Sand Dunes Preserved These Roman Baths in Spain for Thousands of Years

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Archaeologists found a bathing complex, an intact tomb, medieval pottery and more at sites along the country’s southern shore

Archaeologists at the University of Cádiz recently announced the team unearthed the remains of a sprawling Roman bath complex, or thermae, where the empire’s ancient citizens gathered to wash, exercise and relax. Preserved beneath sand dunes for nearly 2,000 years, the baths’ 13-foot-tall walls have now been excavated for the first time since their abandonment in late antiquity, per a statement. So far, researchers have only surveyed two of the rooms from the complex, which sits on the coast near the Caños de Meca beach. They estimate that the entire structure once extended over 2.5 acres.

The site features multiple rooms decorated with red, white and black stucco and marble, suggesting the baths once boasted rich decorations, reports Colin Drury for the Independent. According to the statement, double-walled structures such as these allowed the ancient Romans to create heated thermal enclosures for steaming and ritual bathing. The Roman Empire first seized land in the Iberian Peninsula in the second century B.C., eventually coming to control a majority of what is now Spain.

At the same site, archaeologists discovered two more ancient treasures: a collection of at least seven Roman-era “salting pools” and a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age tomb, reports Isabel Laguna for Spanish wire service Agencia EFE. Like the bathing complex, both the pools and the tomb were preserved for thousands of years beneath sand dunes overlooking the Mediterranean. The salting pools were likely used to prepare foods, including garum, a fermented sauce made from fish guts, herbs and salt.

The Bronze Age burial structure, on the other hand, stands out as remarkably intact. Inside researchers discovered at least seven corpses, including the complete skeleton of an adult woman adorned with a green beaded necklace, shells, two small gold earrings and a bone comb. All told, the newly discovered sites will help archaeologists learn more about the various fishing communities that have thrived along the southeastern coast of Spain for centuries.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-roman-bath-complex-unearthed-spanish-beach-180977826/

[kimbutgar]

1. I was in that area in September 2019 in the Canary Islands

And I was amazed how much those areas had coliseums like Rome. And we also were at Alicante and the Roman influence in architecture was interesting.