Student Archaeologists Explore Spanish Castle's Waterworks
During a two-week field session of Davidson Day’s American Foreign Academic Research (AFAR) program, the team excavated historically significant areas throughout castle at Zorita de los Canes, Spain, adding more information to this historic site's story.
The population of the small village of Zorita de los Canes, Spain, doubled over the summer with the arrival of four faculty members and twenty-five student archaeologists from Davidson Day visited for another successful field season. During this two-week field session of Davidson Day’s American Foreign Academic Research (AFAR) program, the team excavated historically significant areas throughout Zorita castle, adding more information to this historic site's story.
Zorita Castle guards one of the few crossings of the Tagus River, ninety minutes east of Madrid. The ancient fortress contains the fingerprints of four of Spain’s major medieval cultures, as Muslims used Visigothic stone to build a castle that was later occupied by Christian Crusaders and Jewish Settlers.
This year, the archaeological team focused their efforts and investigated two primary areas within the castle walls. The first looked at structures associated with the castle’s main water works. The second studied the subterranean rooms located next to the castle’s main cistern.
The architectural remains provided a better understanding of structural design and utility, and these further details will be published in reports later this year. Although their research occupied the majority of their time, student participants did visit many spectacular sites in Spain, including Toledo, Valencia, the Roman ruins of Segobriga, and the Visagothic ruins of Recopolis.
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©2020 Davidson Day School. All Rights Reserved.