Abstract:

The palace of Pla de Nadal (Riba-roja de Túria, València) is one of the emblematic buildings of the civil architecture of late-antique Hispania. Despite the exceptional nature of its architectural decoration and two epigraphs, referring to a certain Tebdemir/Teudinir, there is not unanimity about the promoter and the historical context of the building which ranged from the 7th to 9th centuries. In this debate, we present a radiocarbon dating of the initial construction phase, based on five samples of construction mortar. This allows us to establish a chronology that coincides with the activity of the dux prouinciae Teodomiro, also known as Teodomiro de Orihuela. The series of radiocarbon dates and their subsequent modelling indicate that the first half of the 8th century is the most probable statistical interval for the construction of the Pla de Nadal.