2023-04-24 11:30:04
A team of archaeologists has discovered fragments of a Roman mural painting on a wall that decorated a portico in the Teatro de Cartagena, Spain. The discovery was announced in Cartagena City Hall Portalon Thursday the 13th.
The researchers discovered more than 2,000 fragments of the painting, which decorated the walls of a portico (a covered area at the entrance to a building, temple or palace) with a double portico gallery, in addition to surrounding a central room that houses a garden, at the back of the stage in the west section of the theater complex.
Another 1,500 fragments had been found in 2006, thus allowing researchers to continue the process of restoring the painting to its original design with greater precision.
The theater was discovered in 1988, during the construction of the Regional Craft Center. The find resulted in a long-term restoration and reconstruction project, which turned the theater into an open-air museum.
Archaeologists plan to explore site of Roman mural painting
Restoration is still in its early stages, but representations of ornate Roman figures can already be identified, in addition to linear artistic features.
The researchers plan to explore the central garden, where they hope to find evidence of flowerbeds, pipes that fed water to fountains, and understand how water was used to maintain flora in the open space.
Cartagena was founded in 228 BC in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain. The city was named Qart Hadasht, which means “new city”, and served as a staging point for Carthaginian incursions into the country.
The Roman general Scipio Africanus conquered the city in 209 BC and renamed it Cartago Nova, which would become the capital of the Roman province of Cartago. Between 5 and 1 BC, the Romans built a large monumental theater with a cavea that could accommodate up to 7,000 spectators for public performances and ceremonies.
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