Re: Archaeologists reconstruct life in the Bronze Age through the site of La Motilla

Jack Linthicum wrote: on, 25/01/2008 16:36:

Motillas, beleived to be burial mounds, are now revealed as a form of
settlement, a stone fortification of central plan with several
concentric walled lines, with surrounding settlement and containing a
necropolis. The fortification at :La Motilla de Azuer in La Mancha
which has been recovered has a diameter of about 50 metres, and is
composed of a tower, two walled enclosures and a large courtyard. The
central core is composed of a tower of masonry of square plan, with 7
metres high east and west fronts and an interior accessible through
ramps inlaid in narrow corridors, which confer a particular nature to
the place.



Archaeologists reconstruct life in the Bronze Age through the site of
La Motilla

La Motilla del Azuer La Mancha (Spain) Credit: University of Granada
<picture, available at the cite>


Researchers of the Group of Recent Prehistory Studies (GEPRAN) of the
University of Granada, from the department of Prehistory and
Archaeology, have taken an important step to determine how life was in
the Iberian Peninsula in the Bronze Age.

Since 1974, archaeologists from Granada, directed by professors
Trinidad Nájera Colino and Fernando Molina González, have been working
on the site of the Motilla del Azuer, in the municipal area of Daimiel
(province of Ciudad Real), in search of the necessary information to
reconstruct the day by day in this thrilling and unknown historical
period.

The sites, known as "motillas", represent one of the most peculiar
types of prehistoric settlements in the Iberian Peninsula. They
occupied the region of La Mancha in the Bronze Age between 2200 and
1500 BC, and they are artificial mounds, 4 to 10 m high, a result of
the destruction of a stone fortification of central plan with several
concentric walled lines. Its distribution in the plain of La Mancha,
with equidistanes of 4 to 5 kilometres, affects river meadows and low
areas where the existence of pools was quite frequent until recent
dates.

Although they were already known since the end of the 19th century,
the "motillas" were erroneously considered to be burial mounds until
the middle of the seventies, when the start of the research work on
the Motilla del Azuer carried out by the University of Granada and
sponsored by the Department of Culture of Castile La Mancha showed
that it was a fortification, surrounded by a small settlement and a
necropolis. It has been the first site of this kind to be excavated in
a scientific and systematic way.

The mound of the fortification which has been recovered has a diameter
of about 50 metres, and is composed of a tower, two walled enclosures
and a large courtyard. The central core is composed of a tower of
masonry of square plan, with 7 metres high east and west fronts and an
interior accessible through ramps inlaid in narrow corridors, which
confer a particular nature to the place.

The researchers of the UGR explain that settlement of the Azuer
contains the oldest well found in the Iberian Peninsula. The inside of
this type of walled enclosures protected basic resources such as
water, collected from the phreatic stratum through the well, and was
also used to store and process cereals on a large scale, to keep the
livestock occasionally and to product pottery and other home-made
products, whose remains have also been found.

The site of the Motilla del Azuer has been possible thanks to the
close collaboration between the Council of Communities of Castile la
Mancha and the Public Service of Employment of Castile La Mancha
(SEPECAM), who have financed the works, and the University of Granada,
thanks to the archaeologists of the GEPRAN, who have also had the
support of the Town Council of Daimiel (Ciudad Real).

Source: Universidad de Granada
> http://www.physorg.com/news120393952.html


See also
http://antiquity.ac.uk/ProjGall/aranda/



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