Archaeologists have discovered a Roman temple at the ancient city of Caraca in central Spain, confirming a structure first detected beneath the ground using geophysical surveys.
The discovery comes during the tenth excavation campaign at a site whose remarkably preserved street plan is providing researchers with an increasingly detailed picture of Roman urban life.
The temple was uncovered at Caraca, an ancient settlement on the Cerro de la Virgen de la Muela near Driebes in the province of Guadalajara.
Researchers had previously identified a structure resembling a possible temple through ground-penetrating radar, but its interpretation could not be confirmed without excavation.
A new trench opened during the 2026 campaign has now exposed the building and confirmed its religious function, according to excavation co-director Emilio Gamo.
“It is not very large, but it is very interesting,” Gamo said.
The discovery forms part of a much broader investigation of Caraca, where archaeologists are examining public buildings, streets, baths and occupation layers extending back beyond the Roman period.
Temple discovered beside the forum
The newly identified temple lies on the western side of the city’s forum area.
Its location is significant because forums formed the civic heart of Roman cities, typically concentrating administrative, commercial and religious buildings around a central public space.
Archaeologists have simultaneously been investigating sections of a cryptoporticus on the eastern side of the forum.
Cryptoporticoes were covered or partly subterranean galleries frequently used in Roman monumental architecture, particularly where builders needed to support terraces or create level platforms on uneven terrain.
Together, the forum, cryptoporticus and newly confirmed temple are helping researchers reconstruct the organisation of Caraca’s monumental centre.
Although further excavation will be needed to understand the temple’s architecture and chronology, its confirmation provides another major component of the ancient city’s public landscape.
Archaeologists uncover major Roman street
Excavations have also advanced along the decumanus, one of the principal streets crossing the Roman settlement.
Roman cities were frequently organised around a network of intersecting streets, with a decumanus generally running east to west.
Understanding the route of this street at Caraca is helping archaeologists reconstruct how buildings, public spaces and residential areas were organised within the city.
Caraca’s urban plan is especially valuable because much of it survived without being destroyed by later development.
Unlike many Roman settlements that were repeatedly rebuilt during subsequent centuries, the abandoned city remained largely undisturbed beneath the landscape.
Researchers say this has preserved evidence of its original urban organisation to an unusual degree.
Excavations reach back to the Bronze Age
One of the most significant results of the latest campaign comes from a deep stratigraphic sounding.
Archaeologists excavated more than two metres below the surface, revealing a sequence of archaeological deposits extending from the Roman period back to the end of the Bronze Age.
The discovery demonstrates that human activity at the location substantially predates the Roman city.
Gamo said even earlier archaeological levels could potentially survive below those already reached.
If deeper deposits are eventually identified, they could help researchers reconstruct how occupation of the hill developed over a much longer period and how the settlement changed before and during its incorporation into the Roman world.
Roman bath complex reveals new room
The tenth campaign has also produced new information about Caraca’s bath complex.
Archaeologists uncovered a room dating to the first and second centuries AD containing a distinctive masonry floor.
Excavation of one of the bathing pools has also been completed, while specialists carried out conservation and restoration work on structural elements within the complex.
Public baths were an important feature of Roman urban life.
Beyond their practical function for washing and bathing, they served as places for exercise, relaxation and social interaction.
Their architecture can therefore provide evidence about both engineering and the everyday routines of the city’s inhabitants.
The latest discoveries add to the emerging picture of a settlement equipped with the public infrastructure expected of a Roman urban centre.
55 trenches investigated across Caraca
Researchers opened or investigated 55 test areas during the latest archaeological campaign.
Several concentrated on different parts of the city, while another targeted the bath complex.
The work was designed not simply to expose individual buildings but to establish how different parts of Caraca developed through time.
Archaeologists are combining excavation with modern geophysical techniques, allowing them to identify structures beneath the surface before deciding where to dig.
The successful identification of the temple demonstrates the value of that approach: geophysical evidence first revealed the suspected structure, while targeted excavation established what the building actually was.
A Roman city preserved beneath the landscape
One of Caraca’s greatest archaeological advantages is what happened after its abandonment: relatively little.
Later settlements did not extensively build over the Roman city, meaning streets and structures were not subjected to the centuries of destruction, rebuilding and reuse seen at many other major Roman sites.
“We are very pleased with the results of the tenth excavation campaign in Caraca, as we have been able to advance our understanding of the city’s evolution, both in its public areas and in other aspects,” Gamo said.
The work is revealing details of everyday life as well as the organisation and historical development of the settlement.
Systematic archaeological investigation of Caraca only began in 2016.
As a result, researchers have the relatively unusual opportunity to investigate a substantial Roman city from the outset using modern excavation, surveying and recording techniques.
Entire archaeological site now under public ownership
The 2026 season was also the first excavation campaign conducted after Driebes City Council acquired all the land covering the archaeological site.
Researchers say the acquisition should make it easier to continue investigations while protecting the surviving remains from deterioration or incompatible development.
A decade of excavation has already revealed streets, baths, the forum and other elements of Caraca’s urban landscape.
The newly confirmed temple now adds another piece to that reconstruction.
As archaeologists continue to combine excavation with evidence from ground-penetrating radar and deep stratigraphic soundings, Caraca is emerging as an unusually intact laboratory for understanding how a Roman city was planned, inhabited and transformed — and how its history stretched back long before Roman rule.
Sources : ENCLM
