Portal de Murcia
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A team led by Professor Sebastian Ramallo, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Murcia, has located and determined the precise location of a temple in italics plant, built in the late first century BC, at the site of Cerro de los Santos (province Albacete), one of the most emblematic of the Iberian culture.
Archaeologists have specified the size of the building, in addition to the orientation, structural characteristics and conservation status of a temple known only by drawing an excavation in the nineteenth century, and which was supposed to have been destroyed shortly after exhumation.
Next to the direct action on the Hill itself, which have also been made to analyze archaeological tasting the different layers of the earth and the evolution process of the site, has conducted systematic exploration of the entire territory to establish the degree of relationship between the sanctuary and the Iberian and Roman settlements with their environment.
The team from the University of Murcia, which includes also the director of the Archaeological Museum of Caravaca, Brotóns Francisco, and director of the Museum of Albacete, Ruby Sanz, resumed research in this important location at the end of 2013, following several decades of archaeological inactivity.
"At this early stage, said Professor Ramallo, systematic and comprehensive survey of the site was conducted, spatially referencing all material findings and visible traces of activity on the surface of the Hill".
We also conducted two surveys, one of which cuts were identified in the bedrock of a cult building of monumental character, which has been defined throughout the campaign width during September this year, "verifying information published in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, "the researcher adds.
The Cerro de los Santos is a paradigm for the integration of the Iberian sanctuaries in the Roman state and the changes that occur in the Iberian religion between the second and first centuries BC example.
A peculiarity of this sanctuary is that it is isolated and far from a big town, unlike what is usual in the Iberian area.
The most representative of Cerro de los Santos is the Lady Bidder, which was found in 1870 and which, along with the Lady of Elche, is the other Grand Dame of Iberian culture.
Both "underpin the originality and personality of Iberian art," says Ramallo, and are, like other figures of the reservoir, in the National Archaeological Museum.
After the field work, the next step is to inventory, study materials and process all the information obtained during the excavation of September.
In addition, with funding from Red Eléctrica of Spain and the cooperation of the City of Montealegre del Castillo, the Council of Albacete and the Castilla La Mancha, is intended to catalog all material from Cerro de los Santos found to date and deposit it in different collections for agile working tool for researchers on religion in particular and Iberian culture in general.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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