La Bastida and El Campico de Lébor in Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla’s document collection

Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla’s collection of pieces and documents and his library were acquired by the National Archaeological Museum in 1973 (file number 1973/58), being bought by the Spanish state from his brothers after his death. It includes an important collection of photographs resulting from his work, different positions and professional relations, and as well as his archaeological excavations and investigations.

Part of this collection is comprised of items from the La Bastida and El Campico de Lébor sites. A total de 415 items, of which 227 are negatives and 188 paper envelopes, in which some of the former were originally kept.Salto de línea

The negatives have a cellulose nitrate base and are in two sizes, 10x8 and 13x18 mm, being known at the time as filmpack, a system, earlier than the roll, consisting of a pack with several negatives in a frame which were taken out individually and fitted in the back of cameras. Only a few negatives are in 35 mm format.

The envelopes are also of different types and sizes, some being printed as belonging to the archive of Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla and having spaces in which the negative number, date, author and subject were filled in, sometimes very briefly and not always in their entirety. Others are simple paper envelopes with a short handwritten description of their contents and date.

All of this corresponds to the excavations carried out by the Seminar of Primitive History of Man of the Central University of Madrid, directed by Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla, in the years 1944, 1945, 1948 and 1950. Most of the collection is from the 1944-1945 campaign, in which both La Bastida and Campico de Lébor were excavated: 191 negatives and their corresponding 173 envelopes. Twenty-eight negatives and 15 envelopes correspond to the 1948 campaign and from the last, in 1950, there are only 8 negatives. During sorting, study and cataloguing of the material, it has been found that documentation for the different campaigns is fragmentary, as a photographic documentation does not exist for all the tombs or structures excavated. Another important photographic collection which would presumably complement this one was donated by Eduardo del Val Caturla to John D. Evans in the 1950s, as Evans himself has informed the Autonomous University of Barcelona team and currently excavating the site.