A story under construction: Cartagena's defences in Antiquity. Recent newsnovelties about the Roman Republican city wall

Abstract

The archaeological excavations carried out on the summit of cerro del Molinete, Cartagena (Carthago Nova, Hispania Citerior), between 2010 and 2011, have partially uncovered a lengthy structure formed by two parallel, longitudinal walls; these are linked by a number of transversal walls, which form several internal spaces between them. From an architectural point of view, this ‘casemate wall’ is typologically related to a Phoenician tradition well known in the Greek-Hellenistic world and present in the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th century BC. The pottery associated with the structure suggests a date in the first half of or in the mid-2nd century BC. This new structure must therefore be the wall built to defend city and acropolis from the north during the earliest urban and architectonic monumentalisation process to be carried out in the city.