Tarraconensis

This book offers the first collective discussion, by archaeologists, historians and philologists, of a corpus of six charters (four of which recently discovered) that all came from or are linked to the archive of the monastery of Asán. The various contributions examine the monastery in its territorial context across the centuries, and its economic underpinning through the exploitation of its estates. Also included are explorations of monastic life in the eastern Pyrenees, which provides some of the earliest evidence for it in the peninsula, and consideration of its connections to early Gallic and Italian monasticism. Asán is also the source of the earliest evidence for the use of particular forms of documentary record or charter in the Iberian Peninsula in the post-Roman period. These texts offer unexpected and important information about the legal and administrative practices of the Visigothic monarchy in the late sixth century and of the monastery’s connections to it. Amongst these are its role in providing a succession of bishops for important dioceses in the provinces of Tarraconensis and Narbonensis, in a period normally seen as being marked by religious conflict between church and state. Amongst other bodies of evidence studied here are later texts relating to Asán, including the hagiographic dossiers of Victorianus, abbot of Asán, and of Gaudiosus, bishop of Tarrazona, with new critical editions of several of them being included in this book.

The documentation and analysis of construction techniques in Late Antiquity is not a very widespread objective in the archaeological research on this period, partly due to a still incipient implementation of the archaeology of architecture. This paper seeks to approach the need to perform this task, based on setting out a series of specific techniques which, in a non-homogenisation framework, enable common elements to be recognised. As a preamble, a series of analysis and description criteria are introduced that should be considered in the future when developing global characterisations projects of a historical peridod fundamental to understand the survival of Roman constructions techniques and their influence in the Low Middle Ages.

Les intervencions arqueològiques fetes amb motiu de la rehabilitació de l’antic beateri han permès documentar una seqüència evolutiva de la ciutat des d’època romana fins a l’actualitat: estructures del fòrum provincial, amb la localització d’una nova volta i la documentació de paraments del cos sobre la Volta del Pallol, que aporten noves dades sobre els accessos al fòrum; una important ocupació d’època tardoantiga; la urbanització d’aquest sector en època medieval (carrers, l’edifici gòtic i les dependències monàstiques dels pares predicadors); la construcció del beateri en època moderna (conjunt d’església i convent) i les reformes d’època contemporània

On this paper a review of the research regarding the archaeological area of the Romano-Carpetanian civitas of Caraca is presented. Here, a wide range of sites from the Paleolithic to Late Antiquity, based mainly around of the Virgen de la Muela hill (Driebes, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, Central Spain), have been recognized. On this a small-scale plateau placed near the Tagus River there was a Carpetanian oppidum, evolving later to a Roman city on the Principate period (1st-3rd Centuries AD) powerful enough to organise the nearby territory on the political, economic and social levels for a noticeable period of time. Although there are remains of an earlier Republican phase, the Early Empire urban planning altered deeply the previous archaeological levels, turning its
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.

Berni Millet, P.; Miró Canals, J. (2020). Le vin Léétanien et de Tarraco à Carthage. Contribution de l’épigraphie amphorique à la connaissance du développement économique de la Léétanie à l’époque julio-claudienne Antiquités africaines, 56, 2020, p. 129-159

The article reviews the question of exports of wine amphorae from Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis to Carthage. Delattre’s study of the second wall of amphorae and its re-examination by J. Freed are the starting point, coupled with results from the more recent excavations, notably those of the German Archaeological Institute. Recent publications relating to the amphora production centers of the Citerior Tarraconensis have marked significant advances in the epigraphy and typology of these amphorae. This permits a new summary of these commercial activities. Since Layetania was a major player in this trade, special attention is paid to Lauronense wine.