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Empúries

Empúries; Emporion; Emporiae

Spain · Catalunya, Girona

Ancient cityIntermittent excavation
Approximate period600 BCE — 500 CEArchaic Greek, Roman and Late Antique periods See on the map ↓

In brief

Empúries encompasses both Greek Emporion and the Roman city that developed beside it. Systematic excavations began in 1908, and the statue of Asklepios found in 1909 became one of the site's important finds.

What was found?

  • 1Statue known as Asklepios

    It is a Hellenistic statue of a god assembled from different marbles. According to researchers, it may represent Asklepios, Agathodaimon, or Zeus Serapis; its identity has not been established.

  • 2Roman forum

    It is the Roman city's central square, preserved together with its roads and other public buildings. It reveals Emporiae's role as an administrative and economic center for the surrounding region.

  • 3Late Antique sarcophagi

    In the cemetery that developed over the abandoned Greek city, sarcophagi are found in burial chambers associated with churches. They show that the settlement area acquired funerary and religious uses over time.

What does it point to?

Empúries offers the opportunity to study the Greek port city together with the Roman city founded beside it. The statue's Eastern Mediterranean connections show contacts between cities, while the later cemetery shows the changing functions of former urban spaces.

What did it teach us?

  1. The Greek and Roman cities later merged within the municipality of Emporiae.
  2. The statue documents an advanced production technique combining marble pieces of different origins.
  3. Part of the abandoned Greek city became a cemetery around churches during Late Antiquity.
  4. The identity of the statue known as Asklepios continues to be debated in research.

Images

Empúries 18 (3855676223)
KaischiB from Mainz, Germany · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Mosaic - Empúries (Forum) 2005-03-27
CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Paleochristian Basilica - Empúries - 2005-03-27
CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Greek and Roman
Team / historical
Archaeology Museum of Catalonia, Empúries
Coordinates
42.1347°, 3.1206°

Sources

  1. mac.cat
  2. en.wikipedia.org
  3. mac.cat
  4. Katalonya Arkeoloji Müzesi — Asklepios heykeli

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