What was life like in Empúries more than two thousand years ago? A visit to its archaeological site can provide some surprising answers. But when the guides themselves become characters from ancient Greece and Rome, the past becomes much easier to imagine.
This summer, an 11-year-old girl visited Empúries through one of its theatrical guided tours organized by the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya and Empordà Caterva. Walking among the remains of the Greek and Roman cities under an incredible sunset, she discovered that these two settlements had existed side by side for centuries, making Empúries a gateway through which Greek and Roman cultures reached the Iberian Peninsula.
One of the ideas that struck her most was how the Greeks often developed new ideas that the Romans later refined and improved. She reflected that this process is not so different from the way innovation works today, when new discoveries become the starting point for further development.
In the ruins, an initial surprise was the statue of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. But the questions soon became much more about everyday life: How did people get light into their houses? And what did they actually do at the public baths?
The answers reveal a society that was both very different from ours and surprisingly familiar. Wealthy Roman houses could contain dozens of rooms but have very few windows facing the street. Instead, an open central courtyard brought in light, fresh air and rainwater. Public baths were not simply places to wash: they were social spaces where people exercised, relaxed and exchanged news. Even public toilets could become places for conversation.
These details may seem like curiosities, but they are also part of archaeological knowledge: evidence from buildings, objects and urban spaces allows researchers to reconstruct how people lived.
However, the scientific research at Empúries goes even further — sometimes revealing things that visitors cannot see at all. A study published in Archaeological Prospection used frequency-domain electromagnetic mapping, a geophysical technique that measures variations beneath the ground, to investigate the landscape around ancient Emporion. Combined with other methods, the research provided evidence for the existence of an ancient harbour that is now hidden beneath sediments and a coastline that has changed considerably over time.
In other words, what we see when we visit Empúries is only one part of the story. Archaeology can also help us discover what lies beneath our feet.
This is where theatrical visits can make a difference. By turning archaeological evidence into stories, characters and questions, they give visitors a way to connect scientific knowledge with the people who once inhabited the site.
Perhaps this is one of the best ways to understand archaeology: not only as a collection of ruins, but as a way of asking questions about people, places and the world they lived in that is part of our own history. Sometimes, the best scientific discoveries begin with a very simple question: “How did they do that?”
Scientific reference: Casas, A., Castanyer, P., Himi, M., et al. (2022). “Frequency Domain Electromagnetic mapping for delineating subsurface structures related to the historical port of Emporiae.” Archaeological Prospection, 29(1), 33–43. DOI: 10.1002/arp.1834.
Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Barcelona