LUCENTUM (TOSSAL DE MANISES, ALICANTE).)

Project manager

Manuel H. Olcina Donénech
[email protected]
Tel.: 965149000

ProjectArchaeological action project (Tossal de Manises, Alicante) 2013.

Promoter: Diputación de Alicante - MARQ

DirectorsManuel Olcina Doménech (MARQ), Rafael Pérez Jiménez (Architecture Area), Eva Tendero Porras (CV-MARQ Foundation) and Antonio Guilabert Mas (CV-MARQ Foundation).

This action has the authorisation of the Consellería de Cultura i Esport de la Generalitat Valenciana. File 2013/0259-A.

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The MARQ will start on 27 June a new excavation campaign at the archaeological site of the Tossal de Manisessite of the ancient Roman city of Lucentum. The work will be carried out in rooms in sectors B and B-C of the site, on its southeast side, focusing on the levels prior to the foundation of the Roman municipality, especially on the destruction detected in a large part of the enclave during the Second Punic War, which pitted Rome against Carthage.

The excavation work will be carried out over the course of a month, under the direction of Manuel Olcina Doménech, Rafael Pérez Jiménez, Eva Tendero Porras and Antonio Guilabert Mas, from the MARQ and the Department of Architecture of the Provincial Council of Alicante, who will also be responsible for the consolidation and enhancement of the findings once the field work has been completed.

This campaign will involve 23 university graduates and students, as volunteer collaborators, who will carry out both excavation and laboratory work. All these activities will be carried out in a site open to the public, next to the transit areas, so that visitors can see how an archaeological intervention takes place during their visit.

The Tossal de Manises, which has been excavated discontinuously since the 18th century, is today a point of reference in studies of the period between the landing of Rome and Carthage on peninsular soil and the Islamisation of the territory. Its opening to the public in 1998 was also a milestone in the dissemination of archaeological heritage and bringing archaeology closer to society, as endorsed by its selection for the final of the Telefonica Ability Awards in 2012.