Los Bañales is a Roman archaeological site located in the municipality of Uncastillo, in the northwestern part of the province of Zaragoza, Spain. It is located in the region of the Cinco Villas, with extensive occupation before, during, and after the Roman period. The site is a case study for the archaeological study of urbanization, cultural change, imperialism, trade and exchange, landscape, and social history.
The site consists of a city whose name remains unconfirmed, although it is likely to have been Tarraca. It occupies an area of more than , bounded on the north by a monumental residential space, on the south by two sizeable hills, on the east by the elevated remains of a Roman aqueduct, and on the west by a necropolis. Large monumental thermal baths were constructed at the end of the 1st century CE and an aqueduct transported water to the city from a nearby reservoir. The current name of the site comes from the hermitage of Our Lady of The Baths (Nuestra Señora de Los Bañales), which was built within what is now the archaeological area.ANDREU, J.: Guía histórico-arqueológica. La ciudad romana de Los Bañales, Uncastillo (Zaragoza), 2012
In the early years of work at the site, only the extensive hydraulic system was studied in detail. Since 2008 research has resumed and new architectural spaces and material culture have been uncovered, including domestic, commercial, and possibly religious structures and artefacts as well as evidence for Roman, late antique, and medieval occupation. At present the project has the support of the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage of the Government of Aragon, the District of the Cinco Villas and the municipalities of Uncastillo, Sádaba, Layana and Biota.
Bien de Interés Cultural(declared in 2003)BOA, 24 de marzo de 2003 - Resolución de 7 de marzo de 2003, de la Dirección General de Patrimonio Cultural, iniciando el procedimiento de delimitación del yacimiento arqueológico denominado «Los Bañales», en el término municipal de Uncastillo (Zaragoza), y de su entorno de protección, y abriendo un periodo de información pública.
Historical background Los Bañales lies in a territory that ancient sources such as Pliny the Elder, Ptolemy, Livy, and Strabo attribute to the Vascones, a people that occupied the territories of present-day Navarre and the Cinco Villas from Aragon to the River Gállego. As such, in the Roman period it would have belonged to the jurisdiction of Caesaraugusta, present-day Zaragoza. Communication was maintained by means of a road network that linked the ports of Tarraco (Tarragona) and Oiasso (Irún) through Caesaraugusta and Pompelo (Pamplona). Before arriving at Los Bañales, that same route passed through the Roman city in Ejea de los Caballeros, perhaps the Segia of ancient sources. Part of this route probably led through Los Bañales as far as Aquitania through the old Roman cities located in (Sofuentes) and Campo Real / Fillera (Sos del Rey Católico-Sangüesa). The existence of such a highly interconnected social and economic network might help explain the monumentality of Los Bañales and other nearby cities.ANDREU, J.: Guía histórico-arqueológica. La ciudad romana de Los Bañales, Uncastillo (Zaragoza), 2012, p. 38.
The Romans arrived in the area around 195 BCE. We do not know the name that the indigenous inhabitants had for the city at that time. Many names have been proposed - Clarina, Muscaria, Atiliana - but what is currently considered more plausible is Tarraca, the Terracha listed in the Ravenate (IV 43 - 311,11) which is a ciuitas foederata according to the lists of Pliny (Nat. 3, 24) concerning the legal convent of Caesaraugusta, the Tarraga vascona cited by Ptolemy (U 6, 66), in the way of Caesaraugusta to Pompelo, although this route is not mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary.ROLDÁN, J.M.:Itineraria hispana. Fuentes antiguas para el estudio de las vías romanas en la Península Ibérica, Valladolid‐Granada, 1975, p. 127. Only the future appearance of a public inscription in which the name of the city appears would resolve the question.
According to the latest known data, the city had - at least in its lower and most monumental part – an initial and almost complete abandonment around the third century CE. This resulted in a transfer of its local elites to rural estates, which they had exploited since the first century BCE, and a retraction of its settlement towards the central hill of El Pueyo, where settlement seems to survive until the 9th century CE.ANDREU, J.: “Rationes rei publicae uexatae y oppida labentia. La crisis urbana de los siglos II y III d. C. a la luz del caso del municipio de Los Bañales de Uncastillo (Zaragoza, España)”, en VAQUERIZO, D., GARRIGUET, J. A., y LEÓN, A (eds.): Ciudad y territorio: transformaciones materiales e ideológicas entre la época clásica y el Altomedioevo], Córdoba, 2014, pp. 251-264.
History of archaeological activity In June 1931, the Gaceta de Madrid, predecessor of the Official State Gazette, included Los Bañales de Uncastillo and other monuments in the area, such as the Mausoleum of the Atilii and the Sádaba Synagogue in the National Artistic Treasury. Seventy years later, in March 2003, these sites were declared to be of cultural interest by the Directorate General of Heritage of the Government of Aragon.1 From 1931 to 2003, the site was the scene of archaeological actions on three occasions:
Between 1942 and 1947 directed by José Galiay. This team excavated the baths, El Pueyo, the area of the two columns and the northwest corner of the forum, which Galiay interpreted as a temple.GALIAY, J.: Las excavaciones del Plan Nacional de Los Bañales de Sádaba (Zaragoza)], Madrid, 1944.GALIAY, J.: Segunda campaña del Plan Nacional en Los Bañales (Zaragoza), Madrid, 1949.
Between 1972 and 1979 directed by Antonio Beltrán. This team excavated the thermal baths in their totality -including its reconstruction- a quarter in El Pueyo, already excavated by Galiay. They carried out complete studies on the aqueduct and the hydraulic system, and in the last campaigns, they re-excavated the zone of the two columns, erroneously treated as a macellum - market-place -.BELTRÁN MARTÍNEZ, A.: “Excavaciones arqueológicas de Los Bañales, Uncastillo (Zaragoza), 1975”], Noticiario Arqueológico Hispánico, 5, Madrid, 1977, pp. 62-68.ANDREU, J., y BELTRÁN MARTÍNEZ, A.: “Las excavaciones arqueológicas de Los Bañales”, CAESARAVGVSTA, 82, 2011, pp. 101-159. Between 1998 and 2001 directed by José María Viladés and Miguel Ángel Zapater. They excavated an area east of the baths.
Currently and without interruption since 2008, the site is the subject of a Research Plan commissioned by the Directorate General of Heritage of the Government of Aragon to the Uncastillo Foundation and directed by the archaeologist Juan José Bienes and the historian Javier Andreu.
Since 2015, Los Bañales has had a constantly growing Virtual Museum hosted on the Sketchfab platform which is one of the platforms most commonly used by heritage projects and institutions. The museum collects 3D digitalizations of all types of archaeological material - from structures to objects of material culture - not only from Los Bañales but also from other archaeological sites in the District of Las Cinco Villas. On September 30, 2016, the Los Bañales archaeological project was awarded the Local / Regional prize in the First Edition of the Sísifo Awards for research, defense and dissemination of the Archaeological Heritage, promoted by the Sisyphus Research Group of the University of Córdoba through its project of Scientific Culture - Arqueología Somos Todos (We are all Archaeology)- highlighting the commitment to the dissemination and socialization of heritage that, since 2008, has been developing in Los Bañales. The award ceremony took place at the University of Córdoba on October 27, 2016.
Campaign seasons at Los Bañales since 2008YearExcavationSurveySeasons in El PueyoGeoarchaeology 2008 Season I, II y III 2009 Season I Season IV 2010 Season II.Season V 2011 Season III.Season VI Season I 2012 Season IVSeason VIISeason I y IISeason II 2013 Season V.Season VIIISeason IIISeason III 2014 Season VISeason IXSeason IVSeason IV 2015 Season VIISeason X Season V 2016 Season VIII.Season XI 2017 Season IXSeason XII 2018 Season X
Urban center To the south of the municipality of Uncastillo lies a broad area known as Los Bañales. The area contains the remains of a large Roman city whose name is still debated. Study of the site enables us to understand the principle difficulties that Rome faced in establishing urban centers in such locations. Nonetheless, it is one of the most prosperous and monumental urban centers in the Ebro valley. While study of the site is ongoing, the site has already yielded magnificent examples of Roman public and private architecture, and hydraulic engineering
El Pueyo Archaeological examination of the city has calculated that the city of Los Bañales occupied an area of approximately 24 hectares, between the southern slope of the hill of El Pueyo and the mound of El Huso and La Rueca (503m), all the way to the bottom of the valley, where two large round stones in a vertical position were raised in the Roman era and bear (images/inscriptions) of old legends of giants and Sasones, possibly one of the city's boundary markers along the passing road.
The hill of El Pueyo, a small promontory 567 meters in height and a little less than a hundred on the surrounding land, is possibly the original location of the pre-Roman settlement. The settlement became culturally acculturated to a different extent in each of the three terraces on which it is built. According to the latest known evidence, the hill was most likely occupied until the 9th c CE.,GARCÍA, M.: "Hallado en Uncastillo el texto más largo de todo al-Ándalus escrito en un hueso animal"],Heraldo de Aragón, miércoles 27 de noviembre de 2013, p. 46. A gradual process of abandonment processes over the previous centuries and the hill's inhabitants scattered throughout the nearby territory.
Each terrace had a different domestic character. Thus, in the area closest to the forum, a central street -partially excavated by José Galiay and still visible today- served as the axis around which houses were located radially. Protecting the second terrace remains of a wall made with large ashlars. At the highest point of the hill vestiges of a monumental building, perhaps a Roman temple continuing its pre-Roman use. The entire valley is visually dominated from the summit of the hill, and this may explain the location of the possible temple.ANDREU, J.: Guía histórico-arqueológica. La ciudad romana de Los Bañales, Uncastillo (Zaragoza), 2012, p. 41.
Excavations in the last few years have produced a notable crop of ceramic material from the 8th and 9th centuries CE, as well as the discovery of a unique bone scapula with Arabic text.
The forum
The first terrace of El Pueyo could have been reserved for public purposes. This is evidenced by the remains of the building that José Galiay called a temple in his excavations in the 1940s, consisting of an important concentration of pedestals and molding elements of remarkable size next to a wall closing at an angle towards the hill and that they had not returned to be a reason for study until the beginning of the current Research Plan, revealing without a doubt that it is in fact a monumental forum until now only part of its north and west sides are known.