Vilanova i la Geltrú (Garraf) Darró or Adarró, Iberian Village and Roman Villa (6th century BC – 6th century AD) The Place The archaeological ruins of Darró are in the urban centre of Vilanova i la Geltrú, capital of the county of Garraf in the province of Barcelona. They extend along the Passeig de Ribes Roges and the promontory of Sant Gervasi. They bear witness to an important village found here in antiquity (from 550 to 50 BC), located in the Iberian region of Cessetania. It was replaced around 50 BC by a Roman villa that lay within the colony of Tarraco whose abandonment dates to the early 600s AD, during the Visigothic period. Cover photograph Corinthian capital of the oecus or principal hall of the pars urbana or owners’ residence of the Roman villa of Adarró (Vilanova i la Geltrú) circa 350 AD. Photo: MBS, 2006, SPAL Archive. © Diputació de Barcelona February 2017 Produced and published by: Press and Communications Office Image of the site showing the excavated remains to date. On the left, ruins from the Iberian period, of the Barcelona Provincial Council (Diputació de Barcelona) especially the blacksmiths’ quarter (350-50 BC). On the right, the ruins of the residence of the owners of the Roman villa (pars urbana) and those of the outbuildings where agricultural raw materials were Text of this edition: Local Architectural Heritage Service (SPAL), processed (pars fructuaria), built between 50 BC and 425 AD. Barcelona Provincial Council Image: ©2016 DigitalGlobe. Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya. Map data: © 2016 Google, Instituto Geográfico DL B 4261-2017 Nacional. 3 The first archaeological surveys of the site were conducted in the 1950s under The Iberian Village the responsibility of the Víctor Balaguer Library Museum of Vilanova i la Gel- trú. The Barcelona Provincial Council (Diputació de Barcelona) took over the investigation in 1979 at the city’s request, and through its Local Architectural The Cessetani who inhabited the village would have known it by the name Arró Heritage Service it undertakes systematic tasks of archaeological investigation or Darró. This toponym, relating to the water and the presence of a promon- and restoration of the ruins. This work has affected the site that can be visited tory or escarpment, may have become ad Arró or ad Darró – “next to Arró today, the property of the Barcelona Provincial Council, and another neigh- or Darró” – in Roman times. The toponyms Darró, Adarró and Aderró appear bouring site owned by the city soon to be added to the route. Excavations have in medieval documentation. In the beginning it occupied the promontory of also been undertaken in the Plaça d’Adarró and on the hill of Sant Gervasi. Sant Gervasi, a dominant point of the site where archaeological material from around 550 BC has been found and where there was most likely a sanctuary in addition to houses. From 350 BC the Iberians began to settle at the foot of the hill on the site that is visited today, which bordered the mouth of the torrent of Sant Gervasi, then broad and fast-flowing. They also settled on an islet located in the middle of the mouths of the river, where vestiges of houses and ceramic workshops have appeared. At that time the village served as a sort of economic capital for the region, and its port on the beach was used to exchange agricultural raw materials, common wine, iron objects and cloth for manufactured goods like luxury tableware and quality wine from Greece and Italy. The Carthaginians of Ibiza, whose amphorae were also produced in Darró, were likely to have participated in this trade. Map of the area of the archaeological complex open to the public, corresponding to the neighbourhood of the Iberian blacksmiths. In the centre, the street running from east to west flanked by different buildings (195-175 to 50 BC). Above, houses (2, 4), facilities for producing iron (6) and patio (8). Below, cisterns and houses (1, 3). To the west, alley running from north to south. In grey, The neighbourhood of the Iberian blacksmiths, from the west. In the centre, the longitudinal street with vestiges from the previous period (350-195 BC) that remain covered and protected. houses lining both sides. To the right, settling cisterns and iron ore washing system. Drawing: Centum 2003, SPAL Archive. Photo: JGT, 2016, SPAL Archive. 4 5 Following the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), in which the Romans defeated sheltered by the covered porticoes. The back rooms and those on the upper the Carthaginians and extended their dominion to the Mediterranean strip of floor were used as the living spaces. the Iberian peninsula (197 BC), Darró underwent a remarkable urban transfor- mation. It experienced the highest growth in its history, reaching the maximum The equipment for producing iron, which all of the houses had, comprised two limits of the present-day site. kinds of furnaces. One type, called reduction furnaces, was vertical. For the most part, all that remains of them is the impression from their bases. They The ruins open to the public are part of one of the Iberian neighbourhoods. At were the first furnaces to be used in the metallurgical industry and were used its centre is a rammed-earth street with stone sidewalks and covered porti- to extract the metal from the raw ore, previously washed with water that was coes marked out from 195 to 175 BC, with a series of structures grouped on either drawn from open wells inside the buildings as in house 4 or kept in either side. Other, older ones were found beneath them, dating from 350 BC cisterns like those found to the west of the property that can be visited. The and razed when those seen today were built. In these buildings, both the older second type of furnace, called forges, was horizontal and cut into the ground. and more recent ones, facilities for producing iron have been identified. This As a result they are better preserved. They were used to melt the iron and activity is particularly well documented in houses 1 and 3. Each of them had process it, turning it into a variety of objects. In short, the process consisted a section devoted to artisanal activity overlooking the street with open doors of washing the ferruginous material, extracting the iron in the vertical furnace and melting the metal in the horizontal furnace to subsequently be worked. The houses used from 195-175 to 50-40 BC had rammed-earth walls sup- ported by stone skirting and earthen floors. The upper floors were supported by wood beams and clay, and the terraced roofs were probably built from the same materials, as in today’s rural dwellings. In some cases the earlier struc- tures in this sector, dating to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, had adobe walls instead of rammed earth. Unlike Roman houses such as those preserved on the neighbouring site occupied by the villa, their walls were neither plastered nor painted. Recreation of an Iberian workshop for producing iron. In the background, a vertical furnace called a reduction furnace where the ore, previously purified through settling and washing, is heated and turned into iron. In the centre, a craftsman shaping a sword with a hammer after having melted the metal in a forge or horizontal Recreation of the western sector of the blacksmiths’ neighbourhood around 100 BC using data furnace, visible on the provided by the excavation. In the foreground, cisterns and iron ore purification system as well as two left side of the image. furnaces for reducing it. Next, buildings used simultaneously as houses and workshops. In the Drawing: Centum, 2015, background, the potters’ neighbourhood. with data from ALM and Drawing: JSA with data from ALM and JFM, 2015, SPAL Archive. JFM. 6 7 Two twin cisterns, made of stone but with earthen bottoms, were found to the right of the beginning of the Iberian street. They had overflows and conduits that ended in the street in an enclosure with different layers of gravel after passing through a secondary sedimentation and/or selection compartment. All of this implies the cisterns were used in washing iron ore, purifying it through different sedimentation processes. Two reduction furnaces, now covered, were found at the end of the circuit. As noted, other furnaces have been found on both sides of the street, giving the picture of an intensive industry beginning around 350 BC. Like the rest of the Iberian village of Darró, all of these structures were aban- doned or changed use around 50-40 BC. Some, like the cisterns and small furnaces nearby, were covered with earth. Recreation of Iberian house 3, located at the end of the longitudinal street. The building was erected around 350 BC and abandoned around 50 BC. The image shows its architectural volumes following significant alterations from 195 to 175 BC. Of note are the street’s stone sidewalk and the portico. It had rammed-earth walls with local stone skirting. It had a ground floor, upper floor and roof terrace. Drawing: JSA with data from ALM and JFM. Recreation of the same Iberian house, 3, but with a cutaway showing its interior. The ground floor is dedicated to iron production, with iron ore reduction furnaces and forges. The rooms for domestic use are in the back, with a separate entrance, especially on the upper floor. Drawing: JSA with data from ALM and JFM. 8 9 The Roman Villa Remains from all periods of the pars fructuaria survive. The oldest, located near the present-day Passeig de Ribes Roges, belong to a Roman pottery workshop.