Thermae Hispaniae Citerioris. Las termas del puerto de Carthago Novaanálisis arquitectonico y tipológico e inserción en el contexto de la arquitectura termal pública de Hispania Citerior

Abstract

The aim of this Phd Thesis has two main objectives. First, achieve the study and archaeological characterization of the roman baths known as Harbour Baths of Carthago Nova (Hispania Citerior, Conventus Carthaginiensis, Cartagena, Murcia, Spain). It is a public thermal complex of approximately 1200 m2, built in the first decades of the first century AD, located in the western half of the so-called Insula I of the Archaeological Park of the Molinete in Cartagena, a large protoaugustean insula located at the base of the ars Hasdrubalis (Molinete hill), in the heart of the Roman colony. As specific objectives, the work addresses the deep analysis of the technical, functional, constructive, decorative and evolutionary aspects of the building, paying special attention to its typological and morphological configuration. Second, it is intended to contextualize the Cartagena thermal complex within the framework of the public thermal architecture of Roman Hispania, paying particular attention to the objectives set out in the I+D+i project "Rome, the provincial capitals and the cities of Hispania: diffusion of models in architecture and urbanism. Paradigms of the conventus Carthaginiensis" (ref No. HAR2012-37405-C04-02) (2013-2015). For this, an exhaustive catalogue and study of the totality of public and urban thermal complexes located in all the conventus of Hispania Citerior has been carried out, paying special attention to its legal, chronological, geographical, typological, constructive, decorative and urban aspects. For instance, the catalogue and reasoned study of all the urban public thermal complexes of the province has resulted in an historical and archaeological general vision of the introduction and development of the habit of bathing in public in the Roman Hispania and the thermal complexes as it architectonical reflection. The methodology used responds to the need to structure the work in two large blocks and their corresponding sections: the Harbour baths of Carthago Nova, and the Catalog and study of the public and urban baths of Hispania Citerior. From the approach of the general objectives, the work has been articulated in three well-defined parts. A first introductory part, where the justification is carried out and the methodological and historiographical aspects are developed, a current status of the studies dedicated to thermal architecture in Roman Hispania, with special emphasis on research focused on the baths buildings in the province of Hispania Citerior; a second block focused on the archaeological and interpretative study of the Harbour Baths of Carthago Nova; and a last block dedicated to the cataloging and historical-archaeological analysis of the public and urban thermal complexes of Hispania Citerior, which contextualizes the framework in which the construction and life of the Cartagena thermal complex was developed. In conclusion, the data extracted from the description and archaeological analysis of the Cartagena thermal complex and the 113 buildings of public and urban baths included in the study have allowed to establish a serie of conclusions on their legal, functional, chronological, geographical, typological, technical, constructive, decorative and urbanistic aspects. Likewise, the comparative study of these factors allows us to approach the value of the Roman baths as a space of leisure and sociability, in its origins, when they acted as a defining element of the process of Romanization of pre-Roman urban communities, as in the Early Roman Empire, in particular at the time of legal promotion of the flavian cities that consolidated the configuration of these thermal complexes as an expression of public and private munificence and, lastly, in the Late Roman Empire, when the thermal complexes became the privileged scenario for social self-representation.