Archaeologists discovered Spain's oldest known Roman library inside a villa in Córdoba

Archaeologists identified Room 10 at the Roman villa of Fuente Álamo in Córdoba, Spain, as the oldest known Roman library on the Iberian Peninsula, previously thought to be a shrine to Mithras.

University of Granada researchers used shape grammar analysis, noting the room's apse, rectangular niches for cabinets, semicircular niches for statues, and raised podium match Roman library designs.

The library at Fuente Álamo is the westernmost documented in the Roman Empire, revealing the cultural ambitions of its wealthy owner.

Roman libraries are hard to identify because scrolls and wooden shelving decay, so the team relied on architectural evidence as published in the Journal of the Mediterranean.