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tions were carried out with little historic rigour but have, without a
doubt, helped the visiting public to understand the archaeological
remains better.
Later, in 1992, work in this sector of the Roman city was started
again, with the aim of excavating the area of some buildings and improving
the overall presentation of the remains (Aquilué, Castanyer,
Santos, Tremoleda, 1998, p. 114-135). The data obtained in
the interventions carried out at the end of the 1990s allowed the
archaeological sequence of the civic centre of the city proposed in the
monograph published in 1984 to be substantially corrected, as well
as most of the later work based on the same data (Aquilué, Nolla,
Sanmartí, 1986, p. 225-234; Mar, Ruiz de Arbulo, 1986, p. 367-
374; Id., 1993, p. 218-224). In addition to the scientific objectives,
the results of recent excavations should serve to increase the interest
of visitors to this important sector of the Roman city.
The Empúries Forum
The forum area consists of a series of buildings of various kinds,
sizes and uses, corresponding to diverse construction phases that
are a reflection of the evolution of the city from the beginning of the
first century BC to its definitive abandonment during the second
half of the third century AD. Of the various phases that make up
the constructive sequence of this urban centre, the one that is least
perceptible from an archaeological point of view is, without a doubt,
that which corresponds to the initial phase of the city. In this first
phase, the square seems to have been only delimited in the north by
a large rectangular building, later integrated into the cryptoporticus
that surrounded the religious area of the forum, forming the central
wing of the construction. To the south of this building, on the
other hand, excavations have shown the existence of a large storage
area that was in service until almost the Augustan age (Aquilué,
Castanyer, Santos, Tremoleda, 2002, p. 241-260; Ibid., p. 9-38).
The discovery of numerous silos, of considerable sizes and with a
large capacity, excavated in the subsoil of the square and under adjacent
buildings shows this.
The definitive disabling of this field of silos, at the end of the first
century BC made the architectural systematisation of the forum area
possible, with the construction of most of the buildings whose remains
are currently visible. From this moment on it was perfectly
defined. In the north, the religious area or sacred temenos, organised
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