History Located near the present day town of Gallargues-le-Montueux is the Gallo-Roman settlement of Ambrussum. The site was occupied as far back as the second millennium BCE, but the Gallic oppidium seems to have been constructed about 300 BCE. Like nearby Nemausus, the oppidum at Ambrussum was in the territory of the Volcae Arecomici. Shortly…
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Continued From Nemausus Part I About 800 meters to the west (as the crow flies; it’s nearly a kilometer following streets) of the Porte de France, there is a small section of the Nemausus city wall that is heavily conserved and probably largely of later construction at the intersection of Avenue Kennedy and Rue Armand…
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History As was the case at Glanum, the origins of the settlement of Nemausus seem to lie in the presence of a sacred spring and sanctuary dedicated to that deity of the spring. Located in the territory of the Volcae Arecomici, a settlement grew in the area during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE,…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2017. Continued From Panormus Part I In the central part of the city, at Piazza Olivella 24, is the Museo Archaeologico Regionale ‘Antonino Salinas’. Along with the museums in Agrigento and Syracuse, the museum here is one of the primary collections of archaeological material on the island. With the exception of…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2017. Now the bustling capital of the Sicily region, Palermo can trace its humble beginnings back to its founding as a Phoenician colony in 743 BCE by merchants from Tyre. Coinage suggests that the Phoenician name for the settlement was Machanath, a Phoenician word for a camp or a place of…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2017. At the westernmost tip of Sicily is the city of Marsala, and at the western most tip of Marsala is Capo Boèo, which makes up one of the three points of the trinacrium of Sicily, and the location of the ancient remains of the city of Lilybaeum. Lilybaion, a name…
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Most Recent Visit: May 2017. Perched at a height of 750 meters, on a mountain overlooking the modern town of Trapani, is the town of Erice and the location of the ancient settlement of Eryx. Though the original settlement was probably founded by the Elymian people of western Sicily, mythological origins are also attributed to…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2016 The site of modern day Barcelona seems to have been occupied well before the arrival of the Romans. According to legend, a city was founded on the location by Hercules. Another legend places the name Barcino as being derived from the Carthaginian Barcid family and was founded by Hamilcar Barca….
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Continued From Tarraco Part I (See Map Here) Located just next to the circus, at Plaça del Rei 5, is the impressive Museu Nacional Arqueològic de Tarragona (MNAT). The museum is open in the summer (June 1st to September 30th) on Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 to 20:30, and from 10:00 to 14:00 on Sundays…
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See Part I of Saguntum for a map of site locations. Not far from the museum is the so-called ‘Temple of Diana’, which is in actuality not associated with any temple to Diana or any other deity, but instead seems to be a part of the second century BCE Ibero-Roman fortification walls of Saguntum constructed…
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