Núria Romaní (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and David Castellana (Museu de Guissona) recently paid us a visit to bring all the soil samples from the summer campaigns from Guissona (Catalonia). This year, we will also study samples from the Roman fortification of Puig Castellar.
Featured image. Left to right: David Castellana (Museu de Guissona), Núria Romani (UAB), Alexandra Livarda & Theoni Baniou (ICAC)
The Guissona samples come from two excavation sectors: an area attached to the baths, from the late antique phase (possibly 5th century AD) and also from levels that fill some scraps of the paving of a decumanus of the city, probably from the 1st-2nd c. AD. The samples were either floated at Guissona or they will be floated at ICAC, to then proceed with the archaeobotanical analysis. We also received the last samples from the well that was excavated in 2017 in Guissona, which will allow us to complete its study.
Excavations in the Roman municipium of Iesso began more than thirty years ago as part of a research project led by the Classical Archeology team of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). The excavation area is located in the modern town of Guissona, and linked with the Museum of Guissona – two spaces that in combination promote research and dissemination regarding the Roman past of the area.
Puig Castellar is a site dated to 180-120 BC. It is a Roman military castellum (fortification), created to control the territory and an important communications’ point in the area, in a phase prior to the foundation of Iesso. It was also a support settlement for troops in transit and for the provision of military supplies during the period, especially during the Celtiberian Wars (154-133 BC). It is a small fortification (1.6 ha), with a central command building, following Italic construction techniques, and a series of productive spaces and troop barracks attached to the inner face of the wall. This year’s samples come precisely from these attached rooms inside the wall, some from a space for metallurgical processing and iron reduction, and the others from one of the rooms intended for the troops.
Learn more about the project: https://giap.icac.cat/2021/11/29/stories-from-the-wells-how-the-roman-wells-of-guissona-can-shed-new-light-on-life-in-the-past/
This research is funded by Iesso’s Quadriennal projects (Generalitat de Catalunya, ARQ001SOL-153-2022 & ARQ001SOL-117-2022), I+D+i project (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2019-104120GB-100) the Ajuntament de Guissona, the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC).
