The Council of DO Catalonia and the ICAC signed a collaboration agreement that will make possible the investigation of the archaeological site of the Roman villa of Mas dels Frares winery (Constantí, Tarragona).
The project, led by the ICAC researcher Josep Maria Macias, includes experimental archaeological works based on a possible centre of wine exploitation from the Roman period. The research project will be linked to training activities at the Mas dels Frares experimental winery, located next to the archaeological site and owned by the Rovira i Virgili University.
Thus, a geophysical prospecting campaign will be launched shortly in the site besides three archaeological excavations in the eastern sector of the Roman villa. Results will allow the development of analysis works of the archaeological site, as well as outreach and knowledge dissemination.
DO Catalonia will support the project funding during the next four years. One of the most outstanding features of winemaking in Catalonia is precisely its long tradition since Phoenicians and Romans came to our shores. ICAC research can provide new historical references of this millenary tradition and demonstrate that in a space adjacent to the same experimental winery Mas dels Frares, where nowadays the oenology school of the URV, the wine was already made in Roman times.
After the collaboration agreement signature, the ICAC researchers offered a guided visit to the archaeological site and explained more details of the research project designed. There were speeches of the acting director of the ICAC, Josep Maria Palet, and the researchers Josep Maria Macias and Jordi López, who already worked at the archaeological site, in an excavation project (2018) in the interior of the Roman villa and consolidation works of an apsidal wall belonging to the thermal baths of the building.
