Archaeologists Unearth Moroccan Artifacts at Spanish Civil War Concentration Camp Site

Archaeologist Felipe Mejías has been conducting excavation work since late 2017 on this Francoist concentration camp, which they consider "the most important and cruellest in Spain". "Investigating historical memory is a matter of humanity and something that benefits society," he explains to El Español.

Felipe Mejías is writing his doctoral thesis on this issue. He carried out his fourth excavation on October 23 and explored the area with metal detectors to uncover objects from the time. This is how he found a Moroccan coin dated 1930 on the site. A discovery that could confirm the collaboration of soldiers based in northern Morocco, then under Spanish rule, with Franco’s army during the Spanish Civil War.

The location of this coin, found in an area near one of the camp’s entrances, would confirm that these soldiers acted as guards. They would be military personnel who, according to the archaeologist’s investigations, were paid a bonus for shooting at prisoners who tried to escape the camp.

Ammunition of 16 mm caliber used in the 19th century was also found on the site. According to the archaeologist, they "could belong to these paramilitary forces". But this hypothesis cannot be 100% confirmed, because "in archaeology, one must be cautious," he points out. With his team, Felipe Mejías will try to geo-reference the points where this ammunition was found to verify if they are linked to a possible execution site.