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  • Cáparra
  • Guijo de granadilla / Oliva de Plasencia
  • Capera/Capara
  • Spain
  • Extremadura
  • Caceres
  • Oliva de Plasencia

Credits

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Periods

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Chronology

  • 74 AD - 899 AD

Season

    • The site of Cáparra site is located to the north of the city of Plasencia, near the Alagon River. There is no unanimity in regards to its former name, although Pliny referred to the population as the _caperenses_. Strabo includes the name within the Lusitanian ( _Kapara_ ) and the Vetton ( _Kapassa_ ) peoples, and in the document denominated _Itinerario_ _de_ _Antonino_ the city is introduced by the name of _Cappara_. Originally the site is mentioned as an _oppidum_ _stipendiarium_ along the Vía de la Plata (Silver Way), an important communication path between the north and the south. In the Flavian period it established itself as the _municipium_ _flavium_, after the emperor Vespasian granted Roman law to the people of Hispania. The city is structured around the Vía de la Plata, which creates a north-south axis, where it passes through Cappara, forming the _decumanus_ _maximus_. Interventions in 2001 reveal a city of middle size delimited by a wall. The wall demarcates a perimeter of 12 to 14 hectares, and only two of its three main gates are known: one in the north and the other in the southeast. These openings are flanked by semicircular towers. A series of perpendicular and parallel axes to main road are defined by the Vía de la Plata. These axes delimit blocks intended for public and private buildings. The _cardo_ _maximus_ is unique in that it does not pass through the whole city and converges into the _decumanus_ _maximus_ without extending to the west. There, the forum with its plaza, basilica, curia and three temples, is found. In the opposite side, Roman public baths were built, encompassing an entire city block. The front side of the baths opens with _tabernae_ towards the _decumanus_ _maximus_. In front of the baths there is an important domus, constructed on the ground of the neighboring block and, in this case, open both to the _decumanus_ and to the _cardo_ _maximus_, with _tabernae_ intended for trade. Beyond the city walls, a wide funerary area with burials of different typology along with the amphitheater are built up. This enclosure is the only one defined in the city to date. Its floor is marked by the _podium_ and the masonry radial walls that give shape to the ellipse, generating an earth fill structure onto supporting the stands. (translation by Alba López Fregeneda)

Bibliography

    • Blázquez, J. M. (1965): Cáparra, Excavaciones Arqueológicas en España, 34, Madrid.
    • Blázquez, J. M. (1966): Cáparra II, Excavaciones Arqueológicas en España, 54, Madrid.
    • Blázquez, J. M. (1968): Cáparra III, Excavaciones Arqueológicas en España, 67, Madrid.
    • Cerrillo, E. (1994): “El anfiteatro de Cáparra”. En Actas del Coloquio Internacional El Anfiteatro en la Hispania Romana, Mérida, 1995, pp. 311-326.
    • Cerrillo, E. (1998): “Forum municipii flavii caparensis”, Empùries, 51, pp. 77-92.
    • Cerrillo. E.; de Alvarado, M.; Molano, J. y Castillo, J., (1995): “Excavaciones en el foro de Cáparra. La Curia”, Extremadura arqueológica, n. 5, Cáceres, pp. 195-210.
    • Cerrillo, E.; Bejarano, A. y Gómez, J. C. (2000): “Proyecto de excavación, consolidación y adecuación del yacimiento Cáparra y la Granjuela y la construcción de un Centro de Interpretación”, Mérida, Ciudad y Patrimonio, 4, pp. 137-142.