10 October 2012

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

AROUND THE EXHIBITION OCCIDENS. DISCOVER THE ORIGINS

The genesis of the cathedral complex and the origins of Christian worship

Ms. Mercedes Unzu
Archaeologist

The cathedral complex of Pamplona has been the object of various archaeological interventions since the 1950s, the results of which have provided data of undoubted value for the knowledge of the history of the city. Thus, the excavations carried out in the garden of the Arcedianato demonstrated the high level of Roman Degree reached, while those carried out inside the cathedral made it possible to document the process of Christianization of this space, when a pagan place of worship, a nymphaeum from Roman times, became the place chosen to erect the first Christian church in the 6th century.

The excavation in progress at the conference room archaeological site that is part of the exhibition OCCIDENS is a new opportunity to advance in the knowledge of the origin and evolution of our city. Under the floor of this conference room, written in the ground, we once again find one of the most eloquent documents on the history of Pamplona. Research continues and much remains to be discovered, but the excavation is already providing new data about the origins of the city. Among these walls, structural remains of the original Vascon settlement on which Pompelo was founded have been identified for the first time.

But these are not the only unique data that the excavation has provided. Until now, the population after Romanization, the late-antique Pamplona, was not known either, only its funerary spaces. The work in progress is making it possible to document remains, mainly pavements, belonging to these centuries, almost invisible to the archaeological record.

The archaeological conference room is part of the episcopal palace built in the twelfth century attached to the Romanesque cloister of which has been located a buttress that connects with the outer wall of the east wall which allows us to locate and accurately dimension the Romanesque cloister.

Before the Romanesque palace, occupying the central part of the conference room a large rectangular building has been excavated. It was built after 1150. The dimensions and constructive characteristics lead us to think that it was used as an auxiliary building of the cathedral complex that could have had functions as a construction exchange or temporary accommodation of the guilds that participated in the construction of the cathedral. This building had a short existence, coinciding its dismantling with the construction of the Episcopal Palace.

In the archaeological intervention several original Structures of this building have been documented, on the one hand, the original accesses have been identified. One of them is a semicircular staircase that saves the slope to the area of the "Claustrillo". Facing this, a new staircase communicated the building with the exterior to the east, overcoming the significant difference in level by means of nine steps.
 

Episcopal Palace. conference room of archeology.