Salamanca’s old cathedral yields Roman artifacts and earlier structures
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Workers in Salamanca, Spain, uncovered historical remains while attempting to address moisture problems at the Old Cathedral. The project, involving excavations less than 12 meters long and two meters wide, revealed artifacts spanning from the Roman period to the 19th century.
The most notable find was a small bronze Roman cauldron, now held at the Salamanca Museum. Digging 1.5 meters deeper revealed a paved area with Roman structures, leading experts to believe a significant building may have stood there.
Further excavation exposed a wall potentially belonging to an earlier Christian temple, predating the current cathedral, and a necropolis with sarcophagi, including one containing a child. Alongside these discoveries, the team found medieval ceramics and foundations from a sacristy that existed from the 15th or 16th centuries but was demolished in the 19th.
The area around the cathedral, known as El Teso de las Catedrales, was settled by the Romans after they reorganized the city, and is known for frequent archaeological finds. The initial goal of the excavation was to install an underground air chamber to reduce moisture damaging the chapel of Talavera. However, the project unearthed layers of history, and officials requested changes to the irrigation system to prevent further water damage to the cathedral’s stonework.
Archaeologists are still studying the discovered artifacts to determine precise dates and the relationship between the different structures, including whether the child’s sarcophagus connects to the potential earlier temple.
