A sculpture of an aquatic nymph holding the horn of plenty is the latest and “most important” find from the excavations carried out in June at the La Alcudia site in Elche, by researchers from the University of Alicante.
This was revealed by the professor of Ancient History and co-director of the project team ‘La Alcudia de Elche. The Eastern Hot Springs and surrounding areas’ (Astero), Jaime Molina Vidal, together with UA researchers Francisco Javier Muñoz Ojeda and Juan Francisco Álvarez Tortosa.
This sculpture, the second to be found in La Alcudia within the UA research projects, is carved in marble and dates from the 2nd century AD, according to Jaime Molina, who explains that the nymphs, the figure represented, are spirits or minor feminine divinities associated with nature (springs, streams, mountains, seas or forests).
“In this case it would be a naiad, a nymph related to a source of fresh water, well, river or stream, which in this case was taken as a producer of well-being and wealth, since she is the bearer of the horn of plenty or cornucopia “explains the archaeologist. The first figure was found in 2017 within the excavation ‘Domus Project – La Alcudia. Live in Ilici’. It was a statuette representing a naked woman with a cloak over her left shoulder, made of bone.
As reported by Jaime Molina, throughout the excavation process last month other archaeological materials of great interest have been recovered. Specifically, fragments of the paintings on the walls of the thermal complex have been found; everyday objects, such as needles for sewing, as well as personal adornment to make hair updos; others of a more playful nature, such as a bone dice with which games of chance would be practiced; and decorated ceramic fragments, such as a lucerne disk (oil lamp) with the image of a gladiator with a net and trident.
For his part, the Vice Chancellor for Research at the UA, Juan Mora, highlighted “the important work carried out by the researchers in La Alcudia as well as the work and involvement of the students who collaborate in the excavations”. In fact, it was a second-year history student, Mario Bañón, who found the sculpture.
“This discovery shows us how much remains to be discovered in La Alcudia, if we take into account that barely 10% of the site has been excavated,” says Mora, who points out that “in order to address them as we would like, we need more support from the institutions and urgently a special plan that allows us to put into museums and value the important findings found so that the Elche society, all the people of Alicante, and the world in general, know this heritage”.
At the La Alcudia site (Elche, Alicante) are the archaeological remains of Colonia Iulia Ilici Augusta, the most important city between Carthago Nova (Cartagena) and Valentia (Valencia). Founded in the second half of the 1st century BC, with Emperor Augustus the final distribution of land to settlers, soldiers discharged from the Cantabrian Wars, was carried out.
However, despite its undoubted relevance, the information available about its occupation in Roman times is, to this day, very partial. In fact, the only known public spaces are reduced to a series of sections of the wall, the basilica from the late imperial period and two thermal complexes.
One of these complexes, the Oriental Baths, has been the object of study of the project ‘Archaeology and Socialization of knowledge in La Alcudia de Elche: the Oriental Baths and surrounding areas’ (Virtual Heritage-ASTERO) since 2017. It is a building that was partially excavated between 1998 and 2000, and with recent interventions it has been possible to understand it as a whole. The baths are made up of: a cold room (frigidarium) with one of the largest pools (natatio) preserved in Hispania; warm (tepidarium) and hot (caldarium) rooms; sauna (laconicum) and changing room (apodyterium). A good part of the floors of the bathrooms were paved with rich mosaics, currently in the process of being restored.
During the 2023 archaeological campaign, work has been carried out mainly in the northern part of the building, one of the least known of it. There, an open space has been identified that could correspond to a arena, an area dedicated to the practice of outdoor sports activities. In the same block as the baths, although outside the baths, a group of pools has been discovered that could be related to washing or dyeing fabrics.
All these discoveries provide new data that reveal the history of the city, such as the fact that these large public baths were built at the beginning of the 2nd century AD, a great novelty that indicates that in the time of Emperor Hadrian the city was in full growth. demographic; and that during the III-IV centuries AD. A process of abandonment of the thermal complex is appreciated, which suggests socioeconomic problems and a probable decrease in the population, they emphasize from the academic institution.
In addition, “contrary to what is usually stated during the first half of the 5th century AD, signs of recovery are detected with the repair of the baths, although they would have smaller dimensions, indicating a reduction in the population and, after various destructions and remodeling, the The baths have been abandoned since the 6th century AD”, explains Jaime Molina.
In 2017, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Alicante began, within its own program to promote research in I D I projects, a specific line of projects for the La Alcudia site. Since its inception, the excavation projects undertaken in three sectors of the site have had the support of the Elche City Council.
The projects and their main researchers are ‘Domus Project: live in Ilici’, in sector 4F with the professor of Archeology Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret; ‘Archaeology and socialization of knowledge in La Alcudia de Elche. The Eastern Hot Springs and surrounding areas’ (ASTERO), directed by Jaime Molina Vidal; and “Ladies and heroes. After the Iberian Ilici” under the direction of the professor of Prehistory Alberto Lorrio as principal investigator and the professor of Ancient History, with Héctor Uroz, as co-director.
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