Edición Roman Army – The Roman Army in the NW of Hispania

Identificado en Villacete (León) uno de los mayores campamentos militares romanos del noroeste peninsular

► Podría estar vinculado al asedio de la ciudad ástur de Lancia, hasta el momento sin evidencias arqueológicas.

► Las investigaciones se desarrollaron en los años 2020-21, pero han visto ahora la luz tras un exhaustivo proceso de revisión científica.

Posición y extensión del campamento de Villacete y relación con el poblado de Lancia (Imagen de los autores del artículo).

Oviedo/Uviéu, 7 de diciembre de 2023. Un recinto militar de gran tamaño, con capacidad entre 13.000 y 18.000 soldados, ha sido identificado recientemente en las proximidades de Villacete (Valdefresno, León). Con 28 ha de superficie, se trata de “uno de los mayores campamentos militares reconocidos hasta el momento en el noroeste peninsular”, señalan los investigadores Andrés Menéndez Blanco (Universidad de Oviedo), Víctor Vicente García (Veterum Arqueólogos) y João Fonte (Universidad de Exeter). El campamento romano, localizado a partir de diferentes técnicas de teledetección, puede estar vinculado al asedio del próximo yacimiento de El Castro (Villasabariego, León), identificado por diversos autores como la ciudad de Lancia de los ástures. El hallazgo, junto con otros cinco campamentos inéditos, acaba de ser publicado en el artículo: “De las fuentes escritas a las técnicas de teledetección: aportaciones sobre la presencia del ejército romano en la cuenca del Esla (León y Zamora)”, disponible en el número 21 de la revista Studia Historica. Historia Antigua de la Universidad de Salamanca [link].

Publications, Techniques

TRAIL 2016

Last May (17-20) our colleague João Fonte participated in the TRAIL 2016 (Training and Research on the Archaeological Interpretation of LiDAR), held at the Domaine National de Chambord (Loir-et-Cher, Francia). He had the opportunity there to interact with the most important European specialists and to learn about the application of aerial LiDAR in the study of archaeological landscapes. This is the third edition of this “international meeting on LiDAR applications for archaeology”.

Sites, Techniques

Torre de Modorra

Thanks to the massive ingestion of sugar during Christmas time, we had enough energy to do some field work. We take advance of the fact of returning home and we move to the Portuguese transmontane lands, specifically to the municipality of Vinhais.

Publications, Sites

Exploring the Serra da Padrela (Portugal)

A new issue of the journal Estudos do Quaternário (edited by the Portuguese Association for the Study of the Quaternary) was recently published. It includes a paper by our colleagues João Fonte and José Manuel Costa-García “Alto da Cerca (Valpaços, Portugal): a Roman military settlement in the Padrela Mountain and its relation to the mining district of Tresminas“.

Stories

PLAYING WITH THE PAST AND REFLECTING ON THE PRESENT

During Christmas days everybody looks back and remembers with some nostalgia their childhood, when they waited for the arrival of the Magi with illusion. When RomanArmy.eu celebrates its first year of life, the toys take us to a reflection we want to share with all of you.

Publications

A multivocal project

These days the latest issue of the newsletter The European Archaeologist (TEA), edited by the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), has been released. A paper written by the Romanarmy research group as a whole was there published.

Stories

Men in the Mountains: Visions of a (pretty) Unattractive Story for Women

It was a while ago when my six male colleagues left the mountains behind, so now I find myself writing this post-post after a period of certain rest. During their field research in Asturias, I was following the campaign in Braga via email and WhatsApp messages. I have this very last image of these men in my mind as they headed into the fog, shuffling their heavy feet. They were dragging the tiredness of the previous few days and, perhaps, the nostalgy of something coming to an end. They were closing a campaign with a very good feeling, giving answers to some issues while at the same time also raising new ones.

Publications, Sites

Returning to Campos

These days our colleagues Rebeca Blanco-Rotea, Jose Costa, João Fonte and Manuel Gago received good news. Their paper “A Modern Age redoubt in a possible Roman camp. The relationship between two defensive models in Campos (Vila Nova de Cerveira, Minho Valley, Portugal)” was released as part of the latest volume of Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (JAS-REP).

Publications

The invisible war

28144335740_3505877b27_o — Photo Courtesy of TEDxGalicia (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

On 16^th July, TEDx Galicia 2016 was held in the City of Culture (Santiago de Compostela). Through the main topic “what is the future made of?” the event aimed to reflect on the importance of past and present in shaping the future and, therefore, of our own responsibility in its design. Throughout the day, several interventions allowed to explore various visions of everyday life, trying to open our approach to reality as well as to define where do we walk as individuals and as a society.

Publications

Baltic air: 22nd Annual Meeting of the EAA

Vilnius was the city chosen by the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) for its annual meeting in 2016. Around 1600 people were at the capital of Lithuania for the most relevant periodic meeting in the European archaeological research.