The hypothesis came to light in 2016. Archaeologists working on Illa d’en Reixac, the lower part of the Iberian city of Ullastret, pointed out then that the settlement probably had a main access door located in the middle of the old pond that was drained in the middle of the 19th century when the course of the river Daró was diverted.
During the month of June, researchers from the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya carried out an excavation campaign that allowed them to find the remains of this spectacular entrance, the only one the city had, which was probably walled up when the city was abandoned at the end of the century. III or early II century BC.
After the Second Punic War (218-202 BC), due to the growing Roman influence from Empúries, the largest urban nucleus of the Iberian culture discovered so far in Catalonia fell into disuse. It had been founded in the 6th century BC on the Puig de Sant Andreu, from where the final course of the Daró river could be controlled.
The ancient city stands out for its temples, palaces, silos and houses. But if something stands out above the complex, it is its imposing walls, which are still largely preserved today. And its main entrance would be the one that archaeologists have just found this 2023.
“The finding confirms that in the Iberian archaeological complex of Ullastret there are still remains of great heritage value pending excavation,” the researchers say. The monumental entrance, made up of two parallel arms that are 2.25 meters wide, was built with large “very well worked” stone blocks.
These walls were arranged perpendicular to the section of wall that closes the enclosure on the western side of the settlement, defining “a central space or corridor 4 meters wide that constitutes the beginning of one of the main streets of the city,” they have assured. experts this Thursday at a press conference.
The entrance to the gate has been found completely bricked up, with a wall made of large blocks of stone, a phenomenon that was already documented during the excavations carried out at gate 1 of Puig de Sant Andreu (the upper part of the Iberian city ) during the fifties of the last century.
This walling may respond to a will to close the city, once it had been abandoned at the end of the 3rd century or beginning of the 2nd century BC. “We believe that they did it before leaving the city so that no one else would occupy it,” says Laia Muntaner, director of excavations on Illa d’en Reixac.
The archaeological works have been carried out in the northwest quadrant of Illa d’en Reixac, which is only 5% excavated, as part of an international project that studies the doors and access systems to existing Iberian habitats in the territories of the Indigets and Ilergets peoples, who divided up a good part of the current territory of Catalonia.
The ilergets occupied the territory of the valley of l’Ebre, the south of the Pyrenees and the area around the lower reaches of the Segre and Cinca rivers. The indigets, for their part, were established in what is now the province of Girona, from the Gulf of Empúries to the Pyrenees.
Researchers have used a technique known as geophysical surveying to X-ray the subsurface from outside a space currently occupied by fields.
The German Archaeological Institute has already discovered an artificial access road to the island that crossed the pond. This was the indication that allowed us to define more specifically the space in which this monumental entrance to the city was believed to be located.
