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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Spaniard, post: 4961122, member: 90248&quot;]Living here on the Mediterranean coast, halfway between Barcelona and Valencia, I&#039;ve realised just how fortunate I am to be surrounded by so many ancient sites, ruined, or otherwise still functioning towns and cities. This includes local Iberic tribes, Greek settlers and of course the Roman take over. Large and small settlements are abound and surprisingly all within a few hours drive. I haven&#039;t written a thread for a while and thought due to the constraints we are all living through at this moment it would be nice to show some &#039;beautiful places&#039; that some of you have probably seen before and others not also please excuse my English....</p><p><br /></p><p>The idea of the thread came to me back in &#039;HOT&#039; August when me and my family decided to take a short 3 day break to Cadaques, a beautiful little seaside port about 3 1/2hrs up the coast. We primarily went to this area to visit Port Lligat and the absolutetly breathtaking house where Salvador Dali and Gala lived....It&#039;s a must see!...</p><p>The whole of this coastline North of Barcelona up to the French border &#039;The Costa Brava&#039; is quite stunning!</p><p>......I digress................</p><p><br /></p><p>Heading home and about 3/4 of an hour south are the Greek and Roman ruins of Empuries.....And I wasn&#039;t expecting the sight I saw...<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie100" alt=":wideyed:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>So here&#039;s the first post....</p><p><b>1....Empuries.</b></p><p>Around the 6th century BC, Greek traders from Phocaea, modern day Foca in Turkey, founded the first settlement at Palaiapolis, modern day Sant Marti d&#039;Empuries here in Spain. Some years later, due to increased commercial activity with the local indigenous people, the Iberian Indiketes tribe, the Greeks created the new sector of the city, the &#039;Neapolis&#039; the colony was called Emporion which in Greek means market. The city thrived and in 218 BC, at the start of the Second Punic War, a Roman army headed by Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio landed at the port of Empuries with the aim of blocking land access to the Carthaginian troops, and so started the Romanisation of the Iberian Peninsula. In 195 BC, Marcus Porcius Cato set up a military camp at Empuries this being the embryo of the new Roman city. In the times of the Emperor Augustus, the Greek and Roman cities became one both physically and legally under the name &#039;Municipium Emporiae&#039;. Emporiae gradually lost its importance as a trade route due to the expansion of other Roman cities such as Gerunda(Girona), Barcino(Barcelona) and Tarraco(Tarragona) and at the end of the 3rd century AD the whole of the Roman city and the Neapolis were abandoned.</p><p>The diagram below shows just how big the Roman city was in comparison to the Greek Neapolis....It also shows one of my coins from Phocaea, one of my favourites with a nice griffin reverse.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192599[/ATTACH] </p><p>Only 25% of the Roman city has been excavated and is a work in progress. I actually sat for an hour watching and chatting with two archaeologists as they were unearthing another Mosaic floor!! Wonderful!</p><p>Here&#039;s an aerial view showing how little of the Roman city (to the left) has actually been excavated..</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192602[/ATTACH] </p><p>Here&#039;s a few photos of the site and from the small museum exhibiting different artifacts found on site...Some from the Greek sector and others from the Roman city.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mosaic showing the sacrafice of Iphigenia 1st century BC. Amazing artistry..</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192610[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Some coins...</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192611[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>A couple from the site...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192613[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Sweet mosaics everywhere you look!...Speaking with the archaeologists was quite informative. They said that this year they would uncover at least 35 more mosaic floors in the Roman city alone and just the area that has already been excavated!..Another group were working on the North side of Neapolis where back in January the MD&#039;ers had uncovered hundreds of metal artifacts including coins that are now being cleaned and registered...They are also now going to extend the museum to the 2nd floor..</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192614[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>And finally here&#039;s the coin (Quite difficult to find these in such nice condition).</p><p>It has great provedance being from the Ex Archer M Huntington Collection (HSA 1001.1.10234). Archer M Huntington (1870-1955) had scholarly connections to both the American Numismatic Society (ANS) and the Hispanic Society of America (HSA). His collection of Spanish-related coinage numbered almost 38000 coins and became the most complete collection of Spanish-related coins ever assembled outside of Spain.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here she is....And I must say it feels quite amazing to have walked around a place where this coin was minted over 2000 years ago!</p><p><br /></p><p>Iberia. Indigets. Emporia Æ AS...27.88mm/10.05grams..27-25 BC..</p><p>Obverse:Head of the goddess Pallas Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet with the visor raised and a large plume.</p><p>Reverse: Pegasos flying right, laurel crown above rump; EMPO below.</p><p>Villaronga, ACIP 1098 - R6</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1192616[/ATTACH] </p><p>Anyhow thought I&#039;d show a little of what&#039;s here for future reference..Well worth a visit.</p><p>Please feel free to post a coin from Empuries or anything you think will add to the thread........[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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