. Ambas tienen en común, aparte de su acceso al santoralcatólico, su vida durante el Bajo Imperio romano, su relación con la Diocesis Hispaniarum y su origen social elitista, que las encuadra en el grupo de los honestiores . No obstante, yaunque sus figuras también presentan importantes diferencias, en ambos casos tras elestereotipo que supone el modelo hagiográfico se encierran realidades sociales de notableinterés histórico. En nuestra opinión, el análisis crítico y científico de las hagiografías deépoca bajoimperial y tardoantigua, absolutamente ajeno a la fe religiosa, ha de constituir unrecurso de primer orden a través del cual poder aproximarnos a la sociedad de su tiempo.Ello supone un campo de estudio que, relativamente inexplorado en la historiografíaespañola, ofrece magníficas perspectivas al historiador.
ABSTRACT:This paper is focused on the figures of two Christian saints, Eulalia of Mérida andMelania the Younger. Both share, in addition to their condition of Catholic saints, their Later Roman age, their relations with the Diocesis Hispaniarum and their elitist social background.However, and although they present also primary differences, in both cases beyond thehagiographical model we find a noticeable interesting historical and social realities. In our opinion, the critical and scientific analysis of the Late Roman and Late Antique hagiographiesis required in order to build a better approach to that society. This relatively unexplored field,at least in Spanish historiography, presents excellent perspectives for the historian.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Eulalia de Mérida, Melania la Joven, hagiografía, HistoriaSocial, élites, Cristianización
KEYWORDS: Eulalia of Mérida, Melania the Younger, hagiography, Social History,elites, Christianization
Agradeciendo su interés, reciba usted, estimado lector, un cordial saludo
El autor
AUDIOPAPERS OF DE SAÚL MARTÍN GONZÁLEZ: Every scientific paper on this page, uploaded to this profile of Academia.edu with full text, is also available on audiobook format on Ivoox: https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-saul-martin-gonzalez-bibliografiacientifica_sq_f1884515_1.html
Thankful because your interest, I wish all the best to every reader
Author
sufrido un intenso repunte en los últimos años, como consecuencia de las diversas campañas desarrolladas en los pantanos,
por iniciativa del Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. A tal efecto,
debe destacarse la concentración de actuaciones en el embalse cacereño de Valdecañas, cuyos resultados, ya expuestos preliminarmente en algunos artículos científicos (Gamo et alii, 2022),
verán próximamente la luz en una monografía específica (Ar-
cos, 2023).
Por contraste, la arqueología desarrollada en el medio fluvial supone aún un gran vacío en el panorama hispánico y, de-
jando a un lado los trabajos en rías, conceptual y metodológica-
mente más afines al medio marítimo, son pocas las experiencias
que pueden reseñarse, y menos aun las que han sido publicadas
(Nieto, 2009).
La casuística arqueológica, y por ende histórica, ha conocido una progresión geométrica en las últimas décadas en España y otros países. Con frecuencia, empero, no siempre los vocablos académicos comunes al acervo de la Antigüedad y la Antigüedad Tardía ocultan (o mejor, son empleadas para designar) los mismos conceptos. Es por ello que antes de pasar a desarrollar ulteriores temáticas, resulta obligado detenerse a sentar unas sólidas bases propedéuticas, en pro de clarificar conceptos y de unificar criterios. Así, en las siguientes líneas queremos centrarnos en
un análisis teórico de aquel entorno físico que condensa y resume buena parte de la realidad material, valores e ideología de las aristocracias terratenientes: la villa rustica. Estableceremos, a modo de simple ilustración y no pudiendo ser exhaustivos por motivos de espacio, algunas relaciones con ciertas villae del ager emeritensis.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Villa rustica; aristocracia terrateniente; Romanización;
territorium emeritensis; Arqueología Doméstica.
ABSTRACT
On last decades, archeological casuistry has experienced a geometrical
progression on Spain and beyond. However, before the study of other subjects it is mandatory to set some solid propaedeutic bases in order to clarify concepts and to unify criteria. Thus, on the following lines we aspire to focus on a theoretical analysis based on the physical environment of the villa rustica model. This condenses and summarizes the best part of the material reality, values and ideology of the landowner aristocracies on the whole Hispano-Roman countryside, and the territorium emeritensis in particular. Reasons of extension turn impossible to be exhaustive about
Such a vast territory, but we will manage some the examples anyway as a way to illustrate our speech.
KEY WORDS: Villa rustica; landowner aristocracy; Romanization; territorium emeritensis; Household Archaeology.
eventual study much harder.
This city played a key role on Hispania Tarraconensis’ communication system, and in particular on the Complutum-Carthago Nova Roman road, as it is placed in the midst of the cities of Complutum and Segobriga.
Likewise, the control of the fords of the Tagus River necessarily had to be a crucial factor for both the Carpetanian and Roman periods as the current evidences imply a series of major clashes in the time of the
Second Punic and the Sertorian Wars. On this matter, we suggest that the eminent Battle of Hannibal on the Tagus (220 BC) happened in the surroundings of the present municipalities of Illana and Driebes. The Carpetani and the Vettones were defeated by Hannibal because of an intelligent use of the fords by the Carthaginian commander. This proposal is based on combined geological, historic and archaeological criteria. Two silver hoards were found on the river bank in 1597 and 1945. Both were put aside in the last decades of the 3rd century BC. Because of this and their similar typology it is probable that their deposition was interconnected. In fact, both may be linked to the Second Punic War.
Some classical written sources even mention Caraca. Ptolemy placed this civitas on Carpetanian territory at the Southwestern territory of Complutum while Plutarch described the city’s siege by Quintus Sertorius in the year 77 BC. Finally, the Ravenna Cosmography placed the site on the Complutum-Carthago Nova road between Complutum and Segobriga. All these sources concur with the archaeological evidence.
The most recent research on the site was started by San Valero because of the above-mentioned hoard found in 1945, because the construction of the Canal de Estremera. It is actually composed by 13.8 kg of silver pieces, and displayed today at Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid. In the 1980s, professors Jorge SánchezLafuente and Juan Manuel Abascal carried out several archaeological surveys at the Cerro de la Virgen de la Muela and hypothesized about this could be the seat of the Roman city of Caraca. Regarding such identification, an interesting historiographical debate arose from the XVIth century up to the present day, still with no definitive agreement.
To prove the aforesaid hypothesis, a multidisciplinary research team demonstrated in 2016 the existence of a Roman complex urban planning on the Cerro de la Virgen de la Muela. Although certain scholars assumed this location was a vicus, the actual discovery of a forum challenged that notion. In fact, the evidence implied this site received a plenty urban status according to the Roman law under the Flavian dynasty. The full urban planning, which it is dated at the 1st-2nd AD centuries, was partially revealed after several archaeological campaigns. They combined surface, geophysical and aerial surveys, in addition of the use of the Spanish National Geographic Institute’s collection of aerial photographs to detect crop marks.
The city was organised in 27 blocks divided by a NW-SE Cardo Maximus. Besides the forum, several building facilities have been detected as a public baths and a 500m² peristyle domus (block 2).
The archaeological campaigns have remarkably developed our nowledge of the civitas and its immediate outskirts. The forum was excavated in 2017. It was paved with big stone slabs and supported by terraces on
several chryptoportici. This campaign focused on three aims. First, a two-store building placed on the forum, used as a taberna in the inferior level and as a public space in the upper floor. Its original purpose ended in the 2nd century AD, even if a squatter reuse was detected by the III century AD. The Southern Portico of the forum was also excavated. A layer of ash representative of a fire dated in the Republican era was detected, perhaps connected with the Sertorian War. Likewise, a section of the Decumanus Maximus was also excavated. Public baths were excavated in 2018, showing actually a similar pattern to the nearby Segobriga´s ones. The analytics carried out by C.S.I.C. were useful to reconstruct the paleo-landscape of Caraca. An intact segment of the 3 km aqueduct was unearthed in 2019. Three silt pools, used to slow down the water speed and clean the impurities, came also to light. Additionally, the I.G.M.E. carried out several analytics at the aqueduct’s caput aquae, placed at the Lucos spring, to study the composition of the water. Finally, the archaeological excavation and survey of 2020 found several post-holes and militaria equipment perhaps connected, as Plutarch described, with the siege of Caraca in the year 77 BC.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Atocha, esparto, manufactura textil, Vía Espartaria, transhumancia, cuenca del Tajo
ABSTRACT: The aim of this work is to provide a first approach to a so evanescent matter as the textile handicrafts on Roman Caraca. Facing the scarcity of positive archaeological sources, we shall perform an interdisciplinary and holistic reading of both Ancient and Modern written sources, the palynological analysis, imprints and undirect elements such as pondera or needles. From this starting point, we trust in to be able to develop this matter on the research to come.
KEYWORDS: Esparto, textile handicraft, “Spartarian Way”, transhumance, Tagus basin
PALABRAS CLAVE: Las Hurdes, minería aurífera, caminería antigua, Romanización, Cáparra
ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH: This paper is our first global approaching to the Archaeology of the Sierra de Francia (Western Spain) and, more exactly, to the Hurdeshire. This is one of the most western segments in the Sistema Central mountain range, an exciting but often bad-known and misunderstood territory, where a noticeable pre-Roman background actually exists. A further approach to this territory also shows some scarce but highly significant traces of Romanization. According to these traces, a Roman road system comes set re-using the ancestral footpaths to cross these mountains, adding possibly also some improvements. This “Hurdanian route” was also connected with the major road system in the Roman Hispania through the most important civitates in the area. On next pages we shall try to stablish some bases, in order to develop further studies, about the deep impact of the Protohistorical (Iron Age II) and Roman phases on this region.
KEYWORDS: Hurdeshire, petroglyphs, gold mining, Roman road system, Romanization, Cáparra
apresenta dados muito relevantespara a análise dos padrões de povoamento rural. Embora considerando as variaçõesregionais, parece claro que o modelo da
villa rustica clássica não sobrevive para além demeados do século V. Este colapso traz novos organizações na paisagem e novos modelosde gestão das propriedades rurais. Por vezes surgem no interior da mesma estrutura quecompunha a
villa rustica. No presente estudo, abordamos a construção de estruturas cris-tãs, como igrejas, altares, eremitérios, e o seu papel nos padrões de povoamento da paisa-gem tardo-antiga cristã. Após a primeira abordagem feita pela Prof. Rosa Sanz Serrano,procuramos analisar o registo arqueológico e uma leitura interdisciplinar deste processo.
PALAVRAS CHAVE - Villa, villula, ecclesia, parochial, paisagem rural, Iberia, transformação.
ABSTRACT - Late Antique Iberia has one of its most interesting and signi?cant sub- jects, in our opinion, in the analysis of settlement patterns in the countryside. Althoughit depends on every regional and local reality, we can assume that the model of Classical
villa rustica doesn´t survive the ?rst half of 5th Century. Tis end brings, however, newrealities of settlements and new manner in order to manage the Iberian countrysides. Tey emerge, sometimes, even over the same structures and sites where the former villae rusticae were placed. We have already studied, in previous works, the ?rst phase ofthese Late Antique rural realities (the so-called, in the written sources,
“villulae”).
Here,in the other hand, we shall try to look for another di?erent phenomenon: the erectionof Christian structures, such churches, parishes, altars,
eremitoria,
etc… and their rolein the new pattern of the Late Antique Christian landscape. After the ?rst look to thissubject made in the last pages by Prof. Dra. Sanz Serrano though texts, we shall managemainly, in the other hand, the archaeological record. In this way we shall try to o?er acombined interdisciplinary approaching to this phenomenon.
KEYWORDS – Villa, villula, ecclesia, parochia,
landscape, Iberia, countryside, transformation
PALABRAS CLAVE: Radio Enlace, alta divulgación, nuevas tecnologías, jóvenes investigadores, punto de encuentro, pedagogía social
ABSTRACT: In next pages we shall tell about our personal experience at managing “Las arenas del tiempo” (“The sands of time”), an historical and archaeological oriented radio broadcast, on air from September 2,011 in the Madridian station Radio Enlace 107.5 F.M. This space employs the new technologies in communication, aiming the working sinergies between researchers, both younger and veteran ones. The final target lays in to build a meeting point for scholars, but specially in to offer stimulating way fo the knowledge of the Past and the Science for the general public, a really important point today. In this sense, this broadcast wants to follow the concept, developed by the English-speaking Historiography, of “high divulgation”.
KEYWORDS: Radio Enlace, high divulgation, new technologies, young researchers, meeting point, social pedagogy.
KEYWORDS: Hurdeshire, petroglyphs, gold mining, ancient Roman road system, Romanization, Cáparra
PALABRAS CLAVE: Reocupación, castros, Romanización, desromanización, Tardoantigüedad
ABSTRACT: One of the most interesting but also unknown phenomena at Late Antiquity is the resettlement over hilltops. Thus, is not uncommon to find new Late Antique phases over ancient Iron Age castra and oppida, abandoned long ago by Romanization. On next pages we shall point the main patterns of this phenomenon in the context of the Late Antique Iberia, but also we shall wonder about who starred it: local powers defending their own interests, “fugitive” population trying to find a shelter or perhaps both initiatives, depending on each case.
KEYWORDS: Resettlement, hillforts, Romanization, Unromanization, Late Antiquity
PALABRAS CLAVE: Reocupación, castros, Romanización, desromanización, Tardoantigüedad
ABSTRACT: One of the most interesting but also unknown phenomena at Late Antiquity is the resettlement over hilltops. Thus, is not uncommon to find new Late Antique phases over ancient Iron Age castra and oppida, abandoned long ago by Romanization. On next pages we shall point the main patterns of this phenomenon in the context of the Late Antique Iberia, but also we shall wonder about who starred it: local powers defending their own interests, “fugitive” population trying to find a shelter or perhaps both initiatives, depending on each case.
KEYWORDS: Resettlement, hillforts, Romanization, Unromanization, Late Antiquity
Palabras clave: Transición, poblamiento, reocupación, dialéctica centros vs periferias
Abstract: This paper is focused upon transition for Late Antiquity (3th-8th centuries) settlement models in the Northern part of the Spanish Central plateau. This ambit, with its own local patterns, maybe works as an excellent theatre for the different transitional solutions between Roman Hispania and the Early Middle Ages Hispanic kingdoms. Our analysis comes mainly through archaeological methodology, but however we won´t forget another different historical sources anyway, in order to stablish an accurate and indispensable interdisciplinary view in the studies upon the Past. It helps also to the necessary overcoming of the heavy localist view that Spanish scholarship have shown in last decades. This view has provided sometimes even the lack of general perspective about main processes in which Iberia is involved in this basic period of its History.
Keywords: Transition, settlement, resettlement, centres vs peripheries dialectics
RESUMEN:En el presente trabajo nos ocupamos de la figura de dos santas cristianas, Eulalia deMérida y Melania la Joven. Ambas tienen en común, aparte de su acceso al santoralcatólico, su vida durante el Bajo Imperio romano, su relación con la Diocesis Hispaniarum y su origen social elitista, que las encuadra en el grupo de los honestiores . No obstante, yaunque sus figuras también presentan importantes diferencias, en ambos casos tras elestereotipo que supone el modelo hagiográfico se encierran realidades sociales de notableinterés histórico. En nuestra opinión, el análisis crítico y científico de las hagiografías deépoca bajoimperial y tardoantigua, absolutamente ajeno a la fe religiosa, ha de constituir unrecurso de primer orden a través del cual poder aproximarnos a la sociedad de su tiempo.Ello supone un campo de estudio que, relativamente inexplorado en la historiografíaespañola, ofrece magníficas perspectivas al historiador.
ABSTRACT:This paper is focused on the figures of two Christian saints, Eulalia of Mérida andMelania the Younger. Both share, in addition to their condition of Catholic saints, their Later Roman age, their relations with the Diocesis Hispaniarum and their elitist social background.However, and although they present also primary differences, in both cases beyond thehagiographical model we find a noticeable interesting historical and social realities. In our opinion, the critical and scientific analysis of the Late Roman and Late Antique hagiographiesis required in order to build a better approach to that society. This relatively unexplored field,at least in Spanish historiography, presents excellent perspectives for the historian.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Eulalia de Mérida, Melania la Joven, hagiografía, HistoriaSocial, élites, Cristianización
KEYWORDS: Eulalia of Mérida, Melania the Younger, hagiography, Social History,elites, Christianization
Tal y como decíamos en el artículo anterior, que puedes leer en este mismo blog, para muchos, el pasado 2020 constituyó un auténtico annus terribilis, también para España, con las terribles consecuencias que todos conocemos. A pesar de ello, nuestra amada disciplina ha progresado en singulares hallazgos que nos permitimos categorizar en un “Top 10” que, como siempre sucede, no están todos los que son (estos listados siempre son caprichosos, dejando fuera otros igualmente meritorios), aunque sí que son todos los que están. Allá vamos: