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TIERMES,
a Celtiberian-Roman city carved out of the rock:
Notes on the site and its history
Introduction
The Tiermes archaeological site, at Montejo de Tiermes, Soria (Autonomous
Community of Castilla y León, Spain), stands out among the diversity
of archaeological remains in the Iberian Peninsula. In the mid 1930s,
Blas Taracena, the Spanish archaeologist, organised systematic digs at
the site and called Tiermes “the Spanish Pompeii”.
Leaving aside such trite clichés, it is true that the remains
of the old Celtiberian fortified hilltop village and the Roman city are
one of the most interesting Spanish archaeological sites for the researcher
and the visitor.
Doors, windows, steps, houses, streets, roads… The remains of Tiermes
city have lasted throughout the centuries thanks to the fact that they are
partially excavated out of the sandstone bedrock.
This, together with the metres of accumulated sediment and rubble, has
meant that numerous urban structures have survived for 20 centuries,
and we are now beginning to unearth them.
On the other hand, the light and rugged landscape of the Sierra Pela
mountain ranges add a setting of permanent solitude for a city lost in
the middle of the Soria uplands, between ravines and pasturelands with
vultures circling overhead.
The digs carried out by Ortego and Zozaya during the 1960s and the systematic
work of Jose Luis Argente Oliver between 1975 to 1998 began to unearth
an important part of the site. Since 2001, the site has been studied
by Santiago Martínez Caballero, Tiermes Excavation Director, sponsored
by the Autonomous Government of Castilla y León with the financial
backing of the Friends of the Tiermes Museum Association and personal
contributions of its members.
In September 2003, the European Commission approved the TIERMES 2003-2006
LIFE Project, headed by Santiago Martínez Caballero and which
focuses on the research strategies, preservation and enhancing the usability
and value of the Tiermes archaeological site and its setting.
Historical data about Tiermes
The first references to Tiermes are to be found in classical sources, even
though they are very few in number and not very clear. They are also written
much later than the events described.
Ptolemaeus thus includes Tiermes among the cities belonging to the Celtiberian
Arevaci tribe. Apianus indicated that it was one of the important towns
in the Celtiberian wars (153-133 B.C.) and claimed that in 98 B.C., Consul
Titus Didius conquered the city and forced its inhabitants to move to
the plain and forbade them to build walls around the settlement.
These few references, together with other information provided by Diodorus
of Sicily, Posidonius, Titus Livius, Tacitus, Plinius and others, place
Tiermes as an Arevaci city fighting against Rome within the general historical
context of the conquering and Romanization of Celtiberia in Hispania.
When peace came to the plateau halfway through the 1st century B.C.,
Tiermes was assigned to the Clunia Judicial District. The city grew in
importance until it became a Roman town (Termes) some time during the
1st century A.D, perhaps under the Julius Claudius dynasty. The urban
splendour of Tiermes spread during the high Roman empire, as can been
seen from what is left of its public buildings (Forum, Macellum or market,
Aqueducts, the so-called Castellum Aquae, Termas..)
When the crisis occurred in the 3rd century, walls were built around
the city and its perimeter was reduced. During the low Roman empire,
the city maintained a certain activity, and towards the 6th or 7th century,
its enclosure included the centre of a Visigoth settlement, as can be
seen from the burial grounds from that period found in the Forum, which
was then abandoned, and the remains of a place of worship from that era
where reusable decorative fragments have been found.
With the Islamic invasion, Tiermes must have been an unsafe and sparsely
populated frontier area between Christians and Muslims in the Upper Duero.
From the 12th century A.D. and after the zone had been reconquered by
the Christians, Tiermes did not recover its formal role as the capital
of the area to the south of the River Duero. Tiermes was no longer important
and became a simple village, with a church and monastery, depending on
the area’s important population centre, the town of Caracena.
At the start of the 16th century, the Church of Tiermes became a chapel
and the residual population settled in other more important farming and
stockbreeding centres.
The only leading role that the old Tiermes conserved was with respect
to religion, as its chapel was the main place of worship in the area
and two pilgrimages dedicated to Our Lady of Tiermes (an original Romanesque
image in the Cathedral Museum of El Burgo de Osma) were and still are
held in May and October.
Research about Tiermes
Scholars and historians up to the 19th century.
The research into the Celtiberian and Roman site of Tiermes did not
begin to be carried out in a scientific manner until Nicolás Rabal
started his work there in 1888. Nonetheless, between the end of the 15th
century, which was the time of the last recorded population living in
Tiermes, and the end of the 19th, different authors in different types
of studies (erudite, artistic, statistical, demographic, encyclopaedic)
refer to the presence of an important town that is immediately identified
with the Termes of the classical references (Titus Livius, Apianus, Diodorus
Sículus, Florus, Salustius, Tacitus, Ptolomeus, Plinius, Nonnius
Marcellus), an indigenous city conquered in 98 B.C. by Consul Titus Didius
and then converted into a Roman town.
These authors (Ambrosio de Morales, Mariana, Flórez, Madoz, Loperráez,
Lafuente, Masdeu, Ceán Bermúdez, Cortés y López,
etc.) link the presence of extraordinary ruins to the existence of the
ancient Roman city, where some buildings were visible, built on the site
of the old town conquered by Rome.
Nonetheless, and at the same time, the place continued to be used as
a place to extract building materials for the local towns (Montejo, Liceras,
Carrascosa, Retortillo, etc.), which grew up during the Middle Ages and
Tiermes continued to be plundered until the end of the 19th century.
For example, the discovery of the silver trullae (ladles) in 1885 together
with the remains of the low empire walls (and which today are in the
Hispanic Society of America, New York) triggered a “frenzied treasure
hunt” by the local population, with the resulting deterioration
of the site. Even important archaeological remains were broken up to
be reused as building materials (such as the funeral inscription of Pompeyus
Placidus, which is currently on the façade of a house in Carrascosa).
19th century - 1930.
The start of scientific research into Tiermes began with the arrival
of the notable historian, writer and Soria scholar, Nicolás Rabal.
Following his trip to the site in 1887, he made an initial description
of the place, added topographic, town planning and geographical data,
and included the differences between a Celtiberia and a Roman town. This
was the starting point for the first direct intervention in the settlement
at the start of the 20th century.
Following a campaign by Count Romanones to unearth the remains of buildings
in the area of the Forum and Termes in 1909, using rather unscientific
excavation methods and which were more of an exploratory nature, Narciso
Sentenach was entrusted in 1910 and 1911 to start more extensive work
in the site. He worked in the Forum (area of the imperial temple) and
they began to unearth the remains of large buildings, their construction
items (columns, architraves, etc..), even interesting materials, such
as bronze sculptures (local dignitary, horse sculpture, Apollo,..), which
were proof for that researcher of the archaeological and historical importance
of the old Termes. His publications focused on a descriptive and also
interpretative study of the ruins, by increasing the historical points
and paying great attention to identifying and differentiating the indigenous
elements from the Roman ones.
In 1913, Ignacio Calvo continued the excavations in the same area, which
added to the archaeological knowledge, and focused in greater depth on
the Medieval phase of the site. The materials from the Romanones, Sentenach
and Calvo excavations were taken to the National Archaeological Museum,
where part of the excavated materials are on display.
Tiermes also caught the attention of Schulten, who was then carrying
out research in Numancia. Even through the German archaeologist never
organised a dig in Tiermes, he did visit the site and analysed and interpreted
in his book the historical development and the archaeological remains
of Tiermes.
1930-1970
With Blas Taracena, the then director of the Numantine Museum, a new
phase of research started, as he performed a synthesis study using a
greater scientific archaeological basis, and started a systematic analysis
of the place. He organised different digs in Tiermes, during the 30s
and 40s, whose results led to new conclusions regarding the evolutionary
phases of the city, regarding the town planning distribution and characteristics
of the main buildings, and highlighted, for the first time, the special
features of the bed-rock excavating technique used in the design and
execution of numerous Celtiberian and Roman constructions.
The original and wealth of examples of the stone-worked architecture
and its extraordinary conservation in numerous Tiermes buildings have
led to the city being called the “Spanish Pompeii”. Taracena
also gathered information and opinions of other authors and also studied
the territory, as a key element to understanding the historical development
of the city.
In the 60s, the archaeologist from Soria, Teógenes Ortego, continued
with the excavations. This provided further knowledge about Tiermes and
new data for interpreting its development. He would be the first author
to publish a guide to the archaeological site. Between 1940-1970 authors
such as D´Ors, Nieto or García y Bellido wrote about specific
aspects of Tiermes, and their publications focused the attention of national
archaeological research to the site.
1975-2004.
From the 70s onwards, the work in Tiermes is defined by the application
of an archaeological methodology following the new lines of action of
this discipline in Spain, and which is currently being developed according
to the renewal that can be seen in European archaeology based on the
new, mainly Anglo-Saxon and Italian currents of thought and methodologies.
It began with Juan Zozaya’s detailed excavation in the Forum area in
1971, and more directly with the systematic project started in 1975 for the
Roman city with José Luis Argente Oliver, and for the Medieval settlement,
with Carlos de la Casa and other researchers. The different studies and reports
emerging from this new stage would provide a complete renewal of what we know
about Tiermes, both with respect to the exploration of large archaeological
zones and the interpretations of the development and evolution of Tiermes between
the Bronze Age and the Medieval era.
José Luis Argente Oliver headed the archaeological work in Tiermes,
first of all with other archaeologists that worked in different areas
of the settlement, and then single-handedly, until his premature death
in 1998. He systematically studied the site and his interest in publishing
his results for the general public can be seen from the numerous publications
and his enhancing the usability and value of the architectural monuments
that gradually were unearthed.
The turning point for Argente’s hard work came in 1986, when the
authorities, who were well aware of the work that was being carried out
and the monumental and archaeological importance of Tiermes, constructed
the buildings for the Tiermes Monographic Museum as the focal point for
onsite dissemination, and as the infrastructure needed for the work under
way. It turned Tiermes into one of the Spanish archaeological sites endowed
with the best infrastructures to back up the dissemination, protection
and research work, tasks that explain the activity of any active archaeological
enclave. A large part of the archaeological structures that are currently
visible and, most of which can be visited by the public, are the result
of the hard work of this researcher with endless stamina who has done
so much to promote the province of Soria, from the vantage point of the
Numancia Museum, and for the cultural enrichment of its inhabitants as
the result of his work: the Aqueduct, the Forum, the walls, the Aqueduct
House, the southern stone-worked complex, the stone-worked stands, the
city streets, etc, were uncovered thanks to his tireless work.
During the 70s and 80, Argente was joined by Carlos de la Casa, who
oversaw the excavation of the Medieval settlement, and worked in the
burial ground next to the chapel, and Tiermes also began to be included
in the Spanish Medieval archaeological bibliography thanks to his results.
Hardly any importance had been given up to then to the imposing presence
of the 12th-century Romanesque chapel in the centre of the archaeological
site, which is proof of Tiermes becoming a small village depending on
the town of Caracena in the Middle Ages. Special mention should also
be made of the work of Manuela Doménech in the study of Medieval
Tiermes, in the stone-worked burial ground near to the river, and the
current director of the Numantine Museum, Elias Terés, in the
Medieval settlement next to the chapel.
At that time, Tiermes also witnessed occasional digs by other researchers,
such as Alfredo Jimeno (1975-1976) interested in the pre-Roman phases
in the central area of the site; the professor of the Complutense University
of Madrid Complutense de Madrid Víctor Fernández (1979-1980),
in the walls, of José María Izquierdo (1981-1984), in the
temple of the Forum, or E. Dohijo and J. Morales (1999) terminating Argente’s
excavation after his death.
Tiermes, today
The current administrative support of the research in Tiermes is based
on the directives laid down by the relevant authority in charge of the
heritage, the Autonomous Government of Castilla y León, on the
site having been declared of Cultural Interest in 1994, with the ensuing
impact on the protection/research relations and the importance of the
approval in 1996 of the Master Plan of the Site as the starting point
for the long-term plan in the settlement.
With respect to the current archaeological investigation, headed by
Santiago Martínez Caballero, and forming part of the Tiermes LIFE
Project, and in accordance with the directives of the Autonomous Government
of Castilla y León, it is focused on points, such as the Forum,
where certain historical and archaeological aspects need to be clarified
in order to initially disseminate a renewed presentation of the site
to the general public, which will have a positive social impact on the
extensive potential of the site; and secondly, from a strictly scientific
point of view, to review and extract new conclusions regarding the historical
development of the city, its territory and the complex archaeological
relations of a Celtiberian city until it became a large Roman city, now
that current Spanish and European archaeological thought envisages new
approaches with respect to the assessment and interpretations of the
archaeological data in this historical-cultural context.
The current team, which includes a large number of the people from Argente’s
last teams, therefore wishes to highlight new aspects of this site, clearly
based on the important work of the researchers over the last century,
and backed by the use of new data and different methodological and epistemological
approaches of current archaeological thought.
Archaeological digs in Tiermes 1909-2004
• Conde Romanones: Forum, Termas 1909
• Narciso Sentenach: Forum 1910-1911
• Ignacio Calvo: Forum 1913
• Blas Taracena: Various zones, 30s – 40s
• Teógenes Ortego: Various zones, 60s-70s
• Juan Zozaya: Forum 1971
• José Luis Argente: Forum, Forum district, Walls, Aqueduct, Aqueduct
House, Stone-worked complex, stone-worked stands, Carratiermes Celtiberian burial
ground, Visigoth burial ground, 1975-1998
• Carlos de la Casa: Chapel burial ground 1975-1985
• Alfredo Jimeno: Forum district 1975-1976
• Elías Terés: Medieval settlement 1981-1982
• Manuela Doménech: Chapel burial ground 1981-1982
• Víctor Fernández: Walls 1979-1980
• José María Izquierdo: Forum 1981-1984
• Eusebio Gutierrez Dohijo & Javier Rodríguez: Foro 1999
• Santiago Martínez Caballero & Alberto Bescós Casa:
aqueduct, forum 2000-2001
• Santiago Martínez Caballero & Alberto Bescós: forum
2002-2003
• Santiago Martínez Caballero (LIFE Project): Forum 2004-(2006)
Attached document: english.pdf
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