Colonia Genetiva Julia : Urso
In: Hispania Antigua. Arqueológica: 14, 2022
DOI: 10.48255/9788891327734.24
The ancient city of Urso, which became a Roman colony by decision of Julius Caesar under the name of Genetiva Julia, is well known from references in ancient literary sources, or from such important finds as the Lex coloniae Genetiuae Iuliae or Lex Vrsonensis, or the Iberian Reliefs. However, the knowledge of the material reality of the city is very scarce as the main archaeological excavations that have been carried out are ancient. Moreover, the present-day city of Osuna barely overlaps with Urso, thus no archaeological activities have been developed recently as no general research project has ever materialised and urban archaeology has been insignificant since.
There is a certain consensus among researchers when it comes to establishing the forum in the watercourse near the crossroads of the Granada and La Farfana roads - which for some perpetuate what would be the decumanus and kardo maximus respectively - due to the high density of finds found on the site. The remains of the theatre can also be found next to this area. In addition to those already mentioned, the cave necropolis known as Las Cuevas also stands out for its long historiographical tradition and for being the largest remains of the ancient city visible today. Other remains correspond to the hydraulic structures found in the vicinity of the theatre. Finally, there is also a large collection of pottery, glass, inscriptions, coins, etc., which are now to be found in various private and museum collections.
This chapter deals with this barely sketched panorama, ordering the findings and interpretations according to the different functional areas of the city, with some new proposals as working hypotheses based on the revision of old data, the analysis of GIS (Geographic Information System) tools and the generation of new cartography based on the survey of all the emerging structures currently preserved. Also of note is the new reading of the Roman theatre thanks to the recent 3D survey with its laser scanning and the carrying out of a geophysical survey.
The chronology of the remains suggests that something similar to what happened in other surrounding cities must have occurred in Osuna, with the existence of a financial crisis which, from an urban point of view, produced a contraction in the 2nd-3rd centuries.
From the topographical survey of the emerging Roman structures, it can be deduced that the orientation of most of them is practically identical, being close to that of the cardinal points, with a slight deviation towards the west, with respect to the geographical north. The only one that deviates from the norm is the theatre, which is not surprising given its monumental nature. These elements indicate that there must have been an orthogonal layout of the city.
This survey allowed us to produce a graphic proposal in which all the emerging architectural elements are reflected, adding others that I have alluded to as proposals, my own or others. I do not dare to propose the layout of the wall for the Roman period, except for the section closest to that of the Engel and Paris excavations, although we have a predictive model using GIS tools (Fig. 2).
The forum is marked in the place where the greatest number of finds are concentrated, marked mainly by the Bronzes. The proposed locations of certain urban elements are marked spatially, such as the amphitheatre and circus, if there were any, the place where the temple could have been located, the northern necropolis, etc. In addition, the lines that would guide the hypodynamic layout of the Roman city are indicated based on the emerging structures (Fig. 6). It should be noted that, the colony, nova urbs, must have coexisted spatially with the Turdetan city, which is not well defined either.
La ciudad de Urso, que adquirió el estatuto de colonia romana por decisión de Julio César bajo la denominación genérica de Genetiva Julia, es conocida a través de las fuentes escritas, con alusiones tanto en la guerras púnicas, lusitanas y civiles, así como en las epigráficas. Además, hallazgos de la importancia de la Lex coloniae Genetiuae Iuliae o Lex Vrsonensis, junto con otros de la relevancia de los Relieves ibéricos de Osuna, han repercutido en el «buen nombre» y reconocimiento del yacimiento. Sin embargo, la realidad material conocida de la ciudad es extremadamente limitada.
Ello es en gran parte debido a una peculiaridad del yacimiento como es que en los diferentes momentos históricos el núcleo habitado ha ido «desplazándose» por la topografía de la elevación en el que se enclava. Así, el actual núcleo urbano de Osuna no se superpone, salvo parcialmente, a los antiguos asentamientos (Jiménez y Salas, 1997). Esto provoca un doble efecto, negativo y positivo. El primero es que en Urso se han ejecutado escasísimas excavaciones arqueológicas y en su mayoría bajo la modalidad de la denominada arqueología preventiva. Tampoco se ha desarrollado ningún proyecto general de investigación. Sin embargo, positivamente, esa situación conformaría una coyuntura favorable de investigación y puesta en valor futuras.