Calafell welcomes the IX Calafell International Archeology Meeting, next March 30 to April 1.

Calafell City Council is one of the organizing institutions of this scientific meeting in its ninth edition (the last one was in October 2016). The event will take place between Calafell and Banyeres del Penedès (Tarragona).

The 2023 edition is a tribute to Henri Tréziny and is dedicated in memoriam to Joan Sanmartí, who was one of the driving forces behind this scientific meeting.

Pre-Roman Urban Fortifications in the western Mediterranean 

The IX Calafell International Archeology Meeting goes under the topic “Pre-Roman urban fortifications in the Western Mediterranean: origin, functions, and structural evolution”, aiming to update discussion on the Iberian culture and the areas of contact: Phoenician and Greek cultures.

The ICAC has been participating since 2004 in the organization of this international conference, which has always revolved around Iberian culture through different specific topics, such as architectural reconstruction, the formation of complex societies in the Western Mediterranean, or agricultural economics and social change.

Programme

Registration: jpou@calafell.cat

Sessions will take place at Calafell (Centre Cívic Cinema Iris, Platja de Calafell)

First day opening session states this willingness to offer an overview of the three most important pre-Roman cultures of the Western Mediterranean, with keynote speeches by Silke Müth (Les fortifications des villes grecques et romaines : évolution et idéologie) and Pierre Moret (Las fortificaciones ibéricas, treinta años después).

Moret is a great specialist on this subject and, since he published his doctoral thesis thirty years ago (1996), a global vision of defensive architecture in the Iberian culture has not been depicted again.

Thus, Müth will put classical culture and fortifications in the Greco-Roman world into context. And, then, with the global vision of Moret on the role of Iberian fortifications, it will be possible to see the comparison and contact points between the different cultures, leading to a discussion on feasible cultural exchanges, interactions, or divergences between the main pre-Roman cultures in the Western Mediterranean.

Programme

Registration: jpou@calafell.cat

Throughout the two and a half days that the international meeting lasts, another six sessions will follow, on:

• Greek fortifications
• Phoenician and Punic fortifications
• Gallic fortifications
• Northern Iberian fortifications
• Iberian fortifications in the Eastern Peninsula
• Southern Iberian fortifications

A novel scientific meeting proposal

The IX International Meeting of Calafell Archeology presents a novel proposal for the scientific meeting that introduces a rich and productive debate on the different dimensions to be considered in the cultural exchange of the Iberian culture and contact cultures. 

Each of the sessions opens with a keynote communication, introducing an overview of one of the conference topics, followed by a presentation of a set of posters, with updated and ongoing results with which to open the discussion in each conference session. This scientific meeting proposal differs from other events that are usually held on the subject in this area. 

In 2018, the company SOT Prospecció Arqueològica carried out georadar surveys at the Banyeres del Penedès site that allowed them to document 2.5 ha of the Iberian city in a non-invasive way. 

The findings belonged to a research project led by the professors of the University of Barcelona (UB) Joan Sanmartí and Jaume Noguera, and by Maria Carme Belarte (ICREA-ICAC). 

Programme

Registration: jpou@calafell.cat

Sessions will take place at Calafell (Centre Cívic Cinema Iris, Platja de Calafell)