Thursday, March 28

New findings in Regina: “It was a surprising discovery”


“It was a surprising discovery.” This is how archaeologists describe their new finds in Regina. At the beginning of September, archaeologists from the universities of Vienna and Marburg (Germany) returned to the Roman site of the Campiña Sur in Extremadura to discover details of the perimeter of the city and the territory controlled by the ancient Roman city, located in the municipality of Reian Houses. .

Looking for the limits of the urban fabric to the southeast, the archaeologists of this international project in collaboration with the University of Cantabria carried out a 4 by 7 meter survey after detecting “interesting anomalies in the terrain through resistivity electric”.

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 looted on several occasions, walls of remarkable dimensions that belonged to a building of a still unknown nature surfaced. As the days went by and the work progressed, the experts found answers to many of the doubts generated by these structures.

One of the amphorae found in Regina. /

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Amphorae from the 2nd century AD

«An important set of fish salting amphorae has appeared that could be dated to the 2nd century AD. They would come from the south of Hispania, specifically from the Cadiz area. According to the first findings of the archaeologists, “these findings reveal the important commercial relationship of an inland Roman city with the coastal areas of the south.”

Now it is time to analyze the remains found, accurately date the chronology and establish the typology of the amphorae and other exhumed remains. It is 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 is found.

The objective is to know if we are facing a store or a tavern located on the city limits. “Once we have the conclusions, we will propose a more defined hypothesis about the nature of the building,” says Felix Teichner, professor at the University of Marburg (Germany).

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

roman house

At the same time, another smaller survey 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 maximum decumanus, the main street of the city, were found. “It could be a kind of impluvium or a pool. Its depth and also the quality of the work and the materials used are surprising» says Teichner. The exhumed remains are in a very good state of preservation.

Félix Teichner, archaeologist at the University of Marburg, Agustín Castelló, mayor of Casas de Reina, together with Günter Schörner, professor of archeology at the University of Vienna. /

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In the three weeks of work, surface surveys have also been carried out in different locations in the territory controlled by Regina. In this phase of the project and under the direction of Günther Schörner, Professor of Archeology at the Institute of Classical Archeology of the University of Vienna, the work has been extended to areas surrounding Regina, such as the nearby Sierra de San Miguel, where new deposits related to mining in times of Roman occupation. Surface works have also been carried out on many plots in the municipality of Casas de Reina and other nearby towns. A dozen new deposits have been found that were not cataloged. In addition, it has been possible to refine the chronology and functionality of the already known deposits. Schörner emphasizes that Regina «had an intense agricultural activity in pre-Roman and Roman times, the remains show this. It is an ideal place to investigate. There is much to discover and much to study.

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

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

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

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32 people

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

The Foundation for Roman Studies and the National Museum of Roman Art also collaborate in the project.

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


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