Structure

The Roman Road

Description

In 1999, the access road to the site from the Reception Centre was completed and in the course of this infrastructure work, a small section of the ancient Roman road leading to the city from the north side was discovered a few metres from the mausoleum. This section, about 25 linear metres long, preserves, in an acceptable state, the original paving of irregular limestone stones with a maximum width of 2.20 metres, although the average width is 1.80 metres.

Ground plan

planta-calzada-romana

Location

It would belong to the main access road to the city and would in turn come from the road that would link Ocvri with other cities in the sierra such as Iptuci (Prado del Rey) and Carissa Aurelia (Bornos-Espera), as well as the area of the Tavizna valley where there are several smaller Iberian and Roman settlements.
This small road would also link the necropolis areas outside the walls, located on the northwest side of the hill, with the city itself.

Photos

House Nº 3

Description

Located just behind the Cyclopean Wall, it consists of the remains of a small, rectangular-shaped building made of limestone and attached to a rock wall that forms one of its walls. It has a surface area of about 20 square metres. Inside, two rooms can be distinguished, one of which may have been a kitchen, as the remains of a hearth full of coals and ashes were excavated in 2001. During this excavation, it was also possible to document the collapse of the roof of this dwelling (tegulae, shingles, bricks, nails from the beams, etc.), which allowed the domestic occupation level to be fairly well preserved.

Ground Plan

planta-vivienda3

Location

Numerous animal skeletal remains, common and kitchen ceramics were recovered, including a large ceramic container for provisions, which could be fully restored, somewhat scarcer luxury ceramics and some coins. It is also important to note the remains of mortar and numerous fragments of red-painted stucco, indicating that the walls may have been plastered and painted. The ceramic assemblage and the coins date the occupation of this dwelling to between the mid-1st and mid-2nd centuries AD.

Photos

Cistern Nº 3

Description

Similar in typology to the other cisterns, but much smaller in size, with external axes measuring 4.50 metres by 2.72 metres, the thickness of its walls is 0.66 cms and its interior is covered by an “opus signinum” identical to that of Cistern Nº 1, preserved in very good condition. It has a half-round hydraulic cordon at the ground joints. Its depth is almost 2 metres and it is estimated that it can store about 8,000 litres of water.
The peculiarity of this cistern is that, probably in the time of Juan Vegazo, it was provided with a perimeter wall and a roof with a false dome, all built with reused stones and bricks, joined with a mortar very similar to the one used in Vegazo’s House.

Ground Plan

planta-cisterna3

Location

It was also provided with an access door with a lintel built with a slab, which has allowed it to be used as a watering place for cattle.
At the junction of the modern wall with the Roman wall, there are a series of small, quadrangular 20cm by 20cm putlog holes, which may have served as access to the bottom for cleaning.  It is estimated that it must have had some kind of relationship with the Thermal Baths building, located a few metres away and overlooking it in height, so it could have been a deposit external to the Thermal Baths.

Photos

The Thermal Baths

Description

This is the most spectacular building structure of all those excavated to date. It is a complex of walls, pavements, cisterns, pipes, etc., which are currently difficult to interpret as they were over-excavated in the 1970s. It is more than 460 square metres in terms of what is preserved today, but it could have been even larger.
It is 23 m long and 19.40 m wide, and has a large semi-circular apse (exedra) on its southeast side, measuring some 11 m in diameter. The entrance to the thermal building is through an opening (“fauces”) in the northwest area that would have led to a perimeter corridor leading to the exedra on the right-hand side. At the end of this side wall there is a sort of small room that must have had a barrel vault. Behind it is a large L-shaped cistern, measuring 6.75 m long by 4.60 m wide on the longest side and 2.70 m wide on the shortest side, which may have been a “natatio”.
On the northwest side there is a small semicircular cubicle and two other small rooms whose function is unknown.

Ground Plan

planta-termas

Location

The remains of a tank are preserved here, which was covered with “opus signinum” and from which a large drainage channel (“specus”) ,almost 20 metres long, runs through the entire exedra.
The exedra is a semi-circle of “opus signinum” that seems to rest on lateral foundations that are not fully preserved. Next to the exedra is a pavement that forms a large central courtyard of almost 100 square metres in area, which could have been a “palestra.
Finally, at the end of the palestra there is a receptacle forming a polygonal face made of mortared masonry that must have received marble slabs. The area that has not been preserved has left the footprint of the structure on the floor, which would have been in the shape of an octahedron (2.70 m by 2.70 m). This structure may have been a bathtub made of marble slabs of the type “labrum”.
They must have been built between the end of the 1st century AD and the beginning of the 2nd century AD, and are the only Roman baths identified so far in the Sierra de Cádiz.

Photos

Juan Vegazo's House

Description

It is a rectangular construction of irregular stones and squared ashlars mixed with smaller rubble, remains of bricks and even ceramics, all of which are bound together with a greyish mortar. It is 8.50 m long and 3.35 m wide. To this rectangular structure is added a porch 3.50 m wide. The maximum height preserved is 3.70 m.
This small house, in which practically all the construction material used comes from the ruins of Roman buildings, is in turn built on the foundations of a pre-existing building that may have been one of the temples that dominated the forum. On the east side of the house and, above all, in its first courses, there are large Roman ashlars, well squared, which seem to correspond to this previous building.

Ground plan

planta-casa-juan-vegazo

Location

The interior of the house is paved with large, well-polished limestone slabs that were quarried from the Forum itself, while the floor of the porch is paved with small stones and the remains of bricks that have been pointed to one side. This paving has a drainage channel on one side.
The house preserves a line of putlog holes at a height of 1.90 m, which indicates that it had a wooden beam ceiling and a first floor or “soberao”. In the outer wall of the porch there is a small opening as a small window.
From its location, the entire forum of the ancient city is overlooked, and during the excavation of a small interior area where there were no slabs, various 18th century utensils and ceramics were recovered that may have belonged to Vegazo himself.

Photos

House & Cistern Nº 2

Description

With very similar constructive and typological characteristics to Cistern Nº 1, it must have been built at the same time as the latter. It is located on the eastern side of a rectangular building with three well-defined rooms with half-height walls, which could have been a warehouse or a dwelling.
On its external side, it has courses of semi-cyclopean squared limestone blocks, smaller in size in the upper area, taken with lime mortar.

Ground Plan

vivienda-cisterna-2

Location

Its dimensions are 7.57 metres long by 4.31 metres wide externally, with a depth of 2.50 metres. It has been estimated that it could hold some 44,000 litres. The “opus signinum” lining the interior has a slightly more pinkish colouring and is somewhat deteriorated, with some holes in the floor. Its altitude is practically the same as Cistern Nº 1 and its location under the hill where the High Cistern is located leads us to think that it may have been related to urban supply and not to domestic supply.

Photos

The Forum

Description

The Forum is considered to be the central part of the city, as it occupies geographically a predominant place in the site itself. Here the terraces are levelled out to a wider area, which would allow the layout of streets, one of which is visible, without adaptations to the orography as in the rest of the hill. However, there are currently no buildings as such, only a number of unconnected wall structures scattered throughout the large enclosure. In the western area there are two large perimeter walls that were identified as part of a “tavern”. The remains of the Casa de Vegazo, built on top of what may have been a temple, can be found in the southern part of the site.

Ground plan

planta-foro

Location

In this central area, Vegazo found the flagstone floor that he would use to pave his house and where the commemorative inscriptions of Antoninus Pius and Commodus, dedicated by the decurions of the “Res Publica Ocuritanorum”, as well as that of the priestess of the imperial cult Postumia Honorat, were found.
Additionally, the remains of a statue of a man wearing a lion’s skin, which has been identified as that of the emperor Commodus, and abundant building material such as shafts, capitals, bases, large ashlars, etc., some of which are still in the middle of the plain, have been found. The area is approximately 1,200 square metres in size and, as in all Roman cities, all commercial, financial, religious, administrative, social and economic activities would take place here.

Photos

The High Cistern

Description

Cistern Nº 4 or “The High Cistern” is of the “a bagnarola” type, like the others at the site. It is more ovoid than rectangular in shape and is built with masonry made of small and medium-sized limestone blocks. Its external length is 4.87 metres and its external width is 2.43 metres. Its walls are between 64 and 72 cm thick and its interior measures 3.53 metres by 1.26 metres. It is covered by a pinkish-coloured “opus signinum”, with a texture and quality very similar to that of Cistern Nº 2. This “opus signinum” is very damaged, mainly due to the growth of a mastic tree on one of its sides. The border of the cistern has an average height of about 80 cm.

Ground plan

planta-cisterna-alta

Location

Its floor is relatively well preserved, although with some damage, and its depth is 2.75 metres. We estimate that it would have a capacity of about 12,200 litres. A large number of ceramic fragments from different periods and building remains were recovered from the interior. On one of its sides there was a child burial from the late medieval period. It faces northwest and looks directly towards El Castril de Benaocaz, where the natural spring that was the head of the aqueduct that supplied the city may have been, so it can not be ruled out that this cistern was the one that stored the water from this aqueduct and from here it was distributed to the other cisterns in the city, located at lower altitudes.

Photos

Minerva's Fountain

Description

It is a small, almost square fountain made of squared limestone ashlars with a few fragments of brick. The walls must have been stuccoed. Its sides measure 2.06 m and 1.82 m respectively. The walls are on average 30 cm thick. At its corners there are two quarter-circle brick columns and it is covered on the inside with “opus signinum”, which has come down to us in very poor condition. In the centre may have been the lead pipe that supplied the water.
According to Juan Vegazo, a torso (without head or legs and with the outline of the left arm) of a goddess in marble, now disappeared, was found inside.

Ground Plan

planta-fuente-minerva

Location

He describes it as “in a graceful robe” and decorated with two asps with bird-like wings on their heads, which, emerging from the waist, crossed over the chest, from which, in turn, two other serpents emerged. Recently it has been interpreted that this torso could be that of the goddess Minerva, as the snakes could be part of the “gorgoneion” (shield with the head of Gorgon), characteristic of the goddess of intelligence, peace and war.
As for its interpretation, the most plausible would be that of a small shrine with the four laterite columns plastered with stucco and with a small dome as a covering. It is not entirely clear whether the statue found by Vegazo originally belonged to the fountain or whether it was thrown there when the city was abandoned.

Photos

The Mausoleum

Description

Located outside the walls, as dictated by Roman sanitary laws, it is a rectangular funerary structure measuring 12.7 metres by 8 metres on each side and about 5 metres high. It is built with an internal masonry of concrete mixed with stone (“opus incertum”) and covered both internally and externally with local limestone squared ashlars. It is currently accessed through a false door in one of the niches, as it may have been a kind of free-standing “hypogeum”. The chamber or crypt is covered by a concrete half-barrel vault with a diameter of 2.95 m and a floor-to-ceiling height of 4.70 m.

Ground plan

planta-mausoleo

Location

The four inner sides are symmetrical, so that the front and rear sides had niches with segmental arches and ashlar voussoirs, and on their sides small niches (“loculi”) to house the cinerary urns. The main one has a small stepped podium. The two side niches are also small, but have much larger and deeper niches that may have been used to house images or statues. On the upper floor there may have been an open-air altar for funeral rites. It dates to between the 1st and 2nd century AD and may have belonged to a powerful Occitan family or to a “collegium funeraticium” (a funerary society that provided funeral services to its members).

Photos