The motivation behind archaeological work conducted on this site in March 2006 was the construction of a new six story building with garage and a commercial premise. The area of archaeological intervention was subject to the extent to which the construction altered or removed the subsoil, the estimated slope height being -3 m in relation to street level. The lot, more or less of rectangular shape, had a total surface area of 207 m2 and is located inside the protected area of the Roman Fish-salting Factory, declared Patrimony of Cultural Interest inside the Archaeological Sites category.

The main goal of the intervention was to provide new historical and archaeological data about this area of the municipality, with the purpose of learning more about its urban development during the late Roman period and its relation with other neighboring excavations such as the ones in Francisco Yúfera Street, Era Street, Esperanza Street and Plaza del Mar, among others.

This excavation resulted in the discovery of levels from ancient times in the lot as well as data to prove how they are related to the stratigraphic results obtained from the various archaeological interventions carried out on this area of Puerto de Mazarrón. After removing the first level of debris from the demolition of the building, a first construction phase of contemporary period was documented. This first phase points to a continued occupation from the 19th century until the present.

Apart from documenting the original stratigraphy of the area, we have verified that the oldest construction phase dates from the 4th-6th centuries AD and that this piece of land would have acted as a dump. A stratum composed of brown colored earth and loamy soil with numerous ceramic fragments from the previously mentioned centuries was discovered. The ceramic material is a compound of fragments of amphoras, tiles, pots, jars and fragments of sigillata africana D (Hayes 91 C, 67, 61 B and 49) along a wide range of locally produced ceramic fragments and other metal and bone objects.

This level where the dump would have been consists of the whole intervened area below the contemporary filling levels, with a varying depth of 50-60 cm and a maximum height of -2,21 m. The dump would be possibly related to the population center established in this area of Puerto, located at the nearby Era Street.

Lastly, below this dump stratum, a level composed of ash and coal of 2-5 cm in depth was documented. This compound was found in pockets that spread out inside the whole intervened area except for the eastern area of the lot, where there is no trace of them. This stratum would be related to the ash and coal debris from cleaning the furnaces that possibly existed nearby as the ones documented in 48 Corredera Street. This confirms the existence of artisan workshops and large dumps in this area, also documented in other spots of the port during this period.

(translation by Virginia González Martín & Sara María Cabrera Martín)