the museum garden

The museum is located in the area once known as ‘La Turba’, a name which likely comes from the Arabic ‘Turbah al-Hamra’ meaning red sands. The urban development in this part of the city can be traced to its origins in the 14th century.

With the garden being adjacent to the Marinid baths at the museum, we had no doubt about the potential of unearthing interesting archaeology here. For this reason, we carried out excavations here in phases throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

Various structures from the 18th century were uncovered, including part of the aqueduct which carried potable water from the south towards the city, other water channels for sewage and outdoor paving. A level showing evidence of fire was also found, attributed to the time a mortar shell fell on the building during the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) causing it to go up in flames. The building later became known as the Bomb House.

One of the major concerns in cities under constant siege is water supply. This is something we have seen throughout the archaeological sequence in the museum garden, not just in British levels.

From the Spanish period, we recorded water channels made of ceramic slabs and brick, as well as a roughly built cistern-well with a watering trough for animals. This was repurposed as a rubbish dump in the 19th century having found ceramics and glass bottles from this period inside.

From the Marinid period we recorded a circular well with a limestone wellhead and walls, and a quadrangular dry stone structure with rounded corners and a reddish lime floor within. All the data point towards this having been a rural and rather ephemeral structure such as a cabin or hut which was possibly destroyed at the time the Marinid baths were built. Also recorded in these levels was an assemblage of ceramics from this period and the burial of a dog.