Municipality: Bolvir
Region: Cerdanya
Chronology: Late Bronze Age, Ceretan, Roman-Republican, Medieval.
Promoter: Bolvir Town Council, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Dates: July-August 2013, July-September 2014, June-September 2015. July-September 2016-2019.
The archaeological excavation at Castellot de Bolvir began in 2006, under the co-direction of archaeologist Jordi Morera, as part of a research project led by Professor Oriol Olesti of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. The year 2007 the town council bought the agricultural lands in which the site was located and promoted the development of the digging. Since that year, continuous archaeological excavation seasons have been conducted, maintaining the same archaeological management team, promoted by the Ajuntament de Bolvir and scientifi-cally endorsed by the UAB. Arqueòlegs.cat directs and executes the archaeological tasks, in collaboration with the History and Archeology students who collaborate each year in the re-search, becoming the site a training and learning place of archaeological practice.
Up to now, four major phases of occupation have been identified. The first, perhaps the most unknown one, corresponds to the period of the Late Bronze/First Iron Age. In the first half of the 4th century BC, the Ceretan phase of the site began, with the construction of an Iberian oppidum. It was formed by a defensive system composed by wall and moat and an urban network in the interior, in which 15 domestic units had been identified. Undoubtedly, Castellot at this time became a main settlement in the Ceretan territory.
In the second half of the 2nd century BC a great transformation took place, with the construction of a large monumental gate flanked by two quadrangular towers and the building of a series of large multifunctional buildings in the interior, some of them up to 200m2 of surface. All the reforms followed the Roman constructive patterns but applying indigenous techniques and materials. We must consider that at that moment a small praesidia was installed at the site. The oppidum was abandoned in the third quarter of the 1st century BC.
Finally, the last occupation was developed between the 10th and 12th centuries, in which a fortified village was built, with defensive walls and towers.
