The excavation of the 13th-century Mediaeval barn also provided a series of data of an architectural nature and on construction systems and techniques.

The barn construction hypothesis has generated a second project (DGICYT PG94-0842) entitled: "Experimental Archaeology: Constructions for agricultural storage and agriculture in the Middle Ages", also funded by the Ministry of Education and Science, and carried out by the L’Esquerda team through the University of Barcelona.

The main objective of the project was the construction of structures for storing and storing cereals, in the two ways that have been located at L’Esquerda:

    • CONSTRUCTION OF A REAL-SCALE BARN, of the same size and shape as the excavated area.
    • CONSTRUCTION OF UNDERGROUND SILOS

On the other hand, the project also contemplated other forms of construction localized to the site:
• THE CONSTRUCTION OF PERISHABLE STRUCTURES USING STICK HOLES: fence and haystack.

The aim is to experiment with wood construction, which provides negative evidence.
• CONSTRUCTION OF 2 EARTHWORKS (ditch and embankment): EXPERIMENTS ON EROSION AND SEDIMENTATION.

This system of ditches and embankments makes it possible to control erosion and sedimentation in the N/S and E/W sectors.


All these structures have been built at l'ÀREA and are in the process of being checked. The object of the experiment, in addition to the results obtained, is the construction process itself, the materials, the tools, and the time employed. In a second phase, the experiment analyses the process of deterioration of the structures due to abandonment.

The third project DGICYT PB98-1241, entitled: "Experimental Archaeology: tools and techniques related to agriculture in the Middle Ages", has continued with experimentation along two lines:

1. Continuing with the experiments on the processes of use and maintenance of the stocking structures built. In this way, grain has been stored in a compartment of the barn, to study its behaviour; and experiments have also been carried out with the silos, placing grain in them for different periods.
2. To begin experimentation on tools, specifically iron tools, using the material provided by the Esquerda site.

The fifth research project of the DGICYT of the MEC is currently underway: HAR2008-00871/HIST, entitled "Experimental Archaeology. Ethnoarchaeology applied to the Mediaeval agricultural process" (2009 - 2011).