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The first phase of excavation of the portico of the Roman Theatre of Cartagena is almost complete
Findings from the archaeological site will be displayed at the Roman Theatre Museum in Cartagena
The excavation works carried out in the first third of the Portico of the Roman Theatre of Cartagena are about to be completed. The recovery and restoration work at the ancient site will soon be able to show the extracted mural paintings, the first new piece to be exhibited at the Roman Theatre Museum in 15 years.
It coincides with the Fiestas de Cartagineses y Romanos festival in Cartagena, which are held yearly around these dates as a reminder and a celebration of the Roman and Carthaginian past of the city.
The current excavation work on the Portico of the Roman Theatre has been underway since December on about a third of its surface. The other two thirds to be recovered are part of a project presented for financing with European funds.
Cartagena Mayor Noelia Arroyo explained that the current project, financed with Next Generation European funds, has aimed to “complete the extraction of the mural paintings from the rooms, expand the archaeological excavation towards the central square of the Porticus, as well as the restoration of the western portico and the museumisation of one of the pictorial panels.”
In fact, the restoration of the pictorial panel foresees its placement in the Museum, after the union of thousands of fragments recovered in the archaeological excavation.
“Once recomposed from some 3,500 fragments, the painting will be placed on a stand that will be taken in pieces to Room 1 of the Roman Theatre Museum. The creation of the puzzle has involved meticulous and spectacular work by the team of specialists who have been working on it for 9 months, and the transfer and its installation in the Museum will be a very delicate operation that must be carried out in sections,” according to Arroyo.
This mural, in the words of the mayor, “will be the first piece added to the exhibition of the Roman Theatre Museum since its inauguration 15 years ago.”
The director of the Roman Theatre Museum of Cartagena, Elena Ruiz, has indicated that “from mid-October the public will be able to see in situ how the restorers place the painted panel in the museum room.”
Painted between the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century AD, the painting show the figure of Mars or a hero holding a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left hand.
“Once the excavations have been done, the detailed study of everything discovered now really begins,” said the professor and archaeologist who discovered it, Sebastian Ramallo. “I will never tire of saying it, but one of the great contributions of the Roman Theater is that it allows us to reconstruct the history of Cartagena, from the Punic era to the 20th century, all of this based on the substrates that we first saw in the theatre and that we are now seeing in the portico.”
The excavation and restoration works carried out at the site also include extraction of pollen from the original fossilised plants, whose remains have been found in the ruins with the intention of (where appropriate) reproducing the ancient gardens exactly as they used to be.
Images: Ayuntamiento de Cartagena
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