It
was the
fault
of Polybius of Megalopolis, the Greek historian who visited Cartagena around 150 BC, and was surprised by a huge knoll that extended next to the port.
So he wrote: "In it stand the magnificent royal palaces that [Carthaginian general] Hasdrubal [245-207 BC] built when he aspired to the monarchy."
Some 2,200 years later, the Cerro del Molinete is a large conical-shaped bare parcel, in the center of the city, completely surrounded by buildings and at whose feet an archaeological park extends (26,000 square meters) and where records are exposed between the III a.
C and XX.
That is, the history of the city.
Environmental cataclysm on the Phoenician island
But most of the hill is uninvestigated and there, says Iván Negueruela, director of the Museum of Underwater Archeology of Cartagena (Arqua), the Carthaginian palace described by the Greek is still hidden.
However, if the assertions of this doctor in Archeology, Unesco advisor and excavator from Petra (Jordan) with the Sorbonne in Paris are true, everything is in tremendous danger of disappearance because about 120 floors have been approved on the public plot.
The municipal government team ―a coalition of the PP and former Socialist councilors― replies that there is nothing to prevent the works, that it is “difficult to interpret a succinct reference in the
Histories
of Polybius, dating from the middle of the second century BC and of which, in addition, only copies are preserved ”, in response to a questionnaire from this newspaper, the cabinet of Mayor Ana Belén Castejón.
Of course, they admit that if archaeological remains are found in the building plots, they must be shown to the public in the garages of the buildings.
The director of the Arqua museum wrote in 2015 the book
The magnificent palace of Asdrúbal in Cartagena: Cerro del Molinete
, which was published with the support of the Royal Academy of History (RAH).
And the bloody battle began.
The City Council had put up for auction four plots in the lower part of the west slope in 2014, although the bid was deserted.
In August of this year, they were auctioned again.
Now, the awardees of the land will be able to build the houses on the sole condition that if something valuable archaeological is found, they should keep it in the underground car parks.
"All basements, even if they are on different plots, must be connected to each other and with different entrances to facilitate the entry of visitors and encourage them to become a site that can be visited," recalls the City Council.
Negueruela throws herself, therefore, her hands at her head.
In his book, he maintains that he has detected - he has been making measurements for 20 years - the existence of "the remains of more than a hundred walls of Asdrúbal's palace, carved in the bedrock", which included rooms, halls, ramps ... The building, according to the archaeologist, had a floor plan, "unique in the Ancient World", which corresponded to a right triangle, that of Pythagoras' theorem, in which the hypotenuse squared is equal to the sum of the squares of the legs , which is usually visualized as a 3-4-5 triangle. A Carthaginian palace of these characteristics is not known in the Mediterranean ”, he says.
Negueruela's assertions even provoked a reaction from heritage defense groups and political parties in the opposition.
The Citizen Movement (MC), the most voted formation in the last elections, but which does not govern ―Cartagena is governed by a coalition of the PP and former Socialist councilors— has demanded an express declaration of the BIC for the hill.
What most surprises Jesús Jiménez, president of MC, is the government team's insistence on urbanizing one of the few undeveloped areas of the city.
“Citizens need free spaces.
The children of the center play in the streets because there are no parks.
Why build more houses when there are more than a hundred empty plots in the old town?
What is all this due to?
The mayor recalls that the entire historic center has been declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, the maximum possible protection, "but even so they [the City Council] continue to do whatever they want."
"How is it possible that they say that it can be built without knowing what is underneath as a whole and that what is found remains in the basements of the buildings?"
Jiménez, who has signed on behalf of his group a petition for the hill to have special protection, demands that it be investigated whether Negueruela's claims are true or not.
“I don't know if the palace of Asdrúbal is there or not, but we are talking about one of the most important archaeologists in Spain.
He is an eminence.
Doesn't anyone here have a little common sense? "
The local government replies that “different campaigns of archaeological excavations [in the lower part] have been carried out since 2007 by a solvent multidisciplinary team led by the University of Murcia, and they have concluded that there is no scientifically contrasted evidence that allows associating archaeological remains with the hypothesis of the possible palace of Asdrúbal ”.
However, he admits that "there is no scientifically proven report that allows, neither assures nor sustains, with absolute veracity, the existence or absence of the palace".
And what was the supposed palace of Hasdrubal like?
Negueruela believes that it was dug out of the hill and that its plant was a large scalene triangle.
Its measurements, according to the expert, were 140, 180 and 250 meters on each side.
“No palace of this size is known outside of Persepolis and Babylon.
It is true ”, he adds,“ that Persepolis had a side of 300 meters, but only after successive additions by several monarchs ”.
Supposedly, once the triangle was carved, the hill was structured in stepped terraces.
Various rooms and services of the palace were carved in them, such as warehouses, representation or ceremonial rooms, linked by ramps.
The construction technique was that of sexagesimal angles, the usual one in Punic, Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures, which establishes the lengths by multiplying elbows of 52 centimeters in length.
The City Council replies that those steps to which Negueruela refers respond to “a peculiar orography that motivated a deep anthropic transformation of the available space, with numerous cuts in the rock itself in order to take advantage, above all, of the high areas and slopes of the hills to make them habitable. "
For the archaeologist, “the construction of the houses proposed by the City Council will forever enclose the west slope of the palace, which will last for centuries as the exclusive responsibility of this corporation.
The entire historic center and, therefore, the area to be developed are BIC and are subject to the highest legal Spanish, regional and international protection standards ”.
For this reason, he considers filing a complaint for an attack on property and trespass.
"I can not consent this.
They have not even bought if what I affirm is true ”.
The City Council admits that in the last surveys of the lower part of the hill “the continuation of a Roman road from the end of the 1st century BC has been found.
Limestone, and constructions linked to the intense building activity that takes place in this area between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
C. and that seems related to large work stays, or artisanal groups, sometimes linked to hydraulic installations ”.
The Town Hall affirms that "none of the buildings will exceed the height of the mountain," which rises approximately 35 meters above sea level.
"Well, nothing," Jiménez concludes.
“Let the cars of the new residents circulate on the Roman road and then park next to the archaeological remains of the garage.
It is that they are not capable of admitting that they have been wrong ”.