David Varela Gómez

A Cidadela is, nowadays, one of the most emblematic sites of Galician archaeology. Well-known sincethe beginnings of XX century, the modern excavations are going to achieve next year their thirtieth anniversary. Even so, there are still several points in its history not entirely resolved: we have not got to understand the reason for a roman military settlement in the region; the chronology of its occupation is, at least, confusing; the research has barely paid attention to the environment of the site; and the Germanic and Early Medieval periods are still plunged in the half-light. It is our aim to throw light on these and other problems based on the work of an interdisciplinary group.

The archaeological site of A Cidadela is mainly known as base of a Roman auxiliary unit from the Early Empire. However, 30 years of archaeological works had revealed human presence there in both
Germanic (VIIth century A. D.) and Early Medieval (S. VIII-Xth centuries) periods. The study of this archaeological data is vital in order to clarify one of the darkest periods of the whole Galician History.