Page 55 - Archaeology - October 2017

for washing. This is where this Republican fugitive story peters “There are a lot of taboos,” Fanjul says. “Perhaps we need one
out—the fate of this particular man has been forgotten. But generation more to pass.”
the fervor that drove the revolution, the battles, the betrayals, To an outsider, the lingering effects of the conflict are hard
sieges, escapes, raids, and denunciations—that has not. to understand on anything but an intellectual—and ultimately
Fanjul still grapples with the academic questions, political inadequate—level. Historical amnesia comes with risks, but
problems, and personal impact of choosing to study the Span- Spain today does have a functional democracy, a great deal of
ish Civil War. “It is a difficult archaeology,” he says. “You have pride, a global reputation built on soccer, food, a rich culture,
feelings. You have fear.” A full-time academic position has been and support for the arts, rather than oppression and violence—
elusive, and his excavations—he has additional ones planned all predicated on a determined choice to move forward. In
for more traditional battlefield sites in the mountains—have this setting, questions about the past are gradually becoming
been supported and staffed by institutions and students from a bit easier to ask, but the path of memory, Fanjul has found,
the United States, England, and Ireland, but not Spain. In remains a hard one to walk. n
candid moments he’s frustrated that this can’t be treated as a
quest for knowledge, free from politics and personal animus. Samir S. Patel is deputy editor at Atlas Obscura.

House to House

he fate of asturias in the lages, so their belongings—shoes and
early stages of the Spanish ammunition—are far more utilitarian.
TCivil War hinged on the capital From the peak of Naranco, Fanjul
of Oviedo. Encircled by high ground, is able to point out neighborhoods
Oviedo is not an easily defended city. where the fighting was street to street,
What it lacked in strategic value—it block to block, house to house. “It was
had none—it made up for with sym- a battle without prisoners,” he says,
bolic value, as a place occupied by land- and, in fact, in Oviedo’s charming
owners and aristocrats in the center of medieval core, the scars of the
a communist stronghold. battle are apparent on many of
As Franco’s coup began, the Repub- the buildings.
Postwar Oviedo. Religious
lican Army in Oviedo, led by Colonel medal and perfume bottle Those that lack bullet
Antonio Aranda Mata, pledged loyalty found in a Nationalist trench. holes have been restored or
to the existing government. But once built since the war. This core
thousands of miners decamped to fight “This was the first time someone was Aranda’s stronghold. Eighty
the Nationalists in Madrid, Aranda did excavations of Civil War sites percent of the city outside of it
flipped and seized the city on behalf of in Asturias,” he says. In the National- was destroyed. A southern front line
the Nationalists. He executed many of ist trench, he and his team found a of the battle called the Campallin
the Republican fighters who remained layer of their artifacts, topped by a is today an idyllic park crisscrossed
and prepared for a siege. thin layer of Republican material. with irregular paths. Before the war
These days, when Spanish Civil War The excavation provided evidence the Campallin was a rough warren
archaeologist Alfonso Peraza Fanjul of a Republican advance to the of a neighborhood, known for its
takes curious visitors to a hill north of Nationalists’ second line, which brothels and bars, but in 1936,
the city called Naranco, he is able to had never before been document- it became the most dangerous
point out the battle lines of the siege ed. The artifacts emphasize key place in Europe. The narrow,
in the city below. “This,” he says, “is differences between the forces. unpredictable streets meant that
the start of the Second World War.” The Nationalists used ammuni- it was too dangerous to fight in,
Aranda, known for his strategic acu- tion from Germany and Toledo, so the Nationalists shelled it and
men, fortified Naranco beforehand so compared with Russian and Mexi- burned it to the ground. The
his troops could lay down machine-gun can material used by Republicans. paths today follow the original
fire almost anywhere in the city. The Nationalists were far from home, street layout. Fanjul flips through a
The Republicans had seized a small- so they carried items of sentimen- binder of photographs: charred build-
er hill called La Miliciana, and during tal value, such as a perfume bottle ings, sandbags, trenches where there
the fight a no-man’s-land between the and religious medal that were found. are now sidewalk cafes. “In 100 years,”
peaks was covered with trenches—one The Republicans, on the other hand, he says, “you will see archaeologists
of which Fanjul excavated in 2012. expected to return to their nearby vil- here, digging.” —SSP

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