259
in the wester, and perhaps the same size in the other two judging by
the type of jamb and threshold. The said room was divided into two
rooms of 5.75 m and 3.50m in. length (fig. 33).
Undoubtedly, the most determinant element of this sector (now
covered) is the separation wall between these rooms and the cen-
tral space (sector 3) as it served to contain the thrusts of the upper
floor in the northern side. Its thickness of three feet and its masonry
factory taken with mud are the result of a large repair and partial
replacement of the previous wall, possibly derived from the destruc-
tion and reform of the barn on the northern side in the Flavian pe-
riod. To this time should be attributed the blinding of the passage of
communication with the central basement, as well as the last pave-
ments of lime located in the said room.
It should be noted in this brief spatial description the presence of a
gallery with a central colonnade on the southern side of the excava-
tion, the most visible part in the crypt (fig. 34). It is resolved through
latericius columns of plastered and whitewashed quadrants. Its
maximum dimension preserved is 1.80 m high, with a diameter of
a cubit (0.44mts.). The intercolumnar is about 3.30 meters. and the
full light is 4.30 meters. from the front of the rooms described to a
blind longitudinal wall beneath the south profile of excavation. Six
columns have been recovered along the 18.60 m excavated in the
gallery, one of which replaces a previous one through a remap that
shortened the distance between the two placed to the east.
Just in front of the renovated column appears in the front wall a notch
that reveals the anchoring of one of the beams of the floor that would
hold the pavement of the upper gallery (fig. 35) support. The column
at the eastern end is the only that had a brick basement and an at-
tic molding of the same materials very simplified; others are directly
supported on a mild base trench filled with rubble on which a simi-
lar based moulded lime mortar and whitewashed were available. The
pavement was made of packed lime reaching the final stage before its
destruction at a depth of 7.18m, ie, one foot on the floor of the adjoin-
ing rooms. In the initial stages the difference would be less than 15 cm.
In any case, it was always necessary to down a step to access the rooms
from the gallery.
It should be noted that the constructive materials violently depos-
ited on all the structures, in combination with the adaptation of the
building to the ground, the absence of hollows on the southern wall
of the gallery, its low height and its rough limed pavement, etc …
make clear the underground nature of both the gallery and the other
rooms described.
The fact that said column with brick basement had a slightly higher
elevation than the other and a higher quality of materials allows us
to raise the possibility that this was the last pillar of the gallery and
from there to the south would open another Similar to shut a large
open space. This idea is supported by the location in the south pro-
file of the excavation, facing this column, of a n overtiring latericius
shaft that apparently belonged to the first column of a new gallery
in the southern end.
With this, the minimum length of the gallery would exceed 21 me-
ters to the case it was made by a colonnade of only 7 supports, which
is far from being affirmed. This dimension is only slightly smaller
than the flanking galleries the Segóbriga forum (32 meters short
side), perhaps the best parallel available to a partially affluent urban
structure by basement topography in decline.
The columns of the basement reveal the long life of the building
through the patent rising of levels on its base; lime different soils are
superimposed while the columns are replaced latericias or shifting
its original position (Fig. 36). On the first floor of lime traces of a
powerful fire that had collapsed the gallery during the first century
AD preserved For when there was the violent destruction of this
space, we understand that the late second century AD or early third
century AD, lime pavement had risen so much that came to pene-
trate adjacent overlying soil stays opus signinum gently sloping from
the inside. This fact should be stressed as evidenced by the fact that
at the end of his life stays the same gallery and were floored seam-
lessly implying a common use at least for the whole sector basement.
The wall that closes the gallery on the south and which is hidden by
the southern screen crypt is of paramount importance to venture a
guess as to the justification of probable contiguous open space. De-
spite that matches the profile of the excavation we have been able to
document over 15 meters without any opening in it whatsoever. This,
plus the fact that its plant is expected masonry and thicker than the
walls of opus africanum of other buildings, suggesting that would
be part of a base of a porch. At the same time contain the thrust of
a screed ground to the south, it might be the basis of the columned
porch perimeter of a square. In landfills amortization underground
tunnel from a shaft of calcarenite apparently said base, carved with
sharp ridges are located plastered whose length, especially thick (0.55
m), reveal their membership of a colonnade of remarkable dimension.
Just imagine his presence on the perimeter of a square or gallery or
forum on the porch of a church or public building. Although we can
not confirm until the excavation of this sector in fact the model could
be very similar to the forum of Ampurias whose perimeter galleries
overlap to a semi cryptoporticus similar to our basement.
The wall in questionwas plasteredwith a powerful lime plaster with-
out apparent decoration; in it there was a shoe in which base was
disposed a rectangular structure of tegula tiles vertically arranged in
the manner of late-imperial burial graves. Inside no funeral evidence
was found so, without emphasizing this feature, which would be
rather strange in this context, it could well be a container associated
with the shoe, which use we are not able to find out.
The flood. Late II century- early III century AD.
The eastern boundary of the crypt presents a stratyigraphic profile of
the excavation inwhich the different events that justified the dramatic
change of dimensions in the Patio de Banderas during the last two
millennia are read. On the pavement of opus signinum ashlar walls
and Roman depositions of great interest seen as evidence of the vio-
lent destruction of the Roman city in the late second or early third
century AD The profile that we alluded lies east of the crypt, near the
stairs down. It reflects a tragic event that assume somehow helped to
reinforce the crisis of the city given the consequences that certainly
must have caused at the same port and adjacent areas (fig. 37).
The southern half of the architectural complex built at the end of
the republic had kept his elevation unchanged during the first and
second centuries AD. However, this area suffered a violent col-
lapse that led to its destruction and siltation precipitated the end
of the second century. The remains of the walls appear displaced
and overturned on the floor, always in the same direction, fallen to
the northwest. This is especially noticeable in the eastern passage
and the columned gallery, where the ceramic quadrants were liter-
ally collapsed over its entire length. About this crash deposition of
