The Center for Martorellencs Studies (CEM) held this afternoon the Open Day at the Santa Margarida site, to present the results of the excavation campaign between July 8 and 26. Archaeologists and students have excavated the eastern area of the church, where they have found tombs from before the 13th century, and a small western sector, where they have identified tombs from the 9th to the 10th centuries. The visitors of the day were able to learn about the work carried out and other aspects related to the training of archaeologists and technological and digital innovations in the sector.
The campaign in Santa Margarida is part of the Research Project of the Priory of Sant Genís de Rocafort 2022-25, and has the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya and Martorell Town Council. Members of the CEM’s research team, five students from the University of Barcelona – with whom the organization maintains a collaboration agreement for training internships for archeology students – and three archaeological technicians took part. .
The excavations have been concentrated in two sectors, as the vice-president of the CEM, Alfred Mauri, explains: “one, the most extensive, to the east of the church, where we identify several necropolis phases: an upper one with the affected burials for the later agricultural works, and below, a set of tombs with a chronology before the 13th century, with a slab roof and in a much better state of conservation”.
Alfred Mauri, vicepresident CEM
The other excavated sector is to the west of the church, where there are tombs of a much older chronology: “From the 9th or 10th century, or perhaps older, and other structures that we have not yet identified fully”.
Alfred Mauri, vicepresident CEM
The director of the excavations, Ester Travé, has stated that “we worked for two weeks with internship students from the University of Barcelona, who are doing the fieldwork subject of the degree, and with technicians in charge of the CEM. During the third week some of the students wanted to stay as volunteers and we did the same tasks during these three weeks: continue the excavation of the necropolis, in the medieval period we excavated those tombs that we had already identified and documented for the year past, and in the new areas of intervention we have identified and detected all these graves to leave them ready for next year’s campaign”.
Ester Travé, directora excavacions campanya Santa Margarida
Laia Romero Urgell, third-year student of the Archeology Degree (UB), assures that it has been a very good experience and explains how they have worked at the site, where they have carried out different jobs: “Mostly we have unearthed individuals. The first few days they put us in pairs and then we started doing it individually. In a deposit you have to keep a very thorough record, both of the individuals and of all the sections in the sand. Photographic and coordinate documentation is also very important, to make 3D models or drawings, and that will serve us for the report that we have to hand in at the end of the internship”.
Laia Romero Urgell, estudiant tercer curs Grau d'Arqueologia (UB)
The project consists of a field work part – the excavations – and a laboratory part. The first is what is done these days. “It takes us all day, but the last two weeks we have done an intensive from 07.00 to 15.00h. It is quite hard because of the temperatures. We dig and document everything we find, and then computerize it. The recovered materials will be inventoried and will become part of the Vicenç Ros Museum”.
Alfred Mauri, vicepresident CEM
After the excavation is finished next Friday, the project will continue with the documentation, analysis and exploitation of the fieldwork data. Mauri adds that “it will be a very important contribution of information and knowledge about the medieval population”. And he adds that Santa Margarida is an exceptional place to work: “It is an almost unique archaeological site, as it allows us to follow the evolution of the population over a very extensive period, which covers from the fifth century until in the XVIII This factor is found in very few sites”.
Source: martorelldigital.cat
