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A monolith dedicated to Camp dels Ninots, first step to enhance the attraction of this 3.1 million years old site
A tour through several panels will be offered soon to explain how life and the environment were at that time
Also an area will be built within a laboratory for in situ research and the development of the Erasmus Mundus Master in Quaternary Archaeology and Human Evolution classes
During the 2015 spring season the field work will restart
The recent opening of a 12 tons monolith, at the entrance of Caldes de Malavella (Girona, Spain), sculpture piece by Marc Niell, has kick-started a whole series of actions that are aimed to enhance the tourist and cultural attraction at Camp dels Ninots, a site located in this locality, where important archaeopaloentological remains reaching up to 3.1 million years old have been recovered over 11 years of continuous research under the IPHES´s direction (Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social), and which are also mentioned in the permanent exhibition that for some time has been visited at Cal Ferrer, a medieval building in the old Town at the Hall Square, next to the tourist office.
The mayor of Caldes de Malavella, Salvador Balliu, highlighted the interest of the city council to promote Camp dels Ninots as a cultural and tourist attraction, which will benefit the economy of the village. In this regard, he advanced that during 2015 an interior journey will be offered to the public in the site, through various interpretive panels, it will explain and reconstruct life and the environment at the place 3.1 million years ago.
Monolith dedicated to Camp dels Ninots – Gerard Campeny/IPHES
Research Areas
In this regard, it may be noted that each research area that is carried out will be detailed: geology, paleontology of large and small vertebrates, paleoenvironment, excavation methods and history of the research and taphonomy of the site. These panels have been designed and made by the IPHES.
It will also implement various points along the visit with a series of real scale sculptures of the different animals found at the site, as well as leisure and resting areas. This act has a cost of about 55,000 euros paid by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the City Hall of Caldes and the IPHES. The works have been already tendered and could begin in January.
In the same vein, the City Hall is working to rehabilitate the Castell de Caldes building together with a research center around Camp dels Ninots where a practical classroom and the interpretation of hot springs could be developed. The first floor is dedicated to a work place and the logistics of the research project on the site holded by the IPHES, and will be equipped with a restoration laboratory, work areas and rooms, toilets and kitchens, for the accommodation of the research team (about 20 people) during the excavations and the processing of the recovered material during the field work. In the future Master in Quaternary Archaeology and Human Evolution classes will be offered by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, thanks to the research projects with international projection that holds the IPHES.
The importance of water
The ground floor is basically designed for schools and other groups, where a simulated excavation will be included as a classroom for children, and a couple of rooms, where the importance of water in the municipality is explained through the site of Camp dels Ninots, the Roman baths and hot springs of s. XX.
The rehabilitation of the municipal building and the layout of the spaces have an approximate cost of € 260,150 payable between the Council and a grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya which has been obtained thanks to the interest of the research project.
One of the best science projects
Moreover, during the spring of 2015 fieldwork at Camp dels Ninots will restart as the Generalitat recently praised his research project as one of the best and most interesting of Catalonia and has given to the research proposal a scientific a grant of € 60,000 spread over four years.
According to the co-directors of the excavation, Bruno Gomez and Gerard Campeny, archaeologists at the IPHES, the intention for the next season is to perform a mechanical survey that reaches the base of the volcano. “It is estimated to extract 200 meters or more of sediment that will give valuable information for understanding the climate and ecosystem of the zone, and for extension, of the entire Mediterranean”, have remarked.
