Book Review: Los mosaicos de la Plaza de la Encarnación. Roma a Seville, Guadalupe López Monteagudo, 117 pages, 59 figures, bibliography.

Abstract

Plaza de la Encarnación in the heart of the historic center of Seville was excavated between 2003 and 2009. Starting as a rescue excavation 1998, in connection with the planning of a parking area, four phases from over five centuries of buildings with mosaics, from the Roman Hispalis and the late antique Ispali, came to light. This book presents the mosaics which have a unique quality and diversity unmatched in its kind in the city, where otherwise only few mosaics have been found, unlike the other Roman cities in the region, Itálica, Ecija and Cordoba. The text, accompanied by magnificent color photos, is divided into four parts, presentation, introduction, main text which carries the book's title, as well as a selection of bibliographic references. Seville's Mayor, J. Espadas, opens with a presentation (pp. 9-10) of the Antiquarium, the archaeological space which was inaugurated on the site in 2010. Today it currently displays findings from the Roman period, together with archaeological remains of Seville's medieval period into the 14th century. In the Introduction (pp. 11-25) F. Amores, who from 2003 to 2010 was responsible archaeologist for a total of four excavation campaigns, presents a synthesizes of the findings and situates the Roman history of the place, from the first to the seventh century AD, in a chronological and regional context.