Ategua
In: Hispania Antigua. Arqueológica: 14, 2022
DOI: 10.48255/9788891327734.20
The archaeological site of Ategua is located 31 kilometers to the southeast of the city of Cordoba. It is an Asset of Cultural Interest, a declaration granted for its archaeological and historical wealth of unquestionable value and also, not to be underestimated, for its location in a rural environment away from the pressure of the unbridled urbanism of the cities that are inhabited and that, with similar monumental and archaeological values, do not have this protection in general but, hopefully, only for some of its monuments (Fig. 1).
The site of Ategua has had the good fortune to share its territory with cereal and olive farms and to become oneof them in the time between its abandonment and its expropriation in 1984 by the State. Its decline as a city was forged since Roman times but it will be in the fifteenth century, during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, when the urban core is definitely abandoned and becomes an agricultural and grazing area. In addition to these two licit uses, it is known of the illegal or alegal burial of between 10 and 12 people. None of the burials were marked and their pits cut through modern and, of course, older levels. These circumstances plus the non-canonical burial layout of three of the individuals, in addition to a series of other antecedents, may be sufficient evidence to seriously consider that this archaeological site, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and, perhaps, after this conflict, was chosen as a clandestine cemetery to bury people whose existence was to be erased.
A coin of the father of Isabella the Catholic, John II of Castile (1405-1454), in a level of abandonment located under one of the collapses of part of the elevation of the late Islamic wall (vid. infra) dates a time when the city must no longer have been inhabited. In the absence of new excavations, it is likely that the abandonment began in the 14th century.
Little is known of this late medieval city. On the one hand we know of the existence of some scattered habitation structures and, above all, we know of two important buildings: an octagonal tower that protected the north gate of a former late Islamic defensive enclosure and a market that was attached to one of the sections of its wall, between two of its defensive towers, on its southwestern side. The measurements of both buildings followed a construction module based on Castilian cubits, which makes clear their Christian origin and, therefore, postquem second third of the thirteenth century.
The lower medieval structures have been located as part of a military enclosure built was built in the 12th century. This fence, of a design adapted to the dimensions of the Islamic foot, with nine defensive towers and one of homage - in whose foundation Almohad pottery was found- was built over previous structures associated with Almoravid and/or Almohad materials.
We know nothing more about the caliphate Ategua that belonged to the Cora of Qurtuba and even less about the emirate period, although we are beginning to have data of the late-antique city thanks to recent excavations carried out in two specific areas of the site, which have revealed some structures belonging to living spaces for domestic, agricultural and/or livestock use, with the presence of ovens. Some of these structures were aligned with a street that fossilized the layout of the ancient kardo maximus of the Roman city. The necropolis of this time was documented by prospecting outside the Roman-indigenous walled enclosure, about 800 meters in a straight line from its west gate - Gate 1 - and south gate - Gate 2 -.
In the 4th century the chronicles tell us about the city and leave us evidence of its relative importance. Bishop Osius, a figure very close to the Emperor Constantine, was accompanied by a priest, a certain Felicissimus, from the «parish of Theba», to the Council of Elvira (held sometime between 300 and 324).
This chronicle, together with the Late Antique and Late Roman structures detected, undoubtedly show the continuity of a city already constituted as the Municipium Flavium Ateguense since the 1st century.
We know about this city's urban planning thanks to a geomagnetic survey that has allowed us to detect the presence of at least 76 streets, with a mainly hypodynamic, layout that contain at least 59 urban blocks.
We have noted the shock of an earthquake in the second half of the 2th century that causes the abandonment of some buildings and the transformation of the use of others. And we know that the city of the 1st century was built on the ashes and rubble of the one that surrendered to Caesars troops on February 19, 45 B.C.
Of the pre-Roman period little is known except that the use of the space during the Iberian and Protocolonial periods has been confirmed. Between the VIII-VI centuries B.C. we believe we can date the imposing acropolis that dominates the city from that time until its abandonment in the XV century. It is quite possible that the large walled enclosure that surrounds the entire hill and that was used during the Roman period was built at that time.
The site is occupied in the Late Bronze Age and this is attested by the presence of a cremation necropolis and ceramic materials from this time associated with habitation contexts, but it is possible that Ategua was occupied since the Chalcolithic, or even earlier. The circumstances are conducive to this: it occupies a high area with good visibility of the surrounding territory; it is surrounded by a river to the south, the Guadajoz, and by a small tributary of that river to the west, the Fontalba; it captures water from a spring that flows next to the western gate of the wall; the lands surrounding it are extraordinarily fertile and it is located in what was, at the time, an important communication route between the current towns of Cordoba and Granada.