Paper short abstract:

The eighteenth-century excavations of the Roman monuments at the site of ancient Saguntum in Spain show how the town developed a local identity based on a national concept of classical material culture and provide insight into the modern meaning of the monuments in the local imagination and political structure.

Paper long abstract:

The late eighteenth-century excavations of the Roman theatre and other monuments at the site of ancient Saguntum in Spain provide insight into contemporary discourse about the past. In the eighteenth century, classical material culture was part of a broader Bourbon cultural programme intended to produce a revisionist history of Spain with the aid of the Real Academia de la Historia and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. By facilitating the excavation, documentation, and study of classical monuments, the academies ultimately enabled them to be perceived as Spanish national heritage. This paper draws on contemporary correspondence and archaeological dissertations to examine how a fledgling concept of national heritage was reflected and refracted in the cultural and archaeological activities and political aspirations of a provincial lawyer-turned-antiquary in the eighteenth-century town of Murviedro, which had grown over the ruins of Saguntum. The interaction between locals in Murviedro and the academies in Madrid allowed the town to develop an identity based on its local Roman monuments. These eighteenth-century events illuminate the discourse about the past in the modern town of Sagunto. Tensions over the recent refurbishment of the ancient theatre for modern performances recall issues confronted in the eighteenth century and help us to understand the current meaning of the Roman monuments in the local imagination and political structure.