The main body of the pier’s head was built using wooden formwork, filled with poured hydraulic mortar; a layer of tiles, still fully visible on the northern face, rested on this, in order to level the structure. The most ancient concrete nucleus had a facing in opus mixtum. Above the head, certain masonry structures, perhaps relating to the lighthouse mentioned by the archaeologist Giuseppe Lugli in the 1930s, are conserved. An excavation trench at the base of the north face investigated the stratigraphies, with pottery fragments attributable to the phases of the port becoming marshland; masonry partitions and marble columns, likely to have fallen from the upper portion of the pier, have also been discovered.
Reconstruction of the head in opus mixtum and of the subsequent enlargement
(Grupo Vrbanitas Universidad de Huelva)
Holes for the wooden chains used to build the pier head
Aerial photo of the pier head
(Grupo Vrbanitas Universidad de Huelva)
Fragment of the facing of the first phase of the pier head
(Grupo Vrbanitas Universidad de Huelva)
Late Antique structures built on the pier head
Pottery materials discovered in an assay at the base of the pier head
(Grupo Vrbanitas Universidad de Huelva)