Site formation processes and urban transformations during Late Antiquity from a high-resolution geoarchaeological perspective: Baelo Claudia, Spain

To understand abandonment processes and secondary uses of public buildings is a key-challenge to recognize the scope of the urban transformations in Roman cities during Late Antiquity. In this sense, administrative and religious public spaces such as the fora underwent a great variety of transformations resulting in the genesis of a complex stratigraphy of anthropogenic and natural deposits. Baelo Claudia is a well-known Roman city located in the Atlantic coast of southern Spain. Recent excavations in the forum have provided new data that elucidate Late Roman urban transformations. In this study, we use archaeological soil micromorphology, physico-chemical analyses and geochemistry to investigate site formation processes and to document nontraditional forms of occupation not visible in the macroscopic archaeological record. This methodology allowed for the distinction of several anthropogenic activities such as glass recycling, reflooring practices, plundering of ornamental marbles, middening of organic and penning residues, together with the progressive decay of earth-based constructions. The complex superposition of site formation processes seen at Baelo Claudia underlines the role of micromorphology in the identification of behavioral signatures and its relevance in deciphering urban transformation in Late Antiquity.