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Written by David Mills
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Thursday, 05 November 2009 |
Significant find at Roman settlement in Albir
The discovery of a child’s coffin and its original contents in the remains of the old Roman town in Albir has confirmed the existence of the settlement beyond reasonable doubt.
The latest discovery was announced this week by Carolina Frías, an archaeologist, who is working with an archaeological colleague, Gustavo Olmedo. Together, they head up the team of professionals from the University of Alicante, who are continuing to excavate and uncover the ancient and important history of the area.
The site was originally excavated in 1983 and 1984, when the ‘necrópolis’ or graveyard was first identified. It is thought to have been part of a larger one next to the original Roman town, and is understood to contain nearly 200 graves and a family mausoleum, possibly that of the owners or overseers of the settlement.
The excavations, in a small site behind the Tourist Offices, recommenced last year after a long delay. The latest finds have caused the experts to rethink their strategy and previous perspective. Until now much of their knowledge was speculative based on a small amount of evidence. They now think they have uncovered less than ten per cent of the potential area and therefore it now looks like this could be a much more significant site than first supposed.
In addition to the necropolis and the grave of a tiny baby, Carolina Frías has identified several examples of high quality workmanship and evidence of a hypocaust or under-floor heating. These structures are common in other sites such as Pompey and Herculaneum but rare in the Alicante Province.
What was believed to be s a ’slum town’ now has now taken on a much more up-market appearance. The specific evidence for this was the finding of stonework that had been sealed with concrete (the Romans invented it) and reinforced with steel pins during the construction of the bath house usually used by people from a high order in Roman society. This, together with the remains of a stone hewn water storage tank, known to have been used by the Romans to operate continually flushing toilets leads the experts to ponder yet more mysteries from two thousand years ago.
The amphora and its contents will be recovered and prepared for its later exhibition in the MARQ museum in Alicante along with the other finds such as bronze currency, some marbles and the remains of a decorated necklace.
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