Ausgrabungen und Prospektionen im Nordbereich der chalkolithischen Siedlung von Valencina de la Concepción bei Sevilla (Andalusien). Die Kampagnen der Jahre 2017 und 2018

Abstract

The ›mega-site‹ of Valencina de la Concepción extends throughout the northeast limit of the Aljarafe Plateau, 6 km to the West of modern day Seville in the South of Spain. During prehistoric times it was located next to an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, which covered most of the estuary of the Guadalquivir River. After a series of archaeological surveys carried out in 2014, which have already been published, in this paper we present the first results of the excavation campaigns carried out during 2017 and 2018. By means of geomagnetic survey of a surface of over more than 17 ha. we have been able to document a concentric system of at least 5 ditched enclosures and other smaller areas that are also defined by ditches. Geomagnetic survey has also revealed a large amount of pits, semi-circular huts excavated in the ground as well as possible hypogea. Archaeological surveys have been carried out in three different areas having recovered a large amount of materials. For the first time we have also been able to sequence the infill of a chalcolithic ditch by means of manual drillings. During the excavations carried out in the municipal plot of Cerro de la Cabeza (sectors 3 and 4) we have been able to document a dense sequence of chalcolithic pits and at least 4 semi-excavated
huts, located near the edge of one of the ditches. The chrono-typological definition of the ceramics, as well as a series of C14 dates obtained by AMS begin to reveal the sequence of the settlement. Beginning in the late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (end of the 4th millennium
BC) it experiments its peak occupation during the Middle Chalcolithic (mid 3rd millennium BC). During its transition to the Late Chalcolithic (Mid 3rd millennium BC) there seems to be a reduction in the size of the settlement, seeming to become even more reduced, to the central area of modern day Valencina, during the Bell-Baker phase. We also present some evidence that seems to indicate a short and not very intense occupation of the Cerro de la Cabeza area during the Early Bronze Age (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC).