The cemetery in the final shootout of The Good The Bad and The Ugly is just north of Clunia, so we decided to shoot and edit a remake in homage to Blondie, Angel Eyes, Tuco, and the rest. If you go there, I recommend turning on the film soundtrack just as you leave Santo Domingo [...]

Joan took me bouldering. Next time we want to bring some ropes and technical gear to climb some of the bigger rock faces at the site, too. Though according to the New York Times, bouldering is in fashion now…

Our first excursion was to the Valle de los Lobos, where a chapel nestles among outrageous cliffs and caves. The guide showed us fossilized snails and remnants of ancient plankton in the stones at the foot of the chapel. View from inside the cave looking at the chapel. The students in medieval burial niches at [...]

Last weekend we visited Tiermes, another abandoned Roman city in the region. Mike and Aixa excavated here years ago and guided the rest of us through the red sandstone cliffs and foundations of the ancient city. There are remnants of old roads, irrigation tunnels, and an amphitheatre. Mike told ghost stories in the tunnel, with [...]

Last weekend we visited the caliphate fortress of Gormaz, which occupies a massive hill overlooking vast swathes of farmland in the province of Soria. The fortress hosted Moorish forces during most of the tenth century as they skirmished with Christian armies to the north of the Duero river. Christian armies took control of it during [...]

Knowing where you discover something is important: archaeologists survey the base of the theatre at Clunia. Rosa brushes off one of two chunks of a statue bust in a room built alongside the entrance to the amphitheatre. Shrine? Looters’ storage area? Green room? Nobody knows. This is Joan, the site director’s son, guarding a bronze [...]

This month I’m wearing a different hat. I’m helping English-speaking archaeology students get fieldwork experience at an excavation of an abandoned Roman city about 160 kilometers north of Madrid called Clunia. A Spanish archaeology team is trying to wrap up the remaining corner of a large theatre after about a decade of work there. Actually, [...]

Well, I hope it wasn’t my last visit to Madrid, but next time I’ll have little claim to calling it home. After returning our van to the agency I still had a set of keys to a rented flat and a half-used metrocard in my pocket. Next time I visit I’ll have a return ticket [...]

It was only minutes before I was due to board my flight to Switzerland that I discovered that my flight did not go to Switzerland. The so-called Basel airport is actually located just west of the border with France. Getting to Zurich from there will require another overland border crossing into Switzerland, though this time [...]

Credits: Long walk to the castle / Lucas. Van before castle / George.