Badajoz Province (Extremadura)

Archaeologists from the universities of Marburg, Vienna and Cantabria find an important set of amphorae that reveal the intense trade flow with southern Hispania

"It has been a surprising discovery." This is how archaeologists describe their new findings in Regina. For three weeks in September, the excavations have returned to the Roman site in the southern countryside thanks to the cooperation of three European countries.

Archaeologists from the universities of Vienna and Marburg (Germany), in collaboration with the University of Cantabria, have returned to Casas de Reina to determine the perimeter of the ancient Roman city and the territory it controlled. Until now, it was known that, as an administrative city, it exerted its influence over a vast territory with numerous villas.

Looking for the limits of the urban fabric in the southeast, the archaeologists of this international project have carried out a survey of 4 by 7 meters. They did so where last season they detected "interesting anomalies in the ground by means of electrical resistivity".

Based on previous data, "it was expected to locate perimeter delimitation structures such as a wall or a defensive moat". However, as the excavations progressed in a site that has been plundered on several occasions, walls of notable dimensions came to light that belonged to a building whose nature is still unknown. As the days went by, the experts found answers to many of the doubts generated by these structures.


One of the amphorae found in Regina

Amphorae from the 2nd century A.D.

"An important group of amphorae of salted fish that could be dated to the 2nd century A.D. has been found. They would come from the south of Hispania, specifically from the Cadiz area". According to the first appraisals of the archaeologists, "these findings reveal the important commercial relationship of an inland Roman city with the coastal areas of the south". "It can be seen that there was a very important business between the inland area with the Andalusian coast. With the agriculture that was here, they could buy the products of the coast," says Felix Teichner, archaeologist at the University of Marburg.


"The forms show that there was a very important business between the inland area and the coast of Cádiz".
FELIX TEICHNER

Archaeologist of the University of Marburg

The researchers' goal is to find out whether we are dealing with a warehouse or a tavern located on the edge of the city. "Once we have the conclusions, we will make a more definite hypothesis about the nature of the building," says Teichner.

Last Saturday, the building, with walls more than two meters high, was covered again for its protection while awaiting future interventions.

Now it is time to analyze the remains found, to date the exact chronology and to establish the typology of the amphorae and other remains exhumed from one of the greatest historical-cultural assets of Extremadura. In recent times, groups such as Regina Viva have denounced the "precarious situation" in which, in their opinion, the Roman site finds itself.

Roman house

At the same time, another survey of smaller dimensions was carried out, the results of which have also been fruitful. There, structures covered with hydraulic pavement belonging to a Roman house located next to the decumanus maximus, the main street of the city, were located. "It could be a kind of impluvium or a basin. Its depth is surprising and also the quality of the work and the materials used," says Teichner. The exhumed remains are in a very good state of preservation.


Günter Schörner, professor of archaeology at the University of Vienna, Agustín Castelló, mayor of Casas de Reina, and Félix Teichner, archaeologist at the University of Marburg

During the three weeks of work, surface surveys were also carried out at various locations in the territory controlled by Regina. In this phase of the project and under the direction of Günther Schörner, Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Vienna, the work has been extended to areas surrounding Regina as the nearby Sierra de San Miguel where new sites related to mining in times of Roman occupation have been detected. The surface works have also been carried out in many plots in the municipality of Casas de Reina and other nearby towns. A dozen new deposits have been found that were not catalogued. In addition, the chronology and functionality of the already known sites have been refined. Schörner emphasizes that Regina "had an intense agricultural activity in pre-Roman and Roman times, as evidenced by the remains. It is an ideal place for research. There is much to discover and much to study".

Geophysical surveys have also been carried out in areas close to the site. The objective is to delimit the possible agricultural buildings from which the work of the land was controlled. These prospections, together with the superficial ones, are the fundamental bases of this project, which also has the fundamental support of the University of Cantabria through the archaeologist Jesús Ignacio Jiménez Chaparro. The process begins with the superficial location of materials. Once the site is located, geophysical prospecting is carried out and, as a last step, excavations can be carried out to confirm the data.

As a novelty in this phase of the project, paleobotanical tests have been carried out in order to know what was cultivated in Regina. Two paleobotanists from the University of Emilia Romagna have been in charge of collecting pollen samples from different periods in different areas of the site.

Víctor Martínez Hahnmüller, one of the directors of the project, assures that "all the scientific objectives have been met in this phase of the project. Now it is time to analyze and study all the data collected". It should be noted that the project has also had a didactic character.



32 people

Students from the Universities of Vienna and Marburg have participated in the excavations and have had their first experience in Regina as far as field work is concerned. In total, 32 people have participated in the work that concluded last Saturday and have had significant logistical support from the City Council of Casas de Reina.

The Roman Studies Foundation and the National Museum of Roman Art are also collaborating in the project.

Next spring a new phase of this project will be launched, which will last until 2024 and seeks to reveal how the city of Regina was articulated with the territory it controlled.


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