Cycle “Dialogues with the classical world”, September 6 to December 20, 2017.
HistoryLab
for Civic Engagement
HistoryLab
for Civic Engagement
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Dra. Silvia Orlandi (Sapienza, Università di Roma).
Cycle “Dialogues with the classical world”, September 6 to December 20, 2017.
The Tresminas mining area is one of the most spectacular cultural landscapes in northwest Hispania. About 2000 years ago, a detachment of one of the powerful Roman legions settled in the Serra da Pradela to organise and control the large-scale gold mining of Tresminas and Jales (Vila Pouca de Aguiar, Vila Real, Portugal).
The spectacular traces of this exploitation can still be seen at Tresminas: two large mining cuttings (Covas and Ribeirinha) and a smaller one (Lagoinhos), as well as deep galleries dug mainly to allow the treatment and evacuation of all the extracted rock and an extensive network of water supply channels for the mines, which start in dams and end in storage reservoirs.
Galeria dos Alargamentos
There are also enormous dumps that fill the valleys and one of the most characteristic elements of this mining area: a large number of granite pestle and mortar mills used in the final grinding of the ore.
But there also remain important testimonies of the men and women who lived and worked in Tresminas, and who died there in the first two centuries of our Era. As a result of the activity carried out there for more than 200 years, these gold mines have become one of the most important in the entire Roman Empire. Today, the gold mining territory of Tresminas, being the most complex and best preserved and extending over several kilometres, is the most important in Roman Portugal.
On the occasion of the publication of the book Corrupta Roma, by Dr. Pedro Ángel Fernández-Vega, the Museum is organising a round table discussion that will offer a portrait of corruption in ancient Rome and the mechanisms that dealt with it. Bribes, influence peddling, misappropriation, electoral scuffles between political factions, elections won with votes bought in the circus, trials of dubious impartiality… Woven into networks of patronage that linked business groups with the political class, corruption emerged in the form of scandals, as it became endemic in the system. “Those who steal from a private individual spend their lives between handcuffs and shackles; those who steal from the state, between gold and purple” (Marcus Porcius Cato).
The Roman villa of Noheda is located in the town of Villar de Domingo García (Cuenca-Spain). Among its structures is the imposing triclinium of trichora morphology, which measures 290.64 m2. It is in this room that an exceptional mosaic has been preserved, measuring 231.62 m2, made mostly with opus vermiculatum based on tesserae of up to 1.5 mm in a very varied chromatic range.
The ornamental morphology of this floor consists, on the one hand, of a large rectangular area that fits the main space of the room, where more than a hundred figures – some life-size – are profusely arranged in scenic groups, distributed in the space between a wide band of acanthus leaves and the fountain that occupies the centre of the room.
The figurative paintings are arranged in six independent but interrelated rectangular strips, with themes of mythological allegories, depictions of various ludi and allusions to literary and theatrical genres, which underlines their originality.
The Project of Excellence Methodology for the archaeological study of battlefields and sieges in the context of the Second Punic War: Metauro, Iliturgi and Castulo (207/206 BC) (HAR2016-77847-P), aims to address, among other case studies, the archaeological analysis of the Iberian oppidum of Iliturgi and its leading role in the Second Punic War. Iliturgi and its territory become a laboratory to contrast different models of historical-archaeological interpretation proposed for other Iberian oppida and territories of the Upper Guadalquivir.
This research project aims to provide a novel reading of a specific territory, a reading that takes into account recent theoretical models that consider the complexity of the dialectic established between the conqueror and the conquered, the models of resistance, transformation, acceptance, imitation, emulation, hybridisation… that will lay the foundations for subsequent Romanisation, understood as a heterogeneous and local form of adaptive response to the new cultural, social, political and economic circumstances.
The town of Sisapo, identified with the site of La Bienvenida (Ciudad Real), is part of a systematic research project that has been underway for more than three decades.
In addition to its intrinsic interest as a thriving centre since its foundation at the end of the Late Bronze Age, it is also a mining capital that managed the cinnabar and silver resources of the rich northern regions of Sierra Morena in Roman times.
The archaeological excavations carried out over the last decade in different sectors of the Neapolis have considerably renewed and expanded our knowledge of the early stages of the Greek emporium. The work carried out in the central area of the city, in the agoraestoa sector and also in the northwest area, has provided new data on the urban planning and urban configuration of the 6th-5th centuries BC, as well as on the connection between the city and the ancient natural harbour that extended between the Neapolis and the foundational nucleus of the Palaia Polis.
The launch of a new archaeological research project (2018-2021) focused on the study of the port areas of Emporion, which includes the excavation of the port district of the Neapolis and the structures currently preserved on the coastal façade, as well as various prospecting and geological surveys, is an excellent opportunity to renew the current historical discourse and to propose new hypotheses for future work.
Rome has left a strong influence on today’s world, and modern society is undoubtedly indebted to ancient Rome: the ways of accessing and using power; public services; medicine; forms of entertainment; eating habits, etc. These are all aspects that have left their mark on our society. Over the course of eight lectures, we will look at some of these aspects of the life and customs of the ancient Romans. The upbringing and education of children, the toys and games of chance that the Romans were so fond of, food, jewellery, clothing, places of worship, the organisation of time, political participation and health. All these aspects were part of a society that marked the history of Europe and the world.
The town of Medellín in Badajoz is currently one of the most important archaeological sites in Extremadura. The first archaeological excavation campaign was carried out in 1969. Since then, considerable progress has been made in the knowledge of the diachrony of occupation of this enclave, with prehistoric, Oriental, Roman, Muslim, Christian and modern-contemporary remains being documented. The archaeological work carried out in recent years has made it possible to transform the abandoned ruins of the Roman theatre of Metellinum into one of the main monuments of this autonomous community. Also, the declaration of Medellín as an Asset of Cultural Interest has made it necessary to carry out archaeological interventions in the works being carried out in that town, and this has made it possible to locate other important archaeological remains of which their existence was unknown.
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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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