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| Castellón Alto | |
|---|---|
| Name | Castellón Alto |
| Map type | Spain |
| Location | Galera, Province of Granada, Andalusia, Spain |
| Region | Iberian Peninsula |
| Type | Settlement |
| Epochs | Bronze Age |
| Cultures | Argaric culture |
| Excavations | 1970s–1990s |
| Archaeologists | José Antonio Mujal, Paul Reinecke, Gordon Childe |
| Condition | Ruined |
Castellón Alto is an archaeological site in the Province of Granada, Andalusia, Spain, notable for its Late Bronze Age settlement attributed to the Argaric culture. The tell offers insights into social organization, mortuary practice, and metallurgical production in the Iberian Peninsula during the Bronze Age, and it has been the subject of interdisciplinary study by scholars from institutions such as the Spanish National Research Council, the University of Granada, and international researchers connected to the British School at Rome and the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Excavations at the site have contributed to debates involving regional networks including El Argar, Los Millares, and contacts with Mediterranean polities like Phoenicia and Mycenae.
Castellón Alto sits near the town of Galera within the Orce region of the Guadix-Baza Basin in northeastern Granada, located on a natural promontory overlooking the Argos River tributary of the Guadalquivir River system. The site occupies a strategic position between the Sierra Nevada foothills and the Baetic System, enabling control of routes linking the Mediterranean Sea coast with inland plateaus such as the Mesa de Baza and the Altiplano de Granada. The surrounding environment includes terraced fields, karstic formations, and seasonal wetlands similar to those documented at La Bastida and Puntal de los Belos, influencing settlement patterning comparable to sites in Almería and Murcia.
Initial fieldwork at Castellón Alto began in the 1970s under Spanish teams affiliated with the Archaeological Service of Andalusia and later expanded by the University of Granada and collaborations with the Instituto de Estudios Almerienses. Principal investigators who published on the site include José Antonio Mujal and collaborators linked to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and visiting scholars from the University of Cambridge and Universität Tübingen. Survey, stratigraphic excavation, and geophysical prospection were supplemented by specialists in archaeometallurgy from the University of Seville and radiocarbon dating by laboratories at the University of Bradford and Centro Nacional de Aceleradores. Conservation projects involved the Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid) and the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Granada.
The tell at Castellón Alto contains concentric terraces and densely packed stone-built structures with rectilinear rooms and internal hearths, architectural features comparable to contemporaneous plans at El Argar and La Almoloya. Fortification elements, retaining walls, and narrow streets indicate planned urbanization similar to sites like Santa Bárbara (Roda de Berà) and Puntal de los Belos. Domestic suites include storage silos, metalworking areas, and platformed courtyards echoing spatial arrangements seen at Túmulo 1 de Monte Bernorio and houses excavated at Los Millares. Mortuary installations — including intramural burials and cist graves — show parallels to burial practices recorded at La Bastida and Cerro de los Santos.
Excavations recovered large assemblages of pottery, bronze tools, decorated ceramics, and glassy slags, with typologies corresponding to the Late Bronze Age Aegeanizing repertoire and indigenous productions akin to finds from El Argar, Los Millares, and Ses Païsses. Ceramic classes include storage amphorae, campaniform-style wares, and local burnished tablewares similar to those cataloged at Bolores and La Bastida. Metalwork comprises bronze axes, sickles, and pins reminiscent of collections in the British Museum and analytical comparisons with objects from Tartessos contexts. Organic remains preserved in sealed deposits and flotation samples produced charred seeds, textile fragments, and worked bone comparable to assemblages from Cova des Pas de Vallgornera and Cueva de los Murciélagos.
Palaeobotanical and zooarchaeological studies indicate a mixed agrarian economy based on cereal cultivation (emmer, barley) and husbandry of sheep, goats, and cattle, echoing subsistence models proposed for El Argar and Los Millares. Stable isotope analysis performed at facilities such as the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Oxford supports dietary reliance on cereals and animal protein, with supplemental exploitation of Mediterranean resources including olives and marine products traded via networks involving Tartessos, Cartagena, and coastal Phoenician entrepôts. Evidence for specialized craft production — metallurgy, textile manufacture, and pottery — situates Castellón Alto within exchange circuits connecting to Mycenae, Cyprus, and the western Mediterranean.
Radiocarbon dating and ceramic seriation place the main occupational phases of Castellón Alto in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1700–1300 BCE), contemporaneous with cultural phenomena such as El Argar culture, the later phases of Los Millares, and the wider Bronze Age collapse dynamics affecting regions linked to Mycenae and Hittite Empire. The site contributes to discussions about social stratification, craft specialization, and interregional contact during the 2nd millennium BCE in the Iberian Peninsula alongside comparative sites like La Bastida (Totana), El Villar, and Cerro de la Virgen.
Conservation of structural remains and artifact stabilization has been coordinated with the Junta de Andalucía and exhibited at the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Granada and regional museums in Andalusia and Almería, with select objects loaned to national institutions including the Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Madrid). Public outreach and site interpretation involve collaborations with the Consejería de Cultura y Patrimonio Histórico de la Junta de Andalucía and educational programs linked to the University of Granada and the Instituto Andaluz de Patrimonio Histórico.
Category:Bronze Age archaeological sites in Spain Category:Archaeological sites in Andalusia