Euskaraz irakurri: Erromatar zirku bat eta hirigintza antolatuko beste elementu batzuk aurkitu dituzte Iruña-Veleian

Representatives of the Basque Government, the Provincial Council of Álava and the company Arkikus have today presented at the Iruña-Veleia site in Álava “the very interesting results” produced by research work carried out by Arkikus at the site.

The survey, led by brothers Javier and Iker Ordoño on a surface area of ​​251 hectares, has resulted in the detection of “hundreds of evidence of the presence of buildings and/or infrastructures from Roman times in the subsoil of the site, yet to be brought to light by archaeological science,” Arkikus has highlighted.

Among them, one that stands out for its presence and implications is “an imposing enclosure measuring 280 m in length by 72 m in width; this is the discovery of what, from the images, appears to be a Roman circus, a building for shows where horse-drawn chariot races were held, which, due to its size and according to initial estimates, could have accommodated around 5,000 spectators.”

It would be, as they have pointed out in the appearance, the third known Roman circus in the northern half of the Iberian Peninsula after those of the important Tarraco (provincial capital of Hispania citerior, current Tarragona) and Calagurris (city with the rank of municipalitycurrent Calahorra) and, of them, the only one that preserves its original layout as it is not hidden by current urban planning.

In addition, elements typical of an organized urban planning have been identified in the Alava site both inside and, above all, outside the area known as oppidum or late walled city of Veleia. Thus, “streets (sometimes with porticoes), public spaces, residential neighbourhoods, possible buildings of collective worship and infrastructure related to the water supply or sanitation of the urban fabric, among others, are clearly defined.”

“All of this shows the importance that this city had in the past, not only as an obligatory stop for travellers travelling along Iter XXXIV, the Roman road that ran from Astorga to Bordeaux, but also as an urban nucleus that formed the backbone, in Roman times, of the current Basque territory and its surroundings” they indicated.

Work for several years

The cirque will now be investigated by a multidisciplinary team, in a task that will be carried out “with caution and that will take years.” The discovery made by remote sensing must now be confirmed on the ground, so the investigation will continue with ground-penetrating radar, and later, with ground prospecting, drilling and sampling.

The Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Alava, which are funding the research, have guaranteed that there will be money to continue the work, but have insisted that everything will be done slowly and with caution.

The first signs were found in 2020, and the discovery was made possible by remote sensing of the site’s surface through historical and modern aerial photographs, LiDAR laser scanner mapping and images obtained through drone flights.

Source: Eitb

Bruce

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