The municipal archaeologist, Juan de Dios Hernández, has announced a preview of the results of the preventive excavation carried out in the plot located in Calle Rey Carlos III, 34, next to the Águilas Sur Health Centre. These findings,” said Hernández, “show that the urban archaeology of Águilas continues to provide valuable data that are allowing us to document our Roman past and whose findings never cease to surprise us.Specifically, the municipal archaeologist went on to say, “we have found a late-Roman landfill level in the north-western sector of the plot. It is a deposit that fills a pit excavated in the level of sandy silt, possibly for the use of clay in pottery work. It contains abundant ceramic material of all types with ashy levels, bone remains and terrestrial malacological remains and, most notably, large deposits of ichthyological remains related to the production of salted fish and also abundant remains of muricids indicating that purple was produced in the vicinity. Secondly, distributed throughout the plot, at different depths and located in levels of sandy silt, there are several burials from the western or high imperial necropolis of the Roman enclave. In this first phase we have located five burials, two of which were children’s burials.
The presence of ceramic offerings is allowing us to date this sector of the cemetery with precision. In a double tomb there is a plate of African sigillata dated to the 2nd half of the 2nd century AD. Other pieces, such as a common ceramic jug, can be dated to the 3rd century AD. We are therefore in the westernmost sector of this necropolis which we think is associated with an exit route from the Roman city and which for the moment extends linearly along this axis for more than 150 m, which indicates its great magnitude”. of ceramic offerings is allowing us to date this sector of the cemetery with precision. In a double tomb there is a plate of African sigillata dated to the 2nd half of the 2nd century AD. Other pieces, such as a common ceramic jug, can be dated to the 3rd century AD. We are therefore in the westernmost sector of this necropolis which we think is associated with an exit route from the Roman city and which for the moment extends linearly along this axis for more than 150 m, which indicates its great magnitude”.