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The vice-president of the CV MARQ Foundation and deputy for Culture Juan de Dios Navarro Caballero has visited the archaeological excavations at the Cabezo Molino site in Rojales, which since 2018 have been directed by Teresa Ximénez de Embún, archaeologist and Exhibitions technician of the Foundation, to see first-hand the findings and research that are being carried out in Rojales during the first weeks of September.
This archaeological prospecting work is part of the research project promoted by the Provincial Council of Alicante, through the Excavations Plan of the MARQ, the Archaeological Museum of Alicante, which includes work at various sites in the province and which in the case of Rojales has the collaboration of the City Council and its Archaeological and Palaeontological Museum.
In addition to the director of the excavations herself and the volunteers taking part in the excavations, the director of MARQ, Manuel Olcina, also took part in the visit.
The Cabezo del Molino site is one of the first in the province of Alicante where the presence of a population from the Byzantine period (6th-7th centuries AD) has been confirmed. Furthermore, at this site there is a large necropolis or burial area, recognised as one of the first manifestations in our territory of Christian communities in the rural world, as it forms part of one of the first collective Christian burial areas.
Of all the Cabezo Molino complex, the high number of child burials found stands out, probably because many of them were affected by an epidemic as serious as the so-called "plague of Justinian", with the location of a group of female graves of very young ages that were treated in a very special way in the face of death. A discovery that presents us with a unique episode in time that took place almost 1,500 years ago.
In the exhibition Trousseaus for eternityInaugurated last May in the foyer of the MARQ and on display until May 2025, we can understand, through an innovative museography, explanatory panels and a narrative video, this particular moment in our history, while research continues at the site itself, revealing more information and new discoveries.
