La Mesa

Municipality: Belorado

Province: Burgos

Chronology: Early Roman/Late Roman.

Promoter: Ayuntamiento de Belorado, UAB

Dates: October 2014. September 2015. August 2016. September 2017. October 2018.

La Mesa site consists of a large plateau located in the upper valley of the Tirón River, in the region known as Riojilla Burgalesa (Burgos-La Rioja border). Its archaeological potential had always been known thanks to the discovery of abundant Roman material on the surface (TSH, constructive material, glass, coins, tesserae, etc.), but it was not until 2013 when a research project began leading to the first archaeological surveys in 2014, co-directed by archaeologist Joan Oller Guzmán. It is a settlement of approximately 22 hectares and probably urban. The results of the surveys have been able to determine, on the one hand, a low level of conservation of the structures but also the existence of several buildings of habitat, streets and productive areas. The chronology would be basically situated in the Roman period (1st-5th centuries AD), although later continuity cannot be discarded. Leaving aside the results of sondages, both aerial photography, geophysical survey and the existence of an important epigraphic corpus associated with the site, point to the importance of this settlement at the regional level and its archaeological potential.