New Evidence of Romans in Granada Province?

For many people the words Romans and Granada often don't go together. Many of us think of Granada in connection with the Moors for instance. Yet our village of Padul in the outskirts of Granada recently commissioned an "archeological dig" just down the road from our bed and breakfast in Granada thereby linking, once again, the Romans and Padul.

In fact, there is evidence that there were Romans in Spain for over 600 years from around 200 BC, until 400 AD

When the Romans first came, the Spaniards were living in small, scattered pueblos (villages) built of adobe (dirt, moistened with water and with chopped straw for strength). These pueblos were often whitewashed and were the beginnings of the white villages of Andalusia.



The Romans gave Spain many benefits, the least of which was the construction of 17,500 miles (28,160 kilometres) of paved roads. Before the dawn of the fifth century AD, southern Spain had been completely colonized by Rome.

The Romans and Granada were historically bound.

There is a lot of evidence of Romans in Andalucia. One much used road carried the Romans in Granada from Almuñecar, which is a beautiful spanish resort on the Costa Tropical, just 45 minutes away from our b and b guest house accommodation.

Padul Was Born

Incidentally, amongst earlier “finds” in the wetlands of Padul are a huge woolly mammoth’s tusk together with fossils from the rhinoceros and sabre toothed tigers which roamed here. It is easy to see why there has been a lot of historical interest and investigations of the area in and around Padul and its laguna.


One such investigation was contracted in mid 2006 by the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) of Padul. In this, an independent group of archeologists were asked to clean up the area where the Roman Road passed the Fuente del Mal Nombre (The Fountain of the Bad Name). Even though in earlier times it was thought that the Roman road passed within just a step or two from the shores of the wetlands of Padul, you can see from the photo on the left what a different state things are in now. The laguna was drained of much of its surface water by the locals in the 1800's to provide a fertile land for growing their crops. Small flooded areas still remain, however, so the area still retains its "laguna" feel.

The Wetlands provide a natural habitat for many wild animals, birds and fowl as well as flowers, plants and wild reeds and rushes. The area is a haven for bird watchers, botanists and anyone who enjoys the natural "countryside". The laguna is literally just a few minutes walk away from our bed and breakfast guest house.

The “cleaning up” or "mini archeological dig" consisted of half a dozen archeologists cordoning off the hillside above the Fuente del Mal Nombre – a necessary thing as the area under investigation is traditionally the passageway of our local shepherds and goat-herders who daily walk the Laguna with their flocks in search of grazing. Having cordoned off the area under investigation the work party then set to, scraping and brushing away the debris which covered the ground.

They said this was basic routine work, but even though they had obviously done this type of investigation many, many times before they spoke to me with an enthusiastic light in their eyes about this new investigation of Romans in Granada Province.

With the cleaning and researching “groundwork” completed, four local Padulians then took over the investigations and unearthed several ceramic pieces (see a piece of "bagged" ceramic in the photo above right). These pieces are thought to be Roman but would have to be tested to be sure.

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