The embarassment of Roman riches

Destroyed by various forces of history such as the Visigoths, Moorish conquerors, Napoleon and centuries of neglect, destruction and creative re-use of stones, blocks and treasures from former buildings and ruins, Tarragona´s former, Roman self can still be seen in all its glory in the historical Part Alta of the city, storehouse of Roman and medieval monuments. Removed from it, there lies the modern, busy, prosaic part of the city. It´s a challenge here to be transported 2,000 years in the past but what has been uncovered has yielded floor pavements, mosaics, statues, busts, tombstones, coins, tools and pottery. Sometimes the locals are not always fully appreciative or even conscious of the riches on display or lying under their very feet. And beyond the city lie other great treasures: the largest and most varied late-Roman, early Christian necropolis in the West as well as patrician villas in the suburbs and the countryside, an aqueduct, triumphal towers and arches, a mausoleum, a Roman quarry, etc. And the archeological work continues on and on. On the 24th of April the Diari de Tarragona reported that new excavations in the vicinity of the Roman villa Els Antigons - unfortunately largely plundered in the 1970s to make way for a factory (!) and lying on the perimeter between Tarragona and Reus - have uncovered a mausoleum, the only part of the villa compound left intact. Investigations are now underway into the human remains that have been discovered. A first hypothesis points towards slaves working on the estate.