The archaeological dig, currently taking place at Albatera concentration camp, has documented 3500 points of interest so far. The dig will continue until mid-November as teams of archaeologists comb the earth for items that will shed light on the troubled time in Spain’s history.
The facility was built as a work camp in 1938 and between April and November 1939, was a prison camp where many are believed to have suffered and died.
Architects have been carrying out a survey of the 3-hectare plot, now used to grow coriander, with metal detectors. Inch by inch, they have used GPS to log 3500 markers, showing remains of structures that once stood on the site. Significant material has also been collected by the team on the dig, with around 400 items gathered that will later be cleaned, classified, entered in an inventory and held by the MARQ archaeological museum. The items include bullets, triggers from guns, a revolver butt and mostly, Mauser shells used by the Francoist army. Lab tests will tell the team if the bullets were fired or not and this will confirm if executions were likely carried out there.
Lead seals have also been found that would have sealed the ammunition boxes. A microscope reveals the inscription “Sevillan pyrotechnics”, the factory that supplied the rebel army.
In that same area where the prisoners’ barracks would have been located, a lapel pin of the National Railway Union of the UGT was found. The group of railway workers was one of the most impacted after the end of the war. Many were imprisoned or executed.
Among the other objects found, there are numerous coins from the Second Republic. Once the war was over, they no longer had value. Archaeologists also found several empty tubes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of inmates caught scabies at the camp and in letters home to relatives, they requested tubes of ointment.
This is the third dig to date at the site and there are currently no excavations planned to find the mass grave but archaeologists have said that what they are finding at the moment confirms the likelihood of its existence.
The foundations of a barracks, 60 metres long by seven wide, were found at the site last year. The government is planning to buy the land over the next year.
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