Libisosa | |
---|---|
Former subdivision of Iberian Peninsula | |
Ibero-Roman city of Lihisosa | |
Demonym | Oretanos, libisosanos |
Area | |
• Coordinates | 38°56′31″N 2°21′14″W |
• Type | Iberian Oppidum - Roman colony - Medieval enclave |
Today part of |
Lezuza,
Albacete, ![]() |
The archaeological site of Libisosa is located in the "Cerro del Castillo" in the municipality of Lezuza ( Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha). As a result of archaeological excavations (begun in 1996 by a team from the University of Alicante led by José Uroz Sáez, and continued uninterruptedly since then), [1] it is now known that the site covers 30 hectares of remains ranging from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Middle Ages, the latter presided over by the watchtower that bears the name of the hill, and to which also corresponds a building of the military orders. From the Roman period, the late Republican wall and the forum of the Roman colony mentioned by Pliny the Elder (NH, III, 25) stand out, while the final phase of the Iberian oppidum assigned to the regio oretana by Ptolemy (II, 6, 58) stands out. The excellent preservation of structures and materials of the Ibero-Roman stage of Libisosa is due to the "burial effect" caused by its hasty and systematic destruction, which has allowed a frozen image of its state prior to the devastation to reach the present day, [1] [2] which constitutes a mine for research on the Final Iberian and Republican Hispania, most of which has yet to be discovered. [3]
In 2021, steps were taken to declare the site an archaeological park. It is the second park in the province of Albacete, and the sixth in the entire Castilian-La Mancha region. [4]
The first archaeological evidence of occupation of the hill dates back to the Final Bronze Age, by virtue of the discovery of prehistoric handmade pottery scattered throughout the site, with only a special concentration in Sector 2, where there also seem to be traces of habitat, and where can be found gray pottery vessels, placing this context in an arc from the IX/VIII to VI century BC, at the time of transition between the Final Bronze Age and the I Iron /Orientalizing period. The continuity of the habitat in the ancient Iberian period is logical, and there are several factors that suggest that this oppidum played a key role in the region. [5]
But if there is a stage of Libisosa mentioned by Ptolemy (II, 6, 58) among the Iberian cities of Oretania, worthy of note due to the archaeological findings, it is the one that corresponds to the final phase, [2] which covers the 2nd century to the first third of the 1st century B.C., and which provides information on various aspects of the life of an Oretan community under the rule of Rome, probably of stipendiary peregrinus, in a stage of its Romanization process that could be described as early, probably favored, among other reasons, by the presence of Italic traders and, above all, by an army corps (or soldiers housed in hospice regime) that would provide security to the routes that converge there. [6] The process of Romanization will run parallel, paradoxically, to another of self-affirmation, finding in iconography an ideal canvas (as also shown by some unique vases [7] found in Libisosa) to extol Iberian aristocratic virtue, within the framework of the construction of its own mythology, for its internal cohesion (of the ruling group and its clientele) and, in short, to maintain its privileges in the face of the new Roman order.
And if this phase is important it is due to its exceptional state of preservation, motivated by a sudden destruction, which has been related to the Sertorian wars (82-72 BC), [8] and which offers an unaltered image of the moment immediately prior to that devastation, both in terms of structures and materials. The discovery of an infant skeleton [9] [10] lying on one of the streets is a testimony to the cruelty of this episode and the rupture it entailed.
Two sectors stand out from what is known as the Ibero-Roman quarter:
→ The latest investigations [15] in Sector 18 have revealed a more complex and multifaceted panorama, and a new closed context, this one destroyed in the 2nd century BC, which seems to correspond to a cult building. [3] From this place comes the exceptional vase of the "Goddess and the Iberian prince", [16] [17] [18] [19] which has recently been added to the permanent collection of the museum of Lezuza. [20]
Among the latest discoveries also stands out its set of Ibero-Roman weapons [21] [22] and an exceptional accumulation of coins, [23] [24] as well as the catalog of Iberian inscriptions. [25]
The dynamics of Romanization of the Iberian settlement will be dramatically interrupted, as mentioned above, when the oppidum, or at least the part known from the excavated sectors, is definitively destroyed in the context of the Sertorian wars, [26] with one of the fighting armies settling in the highest part of the hill. Although there are no literary sources that support the affiliation of the Libyan enclave in this conflict, when in 75 B.C. Metellus defeated and killed Hirtuleius (Sertorius' legate) in the Ulterior, the general of the Silanian faction already had his hands free to go to the Hispanic east and to be able to join Pompey, who had just defeated the Sertorian Perpenna and Herennius in Valentia. And Metellus must have moved along the ancient route remembered in the Vicarello cups, the Way of Hannibal or via Heraclea, which controlled Libisosa for the passage between the South and the peninsular Levant. [6]
Sector 18 is destroyed and will no longer be occupied by later populations. As for Sector 3, on the collapse of the pre-existing buildings, a three meter wide wall is hastily built, [27] covering 9 hectares, with a double wall of ordinary dry masonry and the interior filled with stones and earth, recalling the technique of Vitruvius' emplecton (II, 8, 7), with two openings in this area, the North and Northwest Gates. The one that most affects the Iberian apartments, the North Gate, is provided with two massive bastions of rectangular tendency of about 6 m of external front, that protect a slightly flared opening of 9 m in its external part and of 7.30 m in the interior. Later, possibly in the middle of the first century A.D., when the west tower was probably already in poor condition, this door was closed, leaving only a potern. [28]
After a period of difficult archaeological localization, the ancient Oretan oppidum will experience a definitive promotional leap, with its conversion into the colonia Libisosa Foroaugustana, to which Rome granted, as it is clear from the reading of Pliny the Elder (HN, III, 25), the ius italicum, the highest legal consideration, perhaps as a reward for fixing the population in this strategic area. This colonial promotion would have been conferred by Augustus to Libisosa possibly on the occasion of his third trip to Hispania, at the end of the 1st century BC. [29]
The colonial deductio brought with it the foundation of the forum, [30] articulated around a large square 150 feet long by 100 feet wide, which means a ratio of 3 to 2 (the ideal for Vitruvius V,1,2), for which a great engineering work of clearing to the south and terracing to the north had to be carried out, allowing the creation of this large central space with its lateral buildings in the highest and narrowest part of the hill.
As regards the material record, archaeological excavations have recovered from the forum a large ceramic collection, but also some fragments of inscriptions, [29] [34] testifying to the existence of IIviri, and reiterating the belonging of the colony to the Galeria tribe; three Corinthian type capitals, various sculptural [35] remains of togados, and portraits of Julio-Claudian characters (one of them with damnatio memoriae), coins ( denarii and Republican and Imperial aces), an altar pulvinus, decorated with a rosette of five petals, etc. [29] To these new materials provided by recent excavations it is necessary to add the ancient findings, such as the small head, preserved in the Museum of Albacete, belonging to a lady of the Libyan elite that follows the reference of the empress Iulia Agrippina Minor. [36] Or the inscription, known from ancient times, found in Calle de los Caballeros number 3 in Tarragona, dated to the time of Hadrian, referring to an illustrious citizen of Libisosa who became a provincial flamen in Tarraco (CIL II, 4254). Or, certainly, the inscription, still preserved, in a risky condition, on an external corner of the Casa della Tercia, next to the church of the municipality, known for a long time (CIL II, 3234) and containing a dedication to Marcus Aurelius, dated between 166 and 167 A.D., offered to him by the settlers of Libisosa, and that according to the news of the scholars of the 16th and 17th century, Ambrosio de Morales and Alonso de Requena, would have appeared in union with a marble statue. [29]
The city maintained its vitality during the High Empire, especially in the first century, according to the materials found. However, the northern part of the forum shows signs of destruction (probably related to natural causes, such as landslides or seismic movements) and its subsequent remodeling, with the restructuring of the portico and the inclusion, at least, of a kind of monumental fountain, [37] as well as the raising of the paving levels of the forensic square.
Archaeological remains of a watchtower and a complex of religious character are preserved from the medieval period.
After the conquest of Alcaraz in 1213 the troops of Alfonso VIII took the castle of Lezuza. In 1411 Alcaraz exempts from tribute all the neighbors who wanted to live in the Cerro de Lezuza, next to the tower, in an attempt to increase the population in the area. Later, during the 15th century, Lezuza was involved in the conflicts between the Marquisate of Villena and the Trastámara. During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and throughout the 16th century, the town grew due to the granting of the status of villa to Lezuza, but the Cerro del Castillo was abandoned as a place of habitat, and the settlement was established on the plain, around the new church. [42]
{{
cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(
help)
{{
cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(
help)
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
Libisosa | |
---|---|
Former subdivision of Iberian Peninsula | |
Ibero-Roman city of Lihisosa | |
Demonym | Oretanos, libisosanos |
Area | |
• Coordinates | 38°56′31″N 2°21′14″W |
• Type | Iberian Oppidum - Roman colony - Medieval enclave |
Today part of |
Lezuza,
Albacete, ![]() |
The archaeological site of Libisosa is located in the "Cerro del Castillo" in the municipality of Lezuza ( Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha). As a result of archaeological excavations (begun in 1996 by a team from the University of Alicante led by José Uroz Sáez, and continued uninterruptedly since then), [1] it is now known that the site covers 30 hectares of remains ranging from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Middle Ages, the latter presided over by the watchtower that bears the name of the hill, and to which also corresponds a building of the military orders. From the Roman period, the late Republican wall and the forum of the Roman colony mentioned by Pliny the Elder (NH, III, 25) stand out, while the final phase of the Iberian oppidum assigned to the regio oretana by Ptolemy (II, 6, 58) stands out. The excellent preservation of structures and materials of the Ibero-Roman stage of Libisosa is due to the "burial effect" caused by its hasty and systematic destruction, which has allowed a frozen image of its state prior to the devastation to reach the present day, [1] [2] which constitutes a mine for research on the Final Iberian and Republican Hispania, most of which has yet to be discovered. [3]
In 2021, steps were taken to declare the site an archaeological park. It is the second park in the province of Albacete, and the sixth in the entire Castilian-La Mancha region. [4]
The first archaeological evidence of occupation of the hill dates back to the Final Bronze Age, by virtue of the discovery of prehistoric handmade pottery scattered throughout the site, with only a special concentration in Sector 2, where there also seem to be traces of habitat, and where can be found gray pottery vessels, placing this context in an arc from the IX/VIII to VI century BC, at the time of transition between the Final Bronze Age and the I Iron /Orientalizing period. The continuity of the habitat in the ancient Iberian period is logical, and there are several factors that suggest that this oppidum played a key role in the region. [5]
But if there is a stage of Libisosa mentioned by Ptolemy (II, 6, 58) among the Iberian cities of Oretania, worthy of note due to the archaeological findings, it is the one that corresponds to the final phase, [2] which covers the 2nd century to the first third of the 1st century B.C., and which provides information on various aspects of the life of an Oretan community under the rule of Rome, probably of stipendiary peregrinus, in a stage of its Romanization process that could be described as early, probably favored, among other reasons, by the presence of Italic traders and, above all, by an army corps (or soldiers housed in hospice regime) that would provide security to the routes that converge there. [6] The process of Romanization will run parallel, paradoxically, to another of self-affirmation, finding in iconography an ideal canvas (as also shown by some unique vases [7] found in Libisosa) to extol Iberian aristocratic virtue, within the framework of the construction of its own mythology, for its internal cohesion (of the ruling group and its clientele) and, in short, to maintain its privileges in the face of the new Roman order.
And if this phase is important it is due to its exceptional state of preservation, motivated by a sudden destruction, which has been related to the Sertorian wars (82-72 BC), [8] and which offers an unaltered image of the moment immediately prior to that devastation, both in terms of structures and materials. The discovery of an infant skeleton [9] [10] lying on one of the streets is a testimony to the cruelty of this episode and the rupture it entailed.
Two sectors stand out from what is known as the Ibero-Roman quarter:
→ The latest investigations [15] in Sector 18 have revealed a more complex and multifaceted panorama, and a new closed context, this one destroyed in the 2nd century BC, which seems to correspond to a cult building. [3] From this place comes the exceptional vase of the "Goddess and the Iberian prince", [16] [17] [18] [19] which has recently been added to the permanent collection of the museum of Lezuza. [20]
Among the latest discoveries also stands out its set of Ibero-Roman weapons [21] [22] and an exceptional accumulation of coins, [23] [24] as well as the catalog of Iberian inscriptions. [25]
The dynamics of Romanization of the Iberian settlement will be dramatically interrupted, as mentioned above, when the oppidum, or at least the part known from the excavated sectors, is definitively destroyed in the context of the Sertorian wars, [26] with one of the fighting armies settling in the highest part of the hill. Although there are no literary sources that support the affiliation of the Libyan enclave in this conflict, when in 75 B.C. Metellus defeated and killed Hirtuleius (Sertorius' legate) in the Ulterior, the general of the Silanian faction already had his hands free to go to the Hispanic east and to be able to join Pompey, who had just defeated the Sertorian Perpenna and Herennius in Valentia. And Metellus must have moved along the ancient route remembered in the Vicarello cups, the Way of Hannibal or via Heraclea, which controlled Libisosa for the passage between the South and the peninsular Levant. [6]
Sector 18 is destroyed and will no longer be occupied by later populations. As for Sector 3, on the collapse of the pre-existing buildings, a three meter wide wall is hastily built, [27] covering 9 hectares, with a double wall of ordinary dry masonry and the interior filled with stones and earth, recalling the technique of Vitruvius' emplecton (II, 8, 7), with two openings in this area, the North and Northwest Gates. The one that most affects the Iberian apartments, the North Gate, is provided with two massive bastions of rectangular tendency of about 6 m of external front, that protect a slightly flared opening of 9 m in its external part and of 7.30 m in the interior. Later, possibly in the middle of the first century A.D., when the west tower was probably already in poor condition, this door was closed, leaving only a potern. [28]
After a period of difficult archaeological localization, the ancient Oretan oppidum will experience a definitive promotional leap, with its conversion into the colonia Libisosa Foroaugustana, to which Rome granted, as it is clear from the reading of Pliny the Elder (HN, III, 25), the ius italicum, the highest legal consideration, perhaps as a reward for fixing the population in this strategic area. This colonial promotion would have been conferred by Augustus to Libisosa possibly on the occasion of his third trip to Hispania, at the end of the 1st century BC. [29]
The colonial deductio brought with it the foundation of the forum, [30] articulated around a large square 150 feet long by 100 feet wide, which means a ratio of 3 to 2 (the ideal for Vitruvius V,1,2), for which a great engineering work of clearing to the south and terracing to the north had to be carried out, allowing the creation of this large central space with its lateral buildings in the highest and narrowest part of the hill.
As regards the material record, archaeological excavations have recovered from the forum a large ceramic collection, but also some fragments of inscriptions, [29] [34] testifying to the existence of IIviri, and reiterating the belonging of the colony to the Galeria tribe; three Corinthian type capitals, various sculptural [35] remains of togados, and portraits of Julio-Claudian characters (one of them with damnatio memoriae), coins ( denarii and Republican and Imperial aces), an altar pulvinus, decorated with a rosette of five petals, etc. [29] To these new materials provided by recent excavations it is necessary to add the ancient findings, such as the small head, preserved in the Museum of Albacete, belonging to a lady of the Libyan elite that follows the reference of the empress Iulia Agrippina Minor. [36] Or the inscription, known from ancient times, found in Calle de los Caballeros number 3 in Tarragona, dated to the time of Hadrian, referring to an illustrious citizen of Libisosa who became a provincial flamen in Tarraco (CIL II, 4254). Or, certainly, the inscription, still preserved, in a risky condition, on an external corner of the Casa della Tercia, next to the church of the municipality, known for a long time (CIL II, 3234) and containing a dedication to Marcus Aurelius, dated between 166 and 167 A.D., offered to him by the settlers of Libisosa, and that according to the news of the scholars of the 16th and 17th century, Ambrosio de Morales and Alonso de Requena, would have appeared in union with a marble statue. [29]
The city maintained its vitality during the High Empire, especially in the first century, according to the materials found. However, the northern part of the forum shows signs of destruction (probably related to natural causes, such as landslides or seismic movements) and its subsequent remodeling, with the restructuring of the portico and the inclusion, at least, of a kind of monumental fountain, [37] as well as the raising of the paving levels of the forensic square.
Archaeological remains of a watchtower and a complex of religious character are preserved from the medieval period.
After the conquest of Alcaraz in 1213 the troops of Alfonso VIII took the castle of Lezuza. In 1411 Alcaraz exempts from tribute all the neighbors who wanted to live in the Cerro de Lezuza, next to the tower, in an attempt to increase the population in the area. Later, during the 15th century, Lezuza was involved in the conflicts between the Marquisate of Villena and the Trastámara. During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and throughout the 16th century, the town grew due to the granting of the status of villa to Lezuza, but the Cerro del Castillo was abandoned as a place of habitat, and the settlement was established on the plain, around the new church. [42]
{{
cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(
help)
{{
cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(
help)
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)