Research (2003-2005)

The archaeological site of Valdetorres was identified during an exploration project in Vegas del Guadiana. However, research work previous to housing construction together with a new road in the urban area at one end of the town were what contributed to the knowledge of multiphase structures and stratigraphy. Remains of lithic reduction of possibly Paleolithic ancestry were found in the beginning of the sequence along with remains of occupation from the late Neolithic and Chalcolithic period (silos and decontextualized material). Moreover, its protohistoric stages are particularly interesting: one, from the Late Bronze Age, to which some ceramics and one of the so called “ estelas de guerrero ” (stone slabs in which a figure along with his weapons was depicted) belong, and another, from around the 6th century, related to an “ashtray” with ceramic types from the Orientalizing period.

Nevertheless, the most relevant aspect of the whole archaeological sequence is the installation of a Roman military camp from the Republican period. What it is known of the camp is the foundations of a rectilinear wall section about 200m long that is composed of two parallel walls separated from each other by an empty or space filled with earth and connected by transversal walls arranged in similar distances ( emplecton ). Topographically, this wall is longitudinally traced on the eastern side of the platform that, even today, relates to the urban settlement of Valdetorres. Interventions in the interior of this walled enclosure have allowed for the documentation of an interesting superposition of structures (rectangular constructions, pavements and homes) and strata (backfill materials and levels of abandonment).

The material record recovered in those interventions highlights a complex sequence that begins in the third quarter of the 2nd century BC and concludes at an undefined moment of the first quarter of the 1st century BC. One of the most interesting aspects related to the ceramic record is that almost all forms represented are imported types: wine, oil and fish sauces amphorae from the South of Italy, the Tunisia and the Straits; Italic cooking wares, shape imitating black glaze pottery, etc. Together, all these imported types are a representative sample of the Roman military supply from the Republican period.

(translation by Alba López Fregeneda)