The ancient Roman city of Complutum(Alcalá deHenares,Madrid), founded in the 1st century AD,was one of the most important cities ofHispania. The old Roman citywas destroyed, abruptly abandoned, relocated close by and rebuilt during the late 4th century AD. Destruction of the city and its relocation has not yet been explained by
archaeologists. In this paper,with ourmultidisciplinary approach, we identify and characterize earthquake archaeological effects (EAEs) affecting the archaeological site, the La Magdalena, an agricultural holding 4 km from the core of Complutum. The most important EAEs in the site are liquefactions (sand dikes and explosive sand-gravel
craters) affecting Roman structures, such as water tanks (cisterns), houses and graves. Ground liquefaction generated significant ground cracks, explosive craters and folds in foundations of buildings. Several other Roman sites throughout the valleywere also abandoned abruptly during the 4th century AD, in some caseswith EAEs of similar
origin. This suggests the occurrence of a 5.0–6.6 Mw seismic event in the zone, in accordance with the minimum empirical limit of seismically-induced liquefaction and the maximum surface rupture length of the Henares fault.Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, EspañaDepartamento de Geología, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Ávila, Universidad Salamanca, EspañaFacultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, EspañaTrébede, Patrimonio Cultural, S.L., EspañaDepartamento de Ingeniería del Terreno, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Ávila, Universidad Salamanca, EspañaDepartamento de Edafología, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, EspañaFacultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, EspañaDepartamento de Geología, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Españ
