A group of archaeologists has resumed the excavation work in the Pla d'Almatà de Balaguer this May. The new intervention has already exposed part of the infrastructure and parts of a house near the wall in this landmark site from the Al Ándalus era.
The works are the result of the collaboration agreement between the Museu de la Noguera and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), with the support of the Balaguer City Council. Funding is provided by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of the Consell Europeu de Recerca, since the excavation has been included in a European project that will make it possible to carry out exhaustive analysis tests of the remains found to better understand what urban planning and life in this area in the 10th and 11th century.
Specifically, the Consell Europeu de Recerca subsidizes a project promoted by the UAB researcher Helena Kirchnner, together with other researchers from different European universities, such as York, Reading (United Kingdom) or Granada, which focuses on the agricultural revolution of Islam during the Middle Ages.
Through European funding, it will be possible to carry out dating tests based on carbon-14 and obtain anthracology, sedimentation or micro-sedimentation data from the archaeological remains that appear in sites such as Pla d'Almatà. In this way it will be possible to know more precisely how the original nucleus of the old city of the capital of a Noguera worked.
The Pla d'Almatà de Balaguer is one of the main sites from the Al Ándalus era with an area of 27 hectares. The excavation is now focused on opening a new house and thus continuing the process of recovering urban planning in the area, which was totally planned, with straight streets around which the homes were organized.
"The ultimate goal is to highlight the magnitude of this urbanism in the 10th and 11th centuries and for people to continue to be aware of it," explains Eva Solanes, a technician at the Museu de la Noguera and director of the excavation work in Pla d'Almatà. .
After two weeks of work, the team of archaeologists has obtained various structures and material, such as tiles, which now allow them to sketch the layout of the house that is being discovered, which are located near the wall: "It was They have found materials that make us think that we are on the right path to understand how the house was arranged”, explained Guillem Castellsagué, PhD from the UAB and head of the archaeological intervention.
The excavation plans to last until mid-June and continue from September of this year.
