Abstract:

This paper presents the study of a complex architectonical area within the so-called provincial forum of Tarraco. The analysis of the architectonical stratigraphy and of the construction processes has been a fundamental tool to understand an area characterized by a complicated urban evolution, showing the development of the building project of such a vast construction as it is the provincial forum. Unfortunately, the absence of data provided by archaeological excavations limits the definition of a precise absolute chronology. The process of transforming the top of Tarraco’s hill into a monumental area started, according to historical and numismatic sources, during the Julio-Claudian era was completed in the Flavian one by ending this monumental complex distributed in three platforms. The area here analysed, placed close to the circus, belongs to a system of substructiones which commonly features those forum and sacred complexes organized in platforms at different levels.