2,000-year-old Roman camp uncovered – alongside evidence of a brutal act

Archaeologists at the University of León in Spain have uncovered a well-preserved Roman military camp from the Cantabrian Wars in the first century BCE. The site yielded fragments of weapons, iron hobnails from Roman soldiers' sandals, and evidence of the deliberate destruction of a nearby Celtic settlement.

Archaeologists from the University of León in Spain have uncovered a well-preserved 2,000-year-old Roman military camp from the Cantabrian Wars in the first century BCE. The camp is located about half a kilometer from an Iron Age settlement of the Cantabri tribe, a group of Celtic tribes that resisted Roman rule for a decade and were conquered in 19 BCE by Emperor Augustus. Metal weapon fragments and small iron hobnails ('hobnails') used in the soles of Roman combat sandals were found at the site. Researchers uncovered evidence of a massive fire that destroyed most of the ancient settlement, including two temples. Archaeologist Eduardo González Gómez de Agüero assessed that the Romans deliberately set the fire as part of the conquest process, aiming to humiliate and erase the enemy's identity. The discovery adds to previous research identifying 66 Roman camps in northern Spain.