The oldest city in Spain is confirmed to have been in Andalucia

The oldest city in Spain is confirmed to have been in Andalucia

Image of Los Millares. Credit: Google maps - Fran García Castillo

Los Millares, located in Santa Fe de Mondujar, around 22km from Almeria in Andalucia has been confirmed as the oldest city in Spain.

According to archaeologists from the University of Granada (UGR), the oldest city in Spain is in Andalucia. It is the town of Los Millares, located in Santa Fe de Mondujar, around 22km from Almeria.  This was confirmed by a study published in the journal “Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences”, as reported today, Thursday, March 2, by laopiniondemalaga.es.

The town of Los Millares was settled about 5,200 years BC. It is a reference archaeological site of the Chalcolithic age at a European level. This is because its spatial organisation shows an extraordinary functional complexity for its time of occupation, which is believed to have been from 3200 to 2200 BC.

Los Millares’ archaeological site dating back to the Copper Age is located on a spur-shaped plateau between the municipality of La Rambla de Huechar and the Andarax river, some 20km from its mouth. According to the findings of UGR researchers, the town was inhabited by up to 1,500 people in the year 5,200 BC.

This oldest city in Spain occupied an area of approximately ​​six hectares. Its remains show that the city was divided into four enclosures surrounded by walls. It was a necropolis with collective graves and a group of 13 forts; located on both sides of the Huechar boulevard. These completed the powerful defensive system that controlled the settlement and its immediate territory.

A megalithic necropolis existed in Los Millares 200 years before the settlement. At least 80 collective graves have been located with about a hundred people buried in each of them. This necropolis occupied an area of ​​about 13 hectares. The tombs are distributed forming small groups, which reflected the existing family, social, and symbolic relationships in Los Millares.

According to the researchers, it is thought that this city had great social dynamism as a result of its location on the road to Africa. This conclusion has been reached because exotic objects such as ostrich egg shells, ivory, and amber have been found at the site.

Seven millennia ago, the nearly two thousand inhabitants lived in circular, one-room huts made of masonry and organic materials revealed the researchers. They pointed out that the site presented an organised urbanism with houses laid out in a circular plan. Some of these buildings were for public use and constructions related to the distribution and storage of water.

The greater part of these inhabitants is believed to have worked and lived off agriculture, livestock and hunting, along with other crafts such as metallurgical or the production of arrowheads. Los Millares decreased in population until it became extinct in 2,200 BC added the researchers.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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