The latest campaign at Callosa de Segura’s Laderas del Castillo archaeological site is nearing its end, having started in March.
These remains of a settlement from the Argaric culture were described as ‘one of the most exceptional sites in the Vega Baja’ by provincial deputy for architecture Carmen Selles.
The provincial government has subsidised 90% of the cost of the dig with €450,000.
Its objective is to conserve the site in order to establish how it can be opened to the public.
This includes remodelling the access area, controlling water run-off on the mountainside for protection, preparing the itineraries, excavations, consolidation and restoration of structures revealed by previous digs, and creating elements for the future museum.
The Argar principally occupied south-eastern Spain over 4,000 years ago.
The first excavations on the western slope of Callosa de Segura were carried out in 1907-1908 by the Jesuit Julio Fergus, and on the Eastern slope in 1924-1925 by Catalan archaeologist Josep Colominas.
The discoveries made by these and other researchers connected the site with others in the region.
In 2012 an extensive survey was carried out to divide it into sectors and plan a full excavation as part of a project, instigated by the provincial government through the Alicante museum of archaeology (MARQ), to examine the historical process of the Vega Baja and Bajo Vinalopó areas in the third and second millennia BC.
The campaigns between 2013 and 2021, directed by archaeologists Juan Antonio López Padilla and Francisco Javier Jover Maestre, revealed structures of a site spanning over two hectares.
They revealed it was one of the most significant Argaric settlements, enabled the characterisation of the beginnings of the Bronze Age in Alicante province, and explained how this culture began and developed in its most northerly territory.
