www.Numantinos.com

NUMANTIA

Located 7 kilometers away from Soria, in the high and extensive hill of “la Muela de Garray”, from where you can look over a wide plane, limited by the several high elevations of the Sistema Iberico mountain chain (Urbión, Cebollera and Moncayo). Its strategic location has to do with controlling the Duero river ford, where roads converge with the Ebro river valley. SYMBOL AND HISTORY One of the most well known events of Antiquity is the resistance of Numantines against the Roman conquest. Celtiberians, headed by Numantia, the most powerful city of the tribe of the Aravaci, held a strong twenty year long resistance, between 153 and 133 B.C., defeating all Roman Generals until Rome, eventually, decided to send its most famous General, Publio Conrnelio Scipio, who surrounded Numantia, setting out seven camps and forts along surrounding close hills, linked by a solid 9 kilometer long wall, a solid wood stockade and locating two small forts where the Tera and Merdancho rivers merge, in order to gain control of their waters. After eleven months of hard siege, the city fell to starvation in the summer of 133 B.C. Everyone took death their own way, and the few survivors were sold as slaves. The city was razed to the ground and its territories were divided among natives who had been helping Scipio. Numantines attitude was so impressive to Rome, that it was Roman writers who praised Numantine resistance, turning it into a myth and symbol of a population fight for its freedom ARCHAEOLOGICAL WALK Archeological excavations have found the layout of two different cities; an older one, from the Celtiberian age and, above it, a later one, from the Roman age, adapted to the structure of the previous one. The wide excavated surface has uncovered its layout, with streets showing an irregular matrix, without empty spaces or squares. A Regional Government Plan is providing the possibility to present this archeological site to the public. Information delivered through video and CD-ROM, with 3-D historical reconstructions of the city, provides visitors with the necessary keys to understand archeological remains during the visiting route. The first spot is about one of the most interesting aspects for visitors, with the explanation and spatial visualization of the Roman siege by Scipio. For this purpose, there is a map-table to help visualizing the topographic location of seven of the Roman camps excavated by Schulten in several hills around Numantia, signaled by white landmarks. The city’s good defensive system can be seen, with a powerful wall strengthened by towers. Urban planning can be seen as well; to protect themselves from cold winds, they planned many of their streets East to West, connecting their sections so that mergers stopped the wind, and grouped their houses in blocks. Their uneven streets had big rocks in the middle, to cross from one sidewalk to the other, without getting covered in mud, as houses drainage ended in the street. They gathered rain water in circular tanks, though small drains. To facilitate understanding archeological remains, two houses have been reconstructed with all their furniture; a Celtiberian one and another one from the Roman age. They allow for a live experience and establish similarities and differences between the two domestic spaces. A section of the Celtiberian wall, indicating the city limits, has also been put up. The wall gives the possibility to watch, from its height, a different perspective about the internal and external city space. The walk ends in the southern quarter, the best protected and nicest to live area, where well-off people built their houses, trying to imitate the Roman taste by arranging courtyards with columns.