Mirobriga – Regina Turdulorum. Town and Country in the Roman Far West

Town and country are often seen as polar opposites, even on the western edge of the imperium Romanum: While cities dedicated themselves to a modern urban lifestyle, the countryside remained traditional, down-to-earth and opposed to Roman uniform culture. However, town and country cannot be defined that easily. Their relationships were complex and marked by changes, which took place over the course of centuries.

These multilayered relationships form the core of the MiReg: Town and Country in the Roman Far West project. Focusing on two municipia at the edge of the Roman sphere of influence — Mirobriga in modern-day Portugal and Regina Turdulorum in the Spanish Extremadura — as case studies, the similarities, differences and changes in the workings of town and hinterland from the establishment of Roman rule in the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD are investigated.

How was the farmland used? What did the practical dealings of the cities with their hinterland look like? What changed as consequence of Roman rule? MiReg aims to answer these and further questions with a broad spectrum of methods taken from landscape archaeology and natural sciences.

Since 2021, the annual fieldwork has provided new materials. In four field surveying campaigns, the territory of Regina Turdulorum, the city area of Mirobriga and Mirobriga’s far removed agricultural hinterland have been walked. Many of these units were also surveyed by geophysical prospection in cooperation with the Philipps-University Marburg.

The MiReg project is closely connected to teaching at the University of Vienna: Between 2022 and 2024, annual training excavations were carried out in Regina Turdulorum and provided bachelor’s and master’s students with an opportunity to partake in the study of a storage building and a production facility. Finds have been processed in pottery study courses since 2023, introducing students to the handling of ceramic materials. Furthermore, three master’s theses are being written as part of the project’s investigations.

First results already provide a different picture than is usually assumed for the towns of Hispania: The hinterland of Regina Turdulorum was much more densely built up than previously assumed and show a high degree of specialisation in its production facilities. Archaeozoological analyses can now prove the importance of deer hunting in the region during Roman times. Preroman settlement patterns in the later civitas-area and the city’s trade connections also have to be reconsidered. In Mirobriga, a lower level of settlement occupation than previously assumed could be confirmed, implying a shift of agricultural production from the surroundings of the city into the more fertile valley of the Sado.

The project is an international cooperation between the University of Vienna, the Philipps-University Marburg and the Universidad de Cantabria funded by the Austrian Science Fund. It is generously supported by local partners, especially the Ayuntamiento de Casas de Reina. Palynological analysis has been provided by a team based at the Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia in order to provide a full picture of agricultural landscape use in Roman times.
 
Authored by Ines Guth, B.A.