The Archaeological Experimental Research Area of L’Esquerda is an open-air laboratory where a series of experiments are carried out to understand various processes related to archaeology, such as sedimentation and erosion, in a moat and an embankment, or different experiments on agriculture, metallurgy, or construction to understand and verify the evidence that has been found at the archaeological level.

The Area of Experimental Archaeological Research of L’Esquerda (ÀREA) occupies an area right next to the Iberian and Mediaeval site of L’Esquerda, in front of the city wall.

General view of the Area, with the fields and the automatic weather station.

In this space, ceded by the Roda de Ter Town Council www.rodadeter.cat for the exclusive use of archaeological research, the following infrastructure is available:
     • Workshop-laboratory: before starting the project, the team already had a workshop-laboratory loaned by Roda de Ter Town Council, dedicated exclusively to the monitoring and support of the excavations (storage for tools, room for cleaning and encoding the material, restoration workshop, etc.). When the project was planned, these premises were arranged to accommodate the infrastructure necessary to carry it out (computer equipment, automatic weather station, etc.).
• Cultivation area: a cultivation area was needed for agricultural experimentation. In this sense, the Roda Town Council also provided an area between the workshop-laboratory and the site.
• Automatic weather station: basic for crop monitoring, it is located in the middle of the field, wired underground, and connected to a computer in the workshop-laboratory.