Monday July 14 saw the beginning of the test excavation of the necropolis buried under the old farm Ca’n Fanals. Rachael and Barcelona workers laid out the pit according to Miguel’s specifications, with the trench situated across the intersection of the line of graves excavated by Llabres in the 1920s (now covered, of course) and…Continue Reading Test Excavation Trench at Ca’n Fanals
Pollèntia Directors Miguel Cao and Esther Chávez gave the UP Team three tasks for Week One of the expedition: 1) survey the old farm Ca’n Fanals, site of the Roman era necropolis, and tie the survey to known control points for the current excavations; 2) create a 30 meter x 30 meter grid with 5 meter x 5…Continue Reading Mapping the Necropolis in Pol•lèntia
Sundays and Tuesdays are the big days for shopping in Alcúdia. Vendors set up just outside the southern and southeastern walls, and stalls run from olives, serrano ham, and fruits & veggies to lacy underwear, pearls, and flip-flops. Food prices in the market are much cheaper than those of the Spar and Mercadona chain stores–and chatting…Continue Reading Market Day in Alcúdia
Besides providing a cool view of archaeology in action, aerial photography of excavations and, especially, potential excavation sites documents surface anomalies (soil coloration, vegetation patterns, subtle changes in elevation, etc.) indicative of underground structures. Combination of data from ground surveys, GPS analysis, aerial photography, and geophysical surveys (including surveys of magnetic susceptibility and electrical conductivity)…Continue Reading Aerial Photography of Pollèntia
Quintus Caecilius Metellus founded Pollèntia as a strategic Roman outpost on the Balearic Island of Mallorca in 123 BCE. By the third century CE, Pollèntia had become a major urban colonia with an area of about 20 hectares. Infrastructure included housing, a forum containing temples and a market, a theater, and advanced systems for delivering drinking water and removing…Continue Reading Excavation of the Roman City of Pollèntia
Team members may be forgiven for some time warp confusion. Not only have we coped with the usual jet lag associated with travel to an island nine time zones from Portland, we move daily between Alcúdia, a medieval walled city in Mallorca, Spain, to the ancient Roman city of Pollèntia, just outside the Alcúdia walls and behind…Continue Reading UP Pollèntia Team sets base camp in Alcúdia!
Catholics are proud of their ancient heritage of cemeteries–from the catacombs of Rome to the churchyard cemeteries of Catholic Europe and early America to today’s diocesan and parish cemeteries. Claims about how the Church has always cared for her dead and kept their memory in her cemeteries are familiar. Yet, apart from famous examples touted…Continue Reading The Ordinary Catholic Cemetery in History: A Story Awaiting the Telling