Last Monday began in Rielves (Toledo) the first recovery work carried out on the site of the Roman villa ‘El Solado’. Four days later, while this campaign with which they want to recover and value it was presented to the media, they found one of the 19 mosaics that it housed.
At the time of the discovery, the mayor of the town -of about 750 inhabitants-, Luis Vicente Arellano, detailed the history of this site that was documented in 1780 when the members of the youth volunteer team that are working on it began to applaud. Antonio, one of those who participates in this program, has found part of one of the mosaics that houses this Roman villa from the 4th century.
“The important thing for us is to preserve the site and value it for our neighbors and those who may visit us,” Arellano pointed out when the applause and joy for the discovery cut short his speech. “They have found it,” they pointed out.
The last work that was done on the site was in the 1960s, says the mayor, who points out that since then agricultural activity has not ceased on a plot that the City Council acquired last September to start a campaign that has given its first fruits a few days after starting.
“We knew of its existence, we have always had the intention of recovering it,” Arellano added about the site, where a georadar study was carried out in May – financed by the Toledo Provincial Council with 16,000 euros – which detected various structures in which archaeological surveys have begun.
“We thought maybe they would have taken it away”
Gema Garrido, archaeologist (Global Archeology) and director of the excavation, later specified that in these first days they carried out a tasting attached to the wall in which the mosaic was found but they found nothing. “We thought that perhaps they would have taken it,” she adds with a satisfied smile after verifying that the mosaic is still there and that they can continue working these days to discover it.
So far, explains the archaeologist, they have carried out four tastings to verify the data collected by the georadar in the entire plot, located about 3 kilometers from Rielves. “In this we have found just what we expected and now we have to finish probing the ground,” she says.
At the moment, the more than 30 volunteers who participate in the Board’s ‘Young Summer’ program will be working on this site until August 15, but the Global Archeology team could continue “if they had to continue digging” .
Corpses from the Visigoth period
Rielves will continue to rediscover its past in this town where, in the 18th century, with the excavation carried out by Carlos III, corpses from the Visigoth period were documented. They hope to find, after so many centuries, some of the mosaics in an acceptable state of conservation despite the agricultural activities that have been carried out on the plot. At the moment, there is already one.
In the event that they have called before the media were also the Vice President of Education, Culture, Equality and Social Welfare, Ana Gómez, the Deputy for Education and Culture, Cristina Cebas, and the Councilor for Education and Culture of Rielves, Diego Ralo Aparicio.
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