Roman tomb expands understanding of ancient villa in Spain
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A pedestrian’s discovery near the castle of Castelldefels, Spain, led archaeologists to unearth a Roman-era tomb.
Pere Lluís Artigues directed the excavation, funded by the Castelldefels City Council and supported by the Grupo de Investigación Histórica de Castelldefels (Grehic). The team found the skeleton of an adult, believed to be a woman, dating back to the 2nd century. The skeleton lay aligned with the sunrise and was covered with tiles.
Archaeologists are determining whether the tomb had a flat covering or a triangular roof, common in other Roman sites like Tarraco and Barcino. While the skeleton was incomplete, missing feet, shins, kneecaps, and the upper skull, evidence suggests the tomb was disturbed during 20th-century paving work. Artigues emphasized the importance of the tomb’s location outside the castle walls, as previous documentation indicated a Roman villa existed beneath the castle and an earlier Iberian settlement below that.
This new find extends the known boundaries of the Roman settlement. Further excavation may reveal more about the villa and the ancient practices of the region, building on a 1989 discovery of a monument dedicated to a Roman couple, Gay Trocina Synecdemus and Valeria Haliné.
