Fòrum de Iulia Libica

The archaeological intervention is conducted by the Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC), within a research project focused on different Roman cities of Catalonia, led by Dr Josep Guitart, Professor of Archaeology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. It is also founded by the municipal council of Llívia and the Diputació de Girona. Every year there are two archaeological seasons, in spring and autumn, which are led by archaeologists Jordi Guàrdia, professional archaeologist, and Cèsar Carreras, professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. During all these seasons, Arqueòlegs.cat has provided human and material resources.

The excavation focuses on the forum of the Roman city of Iulia Libica (Llívia). During the different campaigns the first phase of the forum has been located in the 1st century AD, probably in the period between the rule of Caesar and the first years of Augustus government (in a place that had already been occupied in the preceding centuries). However, already in the first third of the 1st century AD some reforms took place in the area. The forum was porticoed and had a temple in its central part. It had regular measures, with an exedra in the south-east, forming a plant very similar to that of other nearby forums, such as Ruscino.

The forum had a complex evolution in the later centuries and already in the 2nd century AD it had lost its primordial role. From those years important reforms are documented until the late period, in the 5th-6th centuries AD. It is from this period that one of the most relevant findings was done: a buried macaque with military equipment on it.