Archaeologists from the University of Girona (UdG) have discovered the remains of a Visigoth town at the site of the Sants Medges de Sant Julià de Ramis (Gironès).
The structures of the houses, with a single room, initially date from the 5th century.
Among the unique finds, two jug fragments stand out with an engraving reminiscent of a chrismon (reflecting that the community was already Christian).
The remains of the town are found under the cemetery that the site housed from the 8th century onwards and which lasted for more than a millennium. Precisely, now the archaeologists have finished excavating the thousand tombs that formed it and that were superimposed on each other. This 2024 they have unearthed 60 medieval skeletons between the 11th and 13th centuries.
Remains of the Iberians, the Romans, medieval remains, a necropolis that extends until the 19th century and now, also, Visigothic structures.
The site next to the Sants Metges church has been revealed as a panoramic view of the different eras, and the discoveries made allow us to take photographs of the passage of time. Either by studying their burials, or by discovering the remains hidden under the tombs.
This 2024, archaeologists have completed the excavation of the cemetery. In the remaining area, they have located around sixty medieval skeletons (of which twenty were children or young people). All the tombs are from the Middle Ages and extend between the 11th and 13th centuries.
The co-director of the excavation, Neus Coromina, emphasizes that precisely this campaign has allowed them to cover “a chronological gap” because until now no burials from that period had been found. Either the tombs were older, or already after the 14th century.
“We have opened up a space of time that we were missing, and when we study the skeletons this will allow us to verify how the population evolved,” he emphasizes.
Under the tombs, with the levels of the cemetery exhausted, some unique remains have appeared in this sector. They are the structures of between seven and eight houses, with a single room, that were part of a Visigothic town.
They were simple constructions, with a base of plinths – especially slate – on which clay walls were built. “In fact, we have been finding the remains of this adobe, all dismantled and shelled,” says archaeologist Jordi Vivo, who also co-directs the excavations.
These houses formed a small village that, chronologically, coincides with the time when Sants Metges also housed a fortification.
Located on the other side of the mountain, this fortress – the Castellum Fractum – was built between the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th century AD and lasted during the Visigoth era.
Archaeologist Jordi Vivo explains that the town they have now discovered probably housed “the families of the soldiers who were stationed in the castle or the service personnel” of the fortification. In addition to the houses, the UdG archaeologists have also discovered that this Visigothic town would have a small chapel – of which only the mortar pavement is preserved – that would provide religious service to the community.
The archaeologist emphasizes that the discovery of the Visigothic village is an “important” discovery, especially because “it is difficult” to find “domestic structures” corresponding to that era. Jordi Vivo equates this village with other remains of Visigoth houses that have been found in Catalonia, such as in Roses or in the L’Esquerda site (in Les Masies de Roda) and also highlights that the discovery allows us to expand knowledge around Sants Metges. .
“Here in Sant Julià de Ramis we already know the structures of the Castellum Fractum, which clearly correspond to a phase of the Visigothic period; but until now we thought that these were the only remains that could be attributed to this chronology,” explains Vivo. And he adds: “Now, thanks to the excavation of this sector of the cemetery, the discovery of all these houses expands their presence in the territory during the Visigothic era.”
Symbol of Christ
At the moment, the origin of this Visigothic town is still unclear. Initially, the UdG archaeologists date it from the 5th century. On the one hand, because then the mountain already housed the fortification that would later become the Castellum Fractum. And on the other hand, because during the excavation two fragments of jars – dolium, in Latin – with a floral engraving reminiscent of a chrismon (the monogram of Christ) have also emerged.
“We must finish studying the pastes well, but this type of decoration, which makes a kind of rosettes, makes us think that these two fragments correspond to a late ancient period, probably Visigothic,” says Jordi Vivo. And on the rebound, this would also confirm that the community that inhabited Sants Metges was already Christian.
In parallel, during this campaign, UdG archaeologists have also found vestiges from previous times. Specifically, remains that confirm that this place of Sant Julià de Ramis also housed a Roman temple. It was built on the old Iberian town, probably in the 2nd century BC (between the years 130 and 120).
Virtually nothing remains of this small temple. Yes, archaeologists have located the structures that were part of its platform and also, reused again and again, some stone blocks and parts of the columns. They are sandstone ashlars, from a quarry in Sarrià de Ter, and which the Romans climbed to the top of the mountain.
This 2024, the excavation campaign in Sants Metges has lasted four weeks. Now, once the field work is completed, the research moves to the laboratory. Because the archaeologists from the UdG will study the ceramic fragments that they have unearthed and, above all, the skeletons that were part of the necropolis.
The excavations in the cemetery have lasted fourteen years and, adding the 60 medieval skeletons of this campaign, about a thousand have been extracted from there. The oldest correspond to the end of the 8th century, when after the Arab invasion the Visigothic town was abandoned and made way for the cemetery, which lasted until the 19th century.
Neus Coromina explains that, among the medieval tombs of the 11th-13th centuries, archaeologists have located a scallop shell. It is the fifth one found at the site, which confirms that “at some point, probably in the 12th century, this place of Sant Julià de Ramis was a point on the Sant Jaume path.” Furthermore, among the skeletons that have been unearthed, the UdG archaeologist highlights that of a child affected “by a very strange disease”, because his tendons were calcifying.
Now, thanks to these medieval skeletons, and all the others that have been unearthed since the beginning of the excavations, the UdG archaeologists will be able to study the evolution of the population of the place over the centuries. Among others, they will be able to know how they ate and what pathologies they suffered from.
Coromina explains that, precisely, individuals from between the 11th and 13th centuries interest them because they mark a turning point. The study of previous skeletons has made it possible to see how, during the early Middle Ages, the population ate millet and animal protein (whether meat, eggs or milk). “But from the 14th and 15th centuries,” he points out, “there was a decline and we found many deficiencies and diseases related to poor nutrition.”
