In the hills of Cabeza de Griego (district of Saelices, in the Cuenca Province), a town was founded out of a castrum from the Iron Age in Celtiberian territory, whose main economic activity was the exploitation of lapis specularis (Plin. HN 36.160), a translucent gypsum used as window glass. Its exceptional location at the crossroads of land routes that linked the Ebro Valley with the Betica and the Lusitania and the center of the peninsula with the eastern harbors, especially with Carthago Nova, turned the city into an important trade center with the Mediterranean, where materials and products of different places arrived.

Its name, Segobriga, reminded of its mythical foundation by a character named Sego, whose memory had been maintained by oral tradition since the unknown date of its creation. Pliny (Plin. HN 3.25) would be the one to include Segobriga in his lists of tributary cities of the conventus Carthaginensis, as caput Celtiberiae, together with other cities south of the Meseta and in the southeast of the peninsula. As a pilgrim community, the inhabitants of Segobriga named senator L. Livius Ocella their protector, grandfather of Emperor Galba, during Caesar’s or the Second Triumvirate’s era (CIL VI 1446a) and minted money with the name Segobris on it.

In the middle of the 1^st century BC, the city started important urbanization works that were planned with orthogonal streets and aligned with the city walls. On the northern side of the hills, the recent archaeological excavations have revealed remains of some insulae of dwellings of the pre-Augustan phase. At the same location, a small temple with an in antis structure and the so-called Theater Baths were part of the urban structure at this time.

The granting of the municipal status made possible the construction process of the new urban building plan from the early Augustan period, whose forum was the greatest example. Pilgrim indigenous people participated in its construction like [Proc?]ulus Spantamicus and La [---] [---]us, who assumed the costs of the materials employed in the paving of the square (CIL II² 13,329). The square and its porticoes became a gallery of statues and honorary pedestals dedicated to members of the imperial family, patrons of the city and magistrates, the construction of which was decreed by the ordo of Segobriga until at least the Severan period.

At the end of the 1^st Century AD, Segobriga had become a Roman city. It had a theater, an amphitheater, new baths, a building exclusively dedicated to commercial transactions and a large public square surrounded by porticoed galleries near the original temple. Important public works had also been achieved, such as piping drinking water through an aqueduct, paving the streets and installing fountains that improved the life in the city. After the construction ex novo of a circus in the middle of the 2^nd Century AD, the public construction program ended, as far as we know today from the excavations.

The process of transformation towards the Late Antique city began at the end of the 3rd century as a result of the progressive loss of power by the ordo decurionum and the consolidation of the Christian church. Although the classical concept of the city had already been transformed, the occupation of Segobriga continued throughout the 4th and 5th centuries. The new society settled on the High-Imperial public buildings, now abandoned and already used as a quarry for building materials. The Christianisation of the city from this time onwards is reflected in the construction of a large martyr's basilica to the north of the city, the so-called today Visigothic basilica.

Between the 6th and 7th centuries it was still an important city, as evidenced by its status as an episcopal see, with bishops attending the councils of Toledo between 589 and 693.

During the Islamic period, it gradually lost its importance as an urban centre until it became a rural settlement dependent on Uclés. The urban landscape of this period, as far as we know archaeologically, shows a certain spatial planning. On the site of the ancient forum, large rectangular open-air enclosures were built, probably used as stables, which were linked to rooms used for domestic purposes. At the same time, a large square watchtower surrounded by a moat was built on the highest part of the hill, the remains of which are still visible today.

In 1228, the old Segobriga, now known as Cabeza de Griego, was still inhabited, as a document of donation of part of the hill to the Order of Santiago dates from that date. From the 16th century onwards, the site of the old town was abandoned and we only know of written references to the existence of a hermitage.

Aerial images taken by drone of forum Segobriga

Virtual restitution of the forum of Segobriga. Image by Balawat ( Project Management Team: J. M. Abascal & R. Cebrián)

The great public architecture of Segobriga is a point of reference for the study of Roman urban planning in the territory of the southern Spanish Meseta. It also contributes to understanding the role of the Hispanic cities described in Anglo-Saxon literature as "small towns" in the implementation and dissemination of Roman construction and town planning models. Its forum is a paradigm for understanding the morphology and functioning of these spaces, thanks to the large number of evidences found in a primary context, but also for the recognition of the stratigraphic complexity and the diachrony of the different phases of occupation and activities of abandonment, despoilment and reoccupation, which show the evolution of the city during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.

The main objective of the project is the architectural and urban analysis of the archaeological remains of its public space and the interpretation of the construction phases, occupational transition and processes of spolia and amortisation. It aims to achieve more general reflections, valid for understanding the urban and architectural renovation programme of the Roman cities of southern Celtiberia in the Augustan period. The three cities located in this territorial area, Ercavica, Segobriga and Valeria, start from a similar Romanisation model and a comparable topography. They evolved in a similar way in the Late Antique period, so that the conclusions reached through the research of this project can be extrapolated to evaluate the magnitude of the new town planning at the time of its legal promotion with the introduction of the architectural, ideological and symbolic programmes established by Rome.

They will also help to understand the changes in the dynamics of public buildings from the 4th century onwards, the seed of the formation of the new late antique cities and the dissolution of the classical city. In order to obtain this overview, we will start from the data obtained from archaeological projects completed in Segobriga, which present important material records, mostly unpublished, and which are representative of each of the historical periods to be studied.

Socially, the project aims to promote greater integration of the site with its surroundings, generating knowledge and encouraging positive behaviours to value the local heritage. Among the many activities planned are a day for the project dissemination, open-doors days at the archaeological excavations carried out in summer and a cycle of conferences at local scale. All this with the aim of exposing the data achieved in the research as a way of generating a sense of belonging, individually and collectively, helping to maintain social and territorial cohesion. At the same time, it will show society the potential of the site for the archaeologists’ education and their necessary involvement in the conservation of archaeological remains. Likewise, the synergy between archaeological research and cultural dissemination means that the results of the project in themselves constitute a dynamic element for the archaeological heritage of Segobriga and, therefore, for its Archaeological Park.