ager Tarraconensis

El presente artículo resume los objetivos y principales resultados de la investigación que desarrollamos en nuestra tesis doctoral, Estudio de la mujer a través de los epitafios. Rituales y honores funerarios en la Colonia Tárraco. En ella nos propusimos hacer una revisión de las inscripciones funerarias que recibieron las mujeres de la Tarragona
romana y el "ager tarraconensis", ofreciendo un detallado análisis del patrón de conmemoración fúnebre en el ámbito femenino.

This paper presents a brief description of the archaeological research over the land and the city of Tarraco, the ancient capital of prouincia Hispania Tarraconensis and one of the main points of spread of Hispanic Christianism. Although Tarraco was the last capital under Imperial control and the first Hispanic metropolitan see, the city acquired a secondary role respect other hispanic cities during late antiquity. This evolution determinated the development of Tarraco during the 7th  century, but archaeologies identify an important architectural vitality on the 6th  century at the same time that other episcopals cities did. During this period, the final Christianization of symbolic spaces of the ancient paganism was developed establishing the ideological bases of medieval urbanism that today is already preserved. The paper analyzes also the sites with interpretative doubts as well as with a description of rural settlements, where archaeological knowledge is not so much due to archaeological difficulties to study new constructive models and to more related material culture.

L’excavació d’assentaments de tipus militar (castella) i les troballes d’objectes militars (militaria) en alguns punts del Camp de Tarragona, ha despertat el debat sobre els efectes de les guerres civils del segle I aC a Tàrraco i la seva àrea d’influència. En aquest treball avaluarem l’impacte de les guerres entre Sertori, Pompeu i Cèsar en territorio tarragoní. Aquest estudi es centra en tres grans apartats: les fonts escrites, les fonts arqueològiques i la informació que podem obtenir a través dels Sistems d’Informació Geogràfica. En primer lloc analitzarem les fonts antigues (romanes, gregues i cristianes) que ens parlen de l’impacte d’aquests conflictes al nord-est peninsular. Amb aquesta informació i la interpretació que n’han realitzat els principals investigadors, catalogarem els principals episodis de tensió militar i bèl·lica a la zona catalana. A partir de les fonts arqueològiques obtindrem dades sobre la ciutat de Tàrraco i el poblament del seu ager. Podrem determinar si l’arqueologia aporta realment dades sobre la tensió militar d’aquests moments. En el tercer gran bloc estudiarem les relacions de visibilitat dels principals castella i aportarem alguns mapes que ens ajudin a entendre com s’articulava el control del poder romà sobre el Camp. Aquest treball ens ajudarà a interpretar l’impacte de les guerres civils al nord-est peninsular i a l’àrea d’influència de la capital de la Citerior.

Aquest volum recull els treballs sobre el poblament, basats en prospeccions extensives de tota l’àrea d’estudi, en prospeccions intensives de tres transsectes, i en l’estudi dels materials de les col·leccions públiques i privades. Aquests treballs, amb l’estudi dels materials recollits en les prospeccions, s’han sistematitzat en una base de dades i han estat objecte d’un important tractament de conjunt. En alguns jaciments s’han fet prospeccions geofísisques i en alguns fins i tot alguna excavació. La base de dades on s’ha recollit tota la documentació, amb l’aplicació d’un SIG, ha permès arribar a conclusions sobre aspectes com la relació dels establiments amb la geologia i la fertilitat dels sòls, la visibilitat, l’evolució cronològica del poblament i la classificació dels jaciments. També s’han estudiat els indicis que permeten reconstruir el sistema econòmic dels establiments de l’ager Tarraconensis, entre els quals destaquen les terrisseries. Com a exemples representatius i especialment treballats, es dedica un capítol a la terrisseria del Mas d’en Corts, un altre al de la Canaleta i un altre a les produccions d’antefixes.

The inscriptions on instrumentum domesticum in this catalogue are part of the inventory of Roman archaeological
finds made in recent years in the western part of the territory of Tarragona as part of the “Ager Tarraconensis Project (atp): A study of the archaeological landscape on the right of the River Francolí (2005-2009)” carried out by the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology.

We are presenting the corpus of epigraphy on amphoras tiles, imbrices and doliae documented for this research.

The Roman villa dels Antigons, in Reus, was one of the richest and most
important agricultural concerns in the territory of the city of Tarraco. The farm was in operation between the second century BC and the seventh century AD. In the Imperial Age a rich residence was built for the owner with remains of a nymphaeum, baths, sculptures, marble and mosaics. Many major economic activities have been identified. Many bone tools have been found in the excavations that reveal the presence of a textile workshop.

La vil·la romana dels Antigons (Reus, tocant amb la Canonja) fou una de les més riques de l’ager Tarraconensis, raó per la qual ha merescut un tractament monogràfic. El nom ja indica la rellevància de les restes que s’hi han trobat des del segle XIX. És un jaciment dissortat, però: la construcció d’un complex industrial els anys 70 el va destruir en gran part i avui no en queda cap resta visible.

En les excavacions d’urgència entre el 1976 i el 1979 es va recollir una importantíssima documentació. Destaca un forn del segle I dC on es produïen materials constructius i àmfores vineres. La vil·la experimentà un moment de gran riquesa la primera meitat del segle III, com ho indica el luxós nimfeu decorat amb estàtues, així com l’important abocador del mateix moment, que ha permès estudiar un abundantíssim conjunt de ceràmiques romanes. La vil·la perdurà almenys fins al segle V, i hi ha traces de freqüentació i ús en època visigòtica.

English

The aim of this book is to present an ‘archaeomorphological’ and historical study of the rural hinterland of the ancient civitas of Tarraco during the Late Republican or Late Iberian period. Geographically called Camp de Tarragona, this plain runs between a chain of mountains and the Mediterranean coastline, drained by the rivers Francolí and Gaià.

A wide range of historical sources (literature, epigraphy, numismatics and archaeology) have been considered, suggesting several changes in this landscape in many respects. Especially significant are the variations in the ‘settlement pattern’ from the Middle Iberian Period to the Early Empire, as shown from our archaeological data, listing sites and their chronology. The latter half of the Second Century BC becomes crucial in order to explain these changes as severe transformations in the ‘settlement pattern’ may be attached to it. Probably, they were related to a Roman cadaster, whose objective was to settle down indigenous populations in new locations, according to Rome’s main policy, at the time, on provincial exploitation. Equally important is how Tarraco consolidated itself as a real Roman civitas. From the second half of the First Century BC to the time of Augustus, pottery production (esp. wine amphorae) and new rural settlements started to develop increasing. This development was the result of the implementation of the wine industry, clearly supported by a widespread expansion of the new ‘villae system’ in Tarraco’s territorium.

As soon as the archaeological material had been studied and related to the rest of our historical information, the attention focused on the morphological patterns of this region in Antiquity, from the evidence available in the present landscape (the so called ‘archaeomorphologic study’). Following the methodology established by the Centre de Recherches d’Histoire Ancienne de l’Université de Franche-Comté (Besançon, France), a main orientation (27º E to the North) has been detected in the landscape. This seems to correspond to a theoretical ‘orthogonal net’ of a centuriatio measuring 20 X 20 actus and 710 m. However, another modulation of the same centuriatio and even other orientations corresponding to other cadasters might be traced on the same landscape.

I believe that this cadaster should be dated to the latter half of the Second Century BC Unfortunately, we cannot fix such a date due to the modulation of the cadaster itself, because this kind of limitatio (20 X 20 actus) does not provide a precise chronology. Thus, our dating has to take into account the changes in the ‘settlement pattern’, namely the establishment of a cadaster, produced by the Roman intervention in the area.

The canonical name Dressel 2-4 had been used traditionally in scientific studies to nominate the most representative roman wine amphora from the High Roman Empire, especially those produced in the western Mediterranean basin. This is a generic and ambiguous definition including three Dressel CIL XV’s successive types. As we will see, this three types have different meaning, although a common economic function and a related design. Since 1971, when André Tchernia brought to the international community the existence of kilns in Catalonia to produce this kind of amphora, the concept of “Dressel 2-4 tarraconensis” become the standard denomination in almost all the studies published to date. To understand its raison d’être, the nature of the name, and its scientific limits as a typological classification, we start from a new, and yet necessary, general analysis of all the published data existing on the subject. The result of this work has been the construction of the first descriptive model to precisely date the Laietana amphorae. Finally, the systematization of evolutionary sub-types over time has revealed a change in the commercial dynamics of wines by the conjuncture “quality versus quantity”.

Berni Millet, P. (2015) "Novedades sobre la tipología de las ánforas Dressel 2-4 tarraconenses".  Archivo español de arqueología, 88. pp. 187-201

Los estudios dedicados a profundizar en diversos aspectos de la historia de la antigua "Colonia Ivlia Vrbs Trivmphalis Tarraco", especialmente desde el punto de vista arqueológico, han vivido en los últimos veinte años un extraordinario crecimiento. El presente libro (reelaboración y puesta al día de la tesis doctoral del autor) es una buena muestra de ello y, sin duda, un extraordinario exponente del grado de madurez científica alcanzado por buena parte de los profesionales que en Tarragona investigan sobre el tema. Concretamente, la obra realiza un estudio crono-tipológico de las ánforas encontradas en "Tarraco" en unos contextos estratigráficos de manera tardía, incluyendo la documentación necesaria para insertar el análisis de las piezas encontradas en el contexto de su época y de las relaciones comerciales de la ciudad con el resto del Mediterráneo Occidental.

The «Ager Tarraconensis Project» (PAT in Catalan) has studied an area of the Baix Camp region, focusing on landscape studies. An evaluation of sites of military importance has shown that, within the PAT area of study, visual control points from Iberian times did not survive into the Roman era. The Romans set up military control points next to the main towns from the Iberian era, as well as some strategic points on the coastal hills. The structure of the countryside’s population also underwent a radical change in the 2nd and 1st century BC, together with a totally new division of agricultural land. A study of how water was managed has provided important findings for the countryside. It has been deduced that the significant linen production industry mentioned in various sources was located on the banks of the River Francolí due to the location of bleaching grounds in this area. The irrigation channels that brought water from dams on the Francolí River and the rivercourse of Maspujols supplied potteries, crops and bath and fountain installations for the villas. In summary, these are very significant developements in the subsequent evolution of the landscape at the Camp de Tarragona.

We present in this paper the results of the application of several visual methods on a group of locations, dated between VI and I centuries BC, of the ager Tarraconensis (Tarragona, Spain) a Hinterland of the Roman colony of Tarraco. The difficulty in interpreting the diverse results in a combined way has been resolved by means of the use of statistical methods, such as Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and K-means clustering analysis. These methods has allowed us to carry out site classifications in function of the landscape's visual structure that contains them and of the visual relationships that culd be given among them.

The archaeological excavations undertaken between 2013 and
2014 at the Bayer Material Science Chemical Park (La Canonja,
Tarragona) brought to light a magnificent Roman villa with different
architectural and chronological phases ranging from the 1st to
7th century AD. This study presents the results of the study of the
pottery uncovered in a refuse tip dating from the end of the 3rd
century probably linked to Frankish raids.

A reflection on the epigraphy of the area researched by the Ager Tarraconensis Project (PAT) in relation to the sites in which the inscriptions were found, according to documents collected in the project’s database and GIS maps. This has resulted in an overall picture of how some  families of the local oligarchy projected their power and economic activity on the territory.

This is a summary of the first results of the Ager Tarraconensis project and the contributions to the symposium, plus conclusions and new ideas concerning the environmental study of the entire area of the Roman city and the landscape taken as a whole system. The contributions focus on the variety of the first Roman territorial control strategies, the typologies and evolution of sites, economic aspects and population dynamics. All this refers especially to Tarraco, although many comparisons are made with other regions in the Catalan area, Saguntum and other Roman provinces. Tarraco emerges as a very productive city territorium, not only in agriculture, but also in industry, textile manufacture and the exploitation of resources such as stone and iron. It also had a very active trade that turned it into a major port in the western Roman Mediterranean. The hierarchy of rural sites is proving to be more complex as we learn of new settlements. Developments subsequent to the Roman period have also come under discussion, especially focusing on the Islamic period. It was discussed whether the Camp was deserted or not, an issue that was positively resolved by the pollen diagram undertaken as part of the project.

Un assaig amb els clars i els obscurs d'aquest jaciment excavat en els tres darrers anys. Una caserna militar? D'època republicana? Sertorinana o Pomepeiana? Una prolongació del poder de la ciutat de Tàrraco sobre el territori? Una prolongació de les seves muralles? Després de tres anys en els intestints d'aquesta muntanya de pedres, aportem algunes notes. Encara hi queda molt per fer i molt per viure.