| home : index : picture archive : Spain : photos by Marco Prins © | ||
Emporiae (Ampurias) |
||
| Unless otherwise indicated, pictures on this page © Marco Prins and Jona Lendering. Photos can be downloaded and used for non-commercial purposes, but you have to acknowledge Livius. | ||
 |
Gate and city walls of the Neapolis, "new town", of Emporion, "port of trade". The Old town (Palaiopolis) was founded by Greek settlers from Marseilles on an offshore island opposite the Costa Brava near the Pyrenees. According to the Greek geographer Strabo of Amasia, this happened in c.520 BCE, but the oldest archaeological finds suggest an earlier date (c.600 BCE). | |
 |
The island was well-known because of a temple that was dedicated to the famous goddess Artemis of Ephesus. It traded with the native settlement called Indikê (below). After 500, the new town (Neapolis) was founded on the mainland. This type of "stepping stone" settlement, in which the settlers first occupied an island, and later moved to the mainland, is well-known from Italy and the Cyrenaica. Cf. this satellite photo. | |
 |
The New town consisted of several terraces, higher and higher when one left the shore. | |
 |
This picture shows that the New town gradually rises from the sea to the hilltop, where a temple has been discovered, dedicated to the Egyptian god Serapis. | |
 |
The New town, with a mosaic. | |
 |
Close-up of the mosaic. | |
 |
Another picture of the New town. | |
 |
The remains of the mole that once separated the harbor of Emporion from the sea. The harbor has silted up. | |
 |
The temple of Asclepius. | |
 |
Commercial letter, written in Greek on plated lead, in which a merchant from Ionia sends off several orders to his representative in Emporion. Fifth century BCE. | |
 |
Immediately to the west of the New town was the native, Iberian settlement, which was called Indikê. According to the Roman historian Livy, the two settlements were divided by a great wall. It is impossible to verify this interesting statement, because after 195 BCE, the Roman general Porcius Cato built a military settlement on the site. This became the center of the Roman part of what was now known as Emporiae (picture). | |
 |
The Roman town has the shape of a long rectangle, not unlike Cáceres,
a Spanish city in the Extremadura. The latter was also a military settlement.
In 45 BCE, Julius Caesar refounded Emporiae as a Roman colonia. This is a house in the Roman town. |
|
 |
A close-up from a mosaic in the Roman town. In the background, one can see the easternmost of the Pyrenees reach the Mediterranean Sea. | |
 |
And another close-up from another mosaic from the Roman age.
The invasion of the Franks in 265 was a disaster for Emporiae. Yet, it still remained a bishops' see and was of some importance in the early Middle Ages. Excations have started in 1908. About 25% of the site have been excavated. |
Livius.Org, 2003 Revision: - |
 |
||
|
|
||