Las Canteras Circular Mausoleum

A TOMB FROM THE ROMAN PERIOD MADE UP BY ASHLARS

The Circular Mausoleum is a tomb from the Roman Period, located in the area of Las Canteras, next to the site of Mesa de Gandul. Its finding dates back from the beginning of the 1980s, when it was excavated by a team of archaeologists in association with Spanish Ministry of Defence, owner of the plots.

The burial consisted of a circle of ashlar blocks that surrounded a subterranean crypt excavated in the local rock (known as alcoriza). Inside the crypt several vaulted niches were located, small holes excavated in the rock where the urns containing the deceased's ashes were placed. Originally, the Mausoleum would have had an elevation in the shape of a circular tower, being lost any signs of it -except for the initial row of blocks- when it was excavated.

The existence of other similar mausoleums in the South of the Iberian Peninsula (for example in Cordova) as well as the intact finding of at least two funerary urns allowed dating the Mausoleum at the beginning of the 1st century CE, as well as making a proposal for the structure partial reconstruction.

Las Canteras Circular Mausoleum is located in one of the burial zones that surrounded the Roman town located at the Mesa de Gandul. The funerary area spread out toward the Northeast, toward the Road of Los Alcores that connected Gandul and Carmona, and that today still links the villages of Los Alcores cornice.

Nowadays we can see the Mausoleum partially restored. The part of the "tower" that looks toward the Mesa de Gandul was reconstructed; whereas the backside was left in section so it could be possible to contemplate the crypt and its vault directly. There are at this moment several projects to regenerate the area, which has changed during the last decades and sometimes had undergone vandal actions that degrade the site and its surroundings.