Alamillo Roman archaeological site
Mazarrón - Murcia

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Next to the beach of the same name is the Alamillo archaeological site, extensive remains from the Roman age widely studied in the 80s and 90s in the last century. It had an important chronological survival and includes a variety of remains, such as a site from the Republican era, a water deposit with the remains of an aqueduct and a roman-imperial villa.

The Roman culture was present in Mazarrón for centuries, and from this not only is there the well-known Salting Factory, but also other archaeological sites related to different agricultural and industrial resources and crafts. One of the sites is the Alamillo Villa, which had to date from the second after the 1st Century BC, and which would be abandoned after a couple of centuries.

Originally it was a tiered site on terraces, in which there were two demarked areas: residential, with its corresponding baths; and another service or industrial area, which can still be visited today, with six basins for salting and making the famous ‘garum’, the fish sauce which was one of the star products of the kitchen throughout the entire Roman territory.

The salting production was for home consumption; or also as a small economic activity, complementing the agricultural exploitation of the land which could be watered thanks to the proximity of the Alamillo pond.

This important hydraulic infrastructure, which is in the Alamillo urbanisation, together with its entrance and exit aqueducts, dates from the same century as the Roman villa. It is rectangular in shape and would support a volume of water of more than 250,000 litres. The water came from a stream, which today is dry, which was located a few kilometres from the pond in the neighbouring area of Balsicas. There still remain some sections of the aqueduct which carried the water to the pond.

In 1999 remains of a sanctuary dating from between the 2nd and 1st Centuries AC were discovered in front of the villa, a five-room building decorated with different coloured plaster. Around the mountain there was a track which was possibly used for processions linked to the sanctuary.