Nova aproximació a la cronologia del cementiri jueu de Montjuïc (Barcelona)

Abstract

The existence of a Jewish necropolis in Barcelona, located somewhere on the Montjuïc mountain, between the 9th century and the end of the 14th century, is mentioned in ancient documents. Throughout the archaeological intervention of 1945-1946, Duran i Sanpere was concerned chiefly with the chronological aspects of the Jewish cemetery of Barcelona. Traditionally, the chronological limits of the necropolis have been fixed between the 11th and 14th centuries, although there is no confirmation of the first of these two dates. It should also be added that the dating of the graves on the basis of Duran i Sanperes classification into three groups is more a matter of intuition than of sufficiently proven fact. Between 1999 and 2000, two digs were carried out at the Jewish cemetery in Girona, enabling the physical limits to be established as between 10,000 and 12,000 m2 and 192 graves typologically very similar to those in the Barcelona cemetery to be identified. The fact that no epigraphic element was discovered in situ makes it very difficult to establish a clear chronology for the whole of the area now excavated, a difficulty which has been common to all archeological interventions carried out on Jewish cemeteries. Inscriptions normally appear out of context, only a few having been found in situ. In fact, it was in Barcelona in 1945-1946, that three gravestones were found in the Jewish cemetery. Despite certain shortcomings, the 2001 dig at Montjuïc in Barcelona result ed in the extraordinary recovery of a stone bearing a Hebrew inscription associated to an anthropomorphous grave. This rare discovery was made even more so by the fact that the stone is clearly marked with the date, thus allowing some aspects of the chronology of the site to be clarified. The aim of the present article is, on the basis of the results of the 2001 dig, to review the chronologies previously established by Duran i Sanpere in 1946.