4th century AD, it is the century of the emperors Constantine I or Theodosius I the Great. Rome is harassed on its border by barbarians and what was once an urban civilization is now a rural world and Christianity takes center stage. In Hispania, on the plateau, in the Esgueva river valley, among agricultural lands, there is a quadrangular structure and four apses, a type of construction perhaps linked to the “paleochristian world” and monumental character. The first indications seem to be that it is a mausoleum, attached to a basilica, which would be located near a large villa. This is what Santiago Sánchez de la Parra Pérez says, who, together with researcher Sonia Díaz Navarro, is leading the excavation campaign at the Roman site of “Las Calaveras”, in Renedo de Esgueva.
The first part, in the absence of laboratory work allowing more certainty about the results. “Seven complete burials” were discovered around the mausoleum, as Sánchez de la Parra indicated. Additionally, other scattered bones were removed by agricultural labor for generations. “This suggests there are more burials, but the bones are mixed and fragmented,” he says.
An aerial flight in 1997 located the site
It is striking that the site was only 15 centimeters from the surface, so that the passage of tools such as the plow punished remains classified as an Asset of Cultural Interest since 1999. The first discovery was made by archaeologist Julio del Olmo, currently president of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory of Valladolid, during an aerial flight in 1997. In summary, as Sánchez de la Parra explains, the photographs taken with this technique They make it possible to differentiate the structure thanks to the “differential growth of vegetation” since, in this case, it is seen by the color and shape of the plant.
Throughout the “Las Calaveras” project, they worked on a 13 x 13 meter plot to the south of the entire complex. The first signs show a tetraconch structure with four parallel apses which could have had a funerary function, specifies the project director. The building, with walls a meter and a half thick, dates from the 4th or 6th century AD although “preliminary studies of ceramics” allow it to go back “more to the 4th century than to the 6th century century “.
For the director of the excavations, the “most significant” discovery is this structure because of “its monumentality”. “We have to think that it is a structure with very thick walls, that it would have several domes, with glass tiles and many colors on the roof, that we find them overturned and already demolished, and several pieces of marble which come from different regions of the peninsula and the world – notably from the Peloponnese, in Greece –,” he says.
“We should imagine a majestic building, quite large and full of colors and decorations. The importance of the entire complex lies in its architectural uniqueness, because we do not have a complex like this on the entire northern plateau,” explains Sánchez de la Parra.
Another unique feature is its architectural model, which will also be followed by the neighboring basilica, which remains to be excavated, since it would be “purely North African” and would extend mainly in the southern half “from Badajoz to the south”, comments the researcher . This complex and those of Marialba in León, the basilica of Villa de Fortunatus, in Huesca and the paleochristian basilica of Ampurias, in Sant Martí d’Empúries, in Girona are the oldest remains of paleochristian basilicas on the peninsula. specifies that “none” follows the architectural model of “Las Calaveras”.
What is known from the biography of the site, as detailed by Sánchez de la Parra, is that it was in an entirely rural environment in which large villas began to proliferate from the 4th century onwards. On the plateau, this is the widespread model “due to the geographical characteristics and the richness of the soil”. There are good examples such as the towns of Almenara-Puras, in the province of Valladolid, or that of Olmeda, in Palencia.
The hypotheses about “Las Calaveras” come true because the city has its origins in a peristyle building in which no intervention was ever carried out and which is visible from the excavation area. This theory is not confirmed since aerial photographs do not reflect the continuity between the two structures.
Origin
The origin of the mausoleum is believed to be around the burial place of an important person or family in the region. Currently, they have located a cemetery with approximately seven complete burials in addition to the remains of nearly a hundred people. More superficially than the walls and tombs, “an earlier level” with numerous “unconnected bones” was found. “Because of the number of bones we are locating, we think it could be as high as a hundred, but hey, that’s obviously an impression from the field,” says Sánchez de la Parra.
Regarding the method of burial of the bodies, Sánchez de la Parra indicates that it is very similar in all cases: brick, tile, stone and lime mortar. A simple formula with common materials and no big collection apart from the findings of mosaic tiles which would come from the building.
In the absence of Carbon 14 tests, these burials would have taken place after the construction of the building. Currently, findings in the remains show signs of “fairly strong physical stress of the osteoarthritis type.” “Unless they are very old people, who we have to see later in the laboratory when we clean the bones well, they probably had very harsh living conditions because they had physical work,” explains Sanchez de la Parra.
Among the skeletal remains of four of the burials, they also found metal as “a kind of bracelet”, as the researcher specifies. They also did not find any ceramics or precious objects, which makes the director of the site think “more of Christianity than of another type of culture”.
Laboratory work will allow us to know the chronology. It is possible, as Sánchez de la Parra points out, that the remains buried in the lower levels are those from the 4th century, linked to the mausoleum. The most superficial would be in the use of the basilica and the design of a Christian burial close to the current church.
In the same way as the knowledge of the life of the buildings, the death of the mausoleum and the basilica would come from the “6th century, 7th century or 8th century” at the hands of the Visigoths who reused numerous structures. At least it survived “modern” looting despite the damage suffered by the plow.
The excavation work, financed by the Arcadia Cultural Promotion Institute of the University of Valladolid Foundation and supported by the Renedo City Hall and the Military Command of Valladolid and Palencia, was carried out this September. The next steps to follow are the preparation of a report to send to the regional government of Castilla y León and the search for funding to study the history of the “Las Calaveras” site of Renedo de Esgueva.
