Jesús F. Jordá
I have a degree in Geological Sciences (1982) and a PhD in Geological Sciences (1992) obtained at the University of Salamanca USAL My Doctoral Thesis, "Pliocene and Quaternary at the eastern end of the coast of Malaga", focused on the site of the upper Pleistocene and Holocene of the Cueva de Nerja (Accesit Awards Royal Academy of Doctors 1992). My teaching and research work has been developed in USAL (Honorary Prof., Interim University Prof., Associate Prof.), MNCN-CSIC (PFPI Scholarship), IGME (Temporary Fellow and Temporary Labor Contract), UAM (Prof Associate) and UNED (Ramón y Cajal Contracted Researcher 2004-2008) where since 2008 I have been Lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archeology teaching in the Degree in Geography and History, in the University Master in Advanced Methods and Techniques for Historical, Artistic and Geographical Research and in the University Master of Teacher Training and in the Doctoral Program in History and History of Art and Territory. Since 1982 I have participated in numerous subsidized research projects and archaeological excavations as specialist in Geoarchaeology and Archeomalacology. I have co-directed systematic archaeological excavations in Jarama II cave and Jarama VI rockshelter (Guadalajara) and in San Chuis hillfort, Cova Rosa and El Cierro cave (Asturias). I have conducted geoarchaeological studies in about thirty archaeological sites since the Lower Paleolithic to the Middle Ages, in Spain, France and Portugal. Among my research with the greatest impact are the discovery of a remainder of H. neanderthalensis in Jarama VI (Guadalajara), the discovery in the Magdalenian de Nerja of the oldest evidence of whale consumption in European Prehistory and the detection of evidence of the Younger Dryas cosmic impact in Les Coves de Santa Maira (Alicante). I am the author of more than three hundred publications on Geoarchaeology, Archeomalacology, Prehistory and Quaternary Geology. Among the books published are Plaque Tectonics (Ed. Santillana 1998) and Rocks, Forms and Fossils (Instituto de Estudios Zamoranos 2006) and several chapters in university manuals. I am collaborator of the unit of scientific culture of UNED. I have been the organizer of the 2nd National Meeting of Geoarchaeology (1992) and member of the scientific committees of the 3rd and 4th meetings, member of the Scientific and Honor Committees of the XI National Quaternary Meeting (2003), co-organizer of the International Congress Solutrense (2012), member of the Scientific and Executive Committees of the XVII World Congress of UISPP (2014) and member of the scientific committee of the International Conference The Solutrean (2017). I have participated as a speaker in one hundred and fifty of national and international conferences. From 2003 to 2019, Scientific Director and Secretary of the Jury of the Spanish Contest for Youn Scientists organized by INJUVE and Secretaría General de Universidades. Since 2019, Deputy Editor of the scientic journal Cuaternario y Geomorfología of AEQUA and SEG. Awards and honours: Gold badge of the Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria Rosalia de Castro of Santiago de Compostela 2017
Phone: Telephone: 91 398 8950
Address: Dr. Jesús F. Jordá Pardo
Laboratorio de Estudios Paleolíticos (L.E.P.)
Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología
Facultad de Geografía e Historia
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Ciudad Universitaria
Paseo de la Senda del Rey, 7, planta 5ª, despacho 5.32
E - 28040 Madrid
Phone: Telephone: 91 398 8950
Address: Dr. Jesús F. Jordá Pardo
Laboratorio de Estudios Paleolíticos (L.E.P.)
Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología
Facultad de Geografía e Historia
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
Ciudad Universitaria
Paseo de la Senda del Rey, 7, planta 5ª, despacho 5.32
E - 28040 Madrid
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Papers by Jesús F. Jordá
Spain). The remains were found in Layer B5, which was excavated by F. Jordá Cerdá and A. Gómez Fuentes in 1978 and
are associated with an osseous assemblage and archaeozoological remains. This occupation has been dated by radiocarbon
to about 16,400 BP (ca. 19.8–19.6 ka cal BP), corresponding to Archaic/Lower Magdalenian. The present study combines
the determination of the raw materials and the identification of the production systems to achieve an understanding of the
management of lithic resources by hunter-gatherer groups in the Late Pleistocene. The sourcing of mostly local materials
(mainly Piloña flint), the wide variety of rock types of diverse provenances (up to 10 types), and the presence of wellrepresented
lithological tracers (Flysch, Chalosse) turn Cova Rosa into an important case for studying different lithic raw
material procurement models. The predominance of microlaminar production and the variability in the exploitation strategies
used to obtain backed tools, as well as the poor standardisation of flake production, follow the dynamics observed in
other occupations of similar chronology in a wide geographical area that includes Cantabrian Spain and south-west France.
Spain). The remains were found in Layer B5, which was excavated by F. Jordá Cerdá and A. Gómez Fuentes in 1978 and
are associated with an osseous assemblage and archaeozoological remains. This occupation has been dated by radiocarbon
to about 16,400 BP (ca. 19.8–19.6 ka cal BP), corresponding to Archaic/Lower Magdalenian. The present study combines
the determination of the raw materials and the identification of the production systems to achieve an understanding of the
management of lithic resources by hunter-gatherer groups in the Late Pleistocene. The sourcing of mostly local materials
(mainly Piloña flint), the wide variety of rock types of diverse provenances (up to 10 types), and the presence of wellrepresented
lithological tracers (Flysch, Chalosse) turn Cova Rosa into an important case for studying different lithic raw
material procurement models. The predominance of microlaminar production and the variability in the exploitation strategies
used to obtain backed tools, as well as the poor standardisation of flake production, follow the dynamics observed in
other occupations of similar chronology in a wide geographical area that includes Cantabrian Spain and south-west France.
Autores de los capítulos:
Esteban Álvarez-Fernández
Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad de Salamanca. Salamanca.
Jesús F. Jordá Pardo
Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia - UNED. Madrid.
David Álvarez-Alonso
Departamento Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid – UCM. Madrid.
Pablo Arias Cabal
Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria. Santander.
Julián Bécares Pérez
Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad de Salamanca. Salamanca.
Rafael Bolado del Castillo
Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria. Santander.
Miriam Cubas Morera
Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi. Donostia-San Sebastián.
Fructuoso Díaz
Fundación Municipal de Cultura, Ayuntamiento de Siero, Siero (Asturias).
Mikel A. Fano
Departamento de Ciencias Humanas, Universidad de La Rioja. Logroño.
José Antonio López Saez
CSIC, Madrid
Manuel Mallo Viesca
Sergio Martín-Jarque
Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad de Salamanca. Salamanca.
Alberto Martínez Villa
Centro Ecomuseo de la Fauna Glacial de Onís, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Arqueológicos, Prehistóricos y Paleontológicos del Cuaternario Cantábrico. Avín (Onís).
Mario Menéndez Fernández
Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia - UNED. Madrid.
Sara Nuñez de la Fuente
Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria, Universidad de Cantabria. Santander.
Rodrigo Portero
Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad de Salamanca. Salamanca.
This paper offers an overview for the Early Neolithic of the southern coast of Andalusia (Spain). Analyses of materials recovered during the 1979-87 excavations in Nerja cave by professor Francisco Jordá Cerdá, including new radiocarbon dates on domestic taxa, allow us to examine the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Paleoenvironmental and paleoeconomic data (stratigraphy and bioarcheological data) combined with archaeological data (ornaments, bone tools, lithics, and ceramics were analysed) to provide a regional perspective on the neolithisation of the western Mediterranean. There is an apparent 500-year gap between occupations by the last coastal foragers and the earliest Neolithic farmers, and no evidence is found to suggest a local Neolithization. Our approach assumes a diffusion process of the Neolithic.
who lived in Coímbre in the Upper Palaeolithic made use of several adaptation strategies allowing them to exploit all the abiotic and animal resources the environment afforded them. In this way, the faunal assemblage includes remains of ibex and chamois, associated with the mountains and crags in the immediate surroundings of the site, and also red deer, roe deer, aurochs and horses, indicating the exploitation of the animal resources living in the Besnes valley, at the foot of Sierra del Cuera. When the faunal remains in the Magdalenian levels, and those in the Gravettian layer, are analysed in greater detail, significant differences indicate a differential use of the terrain. Thus, in the Gravettian, the
preferential hunting of aurochs and red deer suggests the valleys in the vicinity were exploited while steeper and more mountainous areas were visited less. In contrast, in the Magdalenian, the most common faunal remains belong to ibex, which was the most hunted species. Together with ibex, chamois is also very common, whereas bovids are found in very small numbers in the Magdalenian levels. These
patterns reflect a change in the hunting behaviour of the occupants of the cave, in which the hunting of valley resources was transformed into a more intensive use of animals in more rugged areas, such as ibex and chamois. This paper presents the preliminary results of the study of Magdalenian occupations in Coímbre, following the excavations in Zone B, one of the most important places of Magdalenian human activities in Western Cantabria (northern Iberia).
have changed our point of view regarding our interpretation on artistic expressions. The greatest rock art complex dated accurately by the overlying archaeological levels was discovered
here in 1992. A new amazing discovery was made in 2008: we found within that complex the first portrait in mankind history. This can be dated between 26270 -25230 cal BP (Gif-9884). In order to consider a portrait as such, individual features must be reflected in the picture. Aportrait is made of two linked strata: both physical and psychological features of the individual must be depicted. So far those conditions were only found on the decorated pebbles at the French site of La Marche (15500-14700 cal BP; Ly-2100), this is to say Middle Magdalenian period. However the new find of Cueva de Ambrosio brings this chronology back 10,000 years, to the Middle Solutrean period. Detailed explanations regarding the circumstances of the discovery are provided in the following
text, as well as a meticulous description of the find and its archaeological and chronological frame, which is set within the European Upper Palaeolithic period.
cultural sequence, and in this study, the levels of this secuence corresponding to the Late Madgalenian,
the Epipaleolithic, and the beginning of Neolithic periods are studied.
Correlative to the cultural changes observed in this sequence, the analysis of the malacofaune provides a
series of data which allows the environmental evolution to be established. From these environmental
changes, we endeavour to explain the cultural evolution as well as to determine a basic feature in the
dietary habits of the Cave’s inhabitants. In the same way, through the malacofaune we have been able to
reconstruct the coastal landscape in the successive cultural stages.
Coímbre cave (142 meters asl) is located on the southwestern slope of Mount Pendendo (529 m), in the small valley of Besnes river, tributary of Cares river, in a medium-higher mountain are in the central-western Cantabria –northern Iberian Peninsula- (Álvarez-Alonso et al., 2009; 2013b). The landscape in the surroundings of the cave –situated in an interior valley but near to the current coast in a low altitude- can be described as a mountainous environment where valleys, small hills and steep mountains with high slopes are integrated, which confer a relative variety of ecosystems to this area. Coímbre contains an important archaeological site divided in two different areas. B Area, is the farthest from the entrance, and is the place where took place the excavations carried out to date, between 2008 and 2012 (Álvarez-Alonso et al., 2009, 2011, 2013a, 2013b).
Coímbre B shows a complete and very interesting Magdalenian sequence (with Lower, Middle and Upper Magdalenian levels), and a gravettian level, that converts this cave in one of the biggest habitat areas in western Cantabria. Its rich set of bone industries, mobiliar art and ornaments, provide key information that shows the connections between this area, the Pyrenees and the south-west of Aquitaine.
Moreover, Coímbre cave presents an interesting set of Magdalenian engravings, locatedin different places of the cavity, both in open and accessible areas, and in narrower and inaccessible places, which clearly define two different symbolic spaces. All this artistic expressions belong to the Magdalenian, and it is possible to establish a division between a set of engravings framed in the first stages of this period (the most abundant and remote); and a more limited set of engravings, in which stand out a block with a engraving of a bison with a deep trace of more than one meter long, that belongs to the recent Magdalenian.
This work presents the preliminary results of the analysis of Magdalenian occupations in Coímbre, after the end of the excavations in B Area, and the study of its rock art, shaping this site as one of the most important places of Magdalenian human activities in western Cantabria.
España). Es una pequeña cueva desarrollada en las calizas y margas del Cretácico superior rellena por
sedimentos cuyo techo presenta una abertura tipo torca. El depósito tiene forma de cono cuyo vértice se
encuentra bajo la torca y está formado por capas inclinadas depositadas a partir de los arrastres producidos
en la ladera exterior. En estos niveles se recogieron materiales arqueológicos, restos óseos y fragmentos
carbonosos. Para situar los depósitos en el tiempo se dataron mediante 14C dos muestras óseas y varios
carbones. Las fechas ofrecidas por las muestras óseas del nivel inferior son: UBAR-803 4.930±70 BP y
UBAR-804 4.240±60 BP; las obtenidas de los carbones son: nivel inferior, UBAR-745 3.190±150 BP, y
nivel superior UBAR-746 2.050±120 BP. Las dataciones de los huesos asociados a materiales arqueológicos
nos indican la existencia en la ladera exterior de un asentamiento humano holoceno, cuyos materiales
fueron arrastrados por la ladera y depositados en la cueva en una fecha posterior, como consecuencia del
desarrollo de un incendio, proceso este que se repitió años después como atestigua la fecha más reciente.
Las fechas 14C fueron sometidas a calibración dendrocronológica y comparadas con las de otros yacimientos
cantábricos de similar cronología.
of Llanera’s municipality (province of Asturias, N of Spain). The archaeological deposit is placed inside a small cave and it has
provided some ceramic fragments very rolled, two polished lithic pieces, abundant bones of animals consumed by man and
charcoals. The archaeological materials and the 14C dates of the bones associated with the ceramics (UBAR-803 4930 ± 70 BP y
UBAR-804 4240 ± 60 BP) indicate the existence of an settlement of certain duration that would correspond to the chronological
frame of the regional Neolithic. Sites of this chronology are very scanty in the Cantabrian area, therefore, this new deposit will
contribute to a better knowledge of the Neolithic in this zone of the Iberian Peninsula.
Key words: geoarchaelogy, radiocarbon, taphonomy, pottery, polish stone, Neolithic, Holocene,
has been substantially changed through the latest research. This communication presents the cronoestratigrafía
magdaleniense This deposit, registration archaeological and paleoenvironmental implications.
(Cueva de Ambrosio) (Альмерия, Испания) дало в руки ученых много новой информации, позволяющей существенно дополнить наши знания о древнем человеке эпохи солютре. В результате раско-пок получены новые данные о кремневой индустрии, организации жилых площадок. В 1992 г. здесь были обнаружены произведения древнего искусства, которые удалось точно датировать на ос-новании стратиграфии. В 2008 г. было сделано новое открытие: в пределах этого комплекса найден самый древний портрет в истории человечества, датируемый 25–26 тыс. л. до н. э.
which most of the excavations carried out to date have taken place in Zone B. Coímbre B displays a full
and very interesting Magdalenian sequence (with Lower, Middle and Upper Magdalenian levels), in
addition to a Gravettian layer. The excavations were performed from 2008 to 2012. The hunteregatherers
who lived in Coímbre in the Upper Palaeolithic made use of several adaptation strategies allowing them
to exploit all the abiotic and animal resources the environment afforded them. In this way, the faunal
assemblage includes remains of ibex and chamois, associated with the mountains and crags in the immediate
surroundings of the site, and also red deer, roe deer, aurochs and horses, indicating the
exploitation of the animal resources living in the Besnes valley, at the foot of Sierra del Cuera.
When the faunal remains in the Magdalenian levels, and those in the Gravettian layer, are analysed in
greater detail, significant differences indicate a differential use of the terrain. Thus, in the Gravettian, the
preferential hunting of aurochs and red deer suggests the valleys in the vicinity were exploited while
steeper and more mountainous areas were visited less. In contrast, in the Magdalenian, the most
common faunal remains belong to ibex, which was the most hunted species. Together with ibex, chamois
is also very common, whereas bovids are found in very small numbers in the Magdalenian levels. These
patterns reflect a change in the hunting behaviour of the occupants of the cave, in which the hunting of
valley resources was transformed into a more intensive use of animals in more rugged areas, such as ibex
and chamois. This paper presents the preliminary results of the study of Magdalenian occupations in
Coímbre, following the excavations in Zone B, one of the most important places of Magdalenian human
activities in Western Cantabria (northern Iberia).
This site has been known since 1971, when a series of parietal engravings attributed to the initial and recent Magdalenian were discovered, as well as a large archaeological deposit, although this was not excavated (Moure and Gil, 1974; Álvarez-Alonso et al., 2014). However, from 2008 to 2012 the present team has excavated a total surface area of 4m2 in the innermost part of the main chamber -called Zone B-, which has yielded an interesting full Magdalenian sequence in addition to a Gravettian level, which is presented here (Álvarez Alonso et al., 2009, 2013, 2015; Yravedra et al., 2016). The Co.B.6 level of Coímbre has been dated between 29.660 and 28.560 Cal BP, coinciding with the warm event of the Greenland Interstadial 4, in one of the warm phases of the MIS3a.
Coímbre’s Gravettian and Magdalenian occupations differ widely, mainly concerning the space occupation and management and the resources catchment patterns. Thus, during the Gravettian can be appreciated a dominant local procurement with an important dependence on the closest lithic raw materials -mainly quartzites-, as well as a low technical requirements and a great immediacy in the management of the different chaînes opératoires. In contrast, related to the hunted faunas the Gravettian groups were not limited to the most abundant species in the immediate environment -considering the mountainous area- as happened during the Magdalenian, where Coímbre highlighted as an ibex’s kill-site. In this way, in the Co.B.6 level, the identified fauna includes large species like Bos/Bison, Equus ferus and Cervus elaphus, but also Capra pyrenaica.
Considering these features and the results of the spatial analysis (GIS) of the economic territory and the subsistential mobility, we can interpret this such as a sporadic occupation, which responds to a high degree of immediacy, probably within an east-west high mobility context. The palaeobotanical data and the use of bone as fuel (Yravedra et al., 2016), underpin this hypothesis.
Due to its large and varied archaeological record, Coímbre is one of the most outstanding sites to study the characteristics of Gravettian human occupations in one of the most western ends of the expansion of this technocomplex on the European continent.
References
Álvarez Alonso, D., Yravedra, J., Arrizabalaga, A., Jordá Pardo, J., Heredia, N., 2009. La cueva de Coímbre (Peñamellera Alta, Asturias, España): su yacimiento arqueológico y su santuario rupestre. Un estado de la cuestión en 2008. Munibe 60, 139-155
Álvarez Alonso, D., Yravedra, J., Arrizabalaga, A., Jordá, J. F., 2013. Excavaciones arqueológicas en la cueva de Coímbre (Besnes, Peñamellera Alta). Cam¬pañas 2008-2012, In: Excavaciones Arqueológicas en Asturias 2007-2012, Asturias, pp. 109-120.
Álvarez Alonso, D., Yravedra, J., Andrés Herrero, M. de., Arrizabalaga, A., García Díez, M., Garrido, D., Jordá Pardo, J. F., 2014. La cueva de Coímbre (Asturias, España): artistas y cazadores durante el Magdaleniense en la región cantábrica. In: Corchón, Mª S. and Menéndez Fernández, M. (Eds.), Cien Años de arte rupestre paleolítico. Centenario del descubrimiento de la cueva de la Peña de Candamo (1914-2014). Acta salmanticensia. Estudios históricos y geográficos 106, pp. 101-108.
investigación que ha tenido la arqueología castreña en Asturias, especialmente en los últimos tiempos. Cuando en la década de los años 80 y comienzos de los 90 ya estaban asentadas más o menos correctas secuencias culturales para la Edad del Hierro en las regiones limítrofes con Asturias, a excepción de Cantabria, en Asturias se instauró un
paradigma romanista para explicar el origen del mundo castreño, cuya principal consecuencia fue vaciar de contenido al primer milenio a.C., instaurándose así unos “siglos oscuros” de difícil explicación. Paradójicamente, pese a que el mundo romano era el marco de referencia para los “castros asturianos”, los discursos que se generaron seguían determinados por las fuentes clásicas, manteniéndose la Arqueología protohistórica de nuevo como subsidiaria de la Historia Antigua. Esta situación comenzó a revertirse ya en parte en los años 80, pero sobre todo en la década de los 90 y en las excavaciones que hasta
día de hoy se llevan a cabo. Como hitos principales de estos nuevos tiempos podríamos marcar las excavaciones del castro gijonés de la Campa Torres, la segunda tanda de trabajos arqueológicos en el castro de San Chuis (Allande), las intervenciones en diferentes castros de
la ría de Villaviciosa y la revisión de trabajos antiguos así como nuevas excavaciones en área en numerosos castros del occidente asturiano dentro del Parque Histórico del Navia, siendo éstas las únicas que por el momento se mantienen a día de hoy. Gracias a todas ellas, y al
concurso de excavaciones estratigráficas y de métodos de datación como es el C14, se han podido reconocer en Asturias unas claras Primera y Segunda Edad del Hierro, se ha conseguido entroncar a los castros asturianos con las sociedades nómadas de la Edad del
Bronce, se han fijado algunos de los “fósiles guía” de cada fase, y se ha dado a las fases romanas de los castros asturianos el estricto papel que les corresponde.
It was around sixty six years ago when José Lombardía Zardaín (1913-2004) -a carpenter from the Council of Allande (Asturias, Spain)-, who was an archaeology enthusiast, discovered what seemed to be a hillfort in mount San Chuis. Quite wisely, he alerted Alfonso Pérez Garrido (1930-2017) right away. The latter was a merchant from Pola de Allande, the capital of the mentioned council, a man with a strong interest for knowledge and the preservation of the historical remains found in his land. A few years later, in 1955, Alfonso Pérez Garrido notified the then Head of the Archaeological Research Department from the Asturian Provincial Council and Director of the Archaeological Museum of Oviedo, Francisco Jordá Cerdá (1914-2004), the finding of a stone with some carvings during the forestry works that had taken place in the Council of Allande. Francisco Jordá Cerdá went to Pola and payed a visit to the site of the carved stone. After the purpose of the journey had been completed, Alfonso Pérez Garrido disclosed to him the existence of the hillfort found by José Lombardía Zardaín some years earlier. Immediately, they payed the latter a visit to his carpentry workshop in order to climb up to the San Chuis hillfort that very same day and perform the first scientific survey. The archaeological diggings started in Summer of 1962 and continued until the following Summer, under the direction of Francisco Jordá Cerdá. The archaeological works at the hillfort were interrupted for more than fifteen years, until 1979, when the very same director who had started the works resumed them; by then he was a Professor of Archaeology, Epigraphy and Numismatics in the University of Salamanca, and this time the leader of a large team of students, graduates and specialists from several Spanish and Portuguese universities, who Summer after Summer worked in the settlement until 1986.
All these archaeological works brought to light a large part of the hillfort of an aproximate stretch of 2,000 square meters and provided a large quantity of archaeological information, which was carefuly obtained and recorded following a very detailed methodology. During the years that had elapsed since the end of the diggings to the present, researchers who belonged to Francisco Jordá’s team and some new members who were gradually incorporated to the working team of San Chuis worked intensely in the production of a digital cartography of the settlement, a geophysical survey of the unexcavated areas, an stratigraphy of the site and its chronology through a program of radiocarbon dating, an analysis of the urban planning and defenses, an study of ceramic, lithic and metal remains and an analysis of the faunal and anthracologic remains.
Finally, the author of the present book, Juana Molina Salido, had the courage to accept my proposal for doing her doctoral dissertation using all the existing data, documents and knowledge about the hillfort, which we had accumulated along the years. The goal of her work was the integration of all these data, reports and publications in a spatial data infrastructure using the new information and communication technologies for their future adequate preservation, with the aim of making them available to the scientific community and for their outreach and dissemination to society. The result of this effort is the book the reader is now holding, together with the complementary information which can be browsed at the Archaeopress website. A book which gathers the history of the hillfort’s research, campaign after campaign, analyzing its archaeological register; but which above all focuses on the spatial data infrastucture and on the analysis of the archaeological remains, both constructive and artifactual, in order to attain an innovative proposal of a virtual 3D reconstruction of the settlement, that will allow its observation from a different perspective. Ultimately, the material contained in this work represents a step forward in the archaeological practice, for it allows to reconstruct the traces of the past in a very attractive manner, and can be used for virtually visiting the settlement through a website specially created for that purpose, and even for a future construction of a center for the interpretation of the hillfort; in essence, it provides a great chance to give back to society the results of a research undertaken with public funding.
Sixty six years have elapsed since the hillfort’s discovery and many have been the people who have worked investigating and defending its archaeological record. For this reason, I want to remember specially here the three persons who intervened in its discovery, José Lombardía Zardaín, Alfonso Pérez Garrido and Francisco Jordá Cerdá, as well as all the neighbors, students and graduates who participated in the diggings and the researchers who have worked with its archaeological record. Finally, I wish to highlight the enormous effort made by the book’s author, Juana Molina Salido, who undertook her doctoral dissertation without any institutional financial support, as well as the wise contributions of Professor Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero, co-director of the dissertation, and of course, the enthusiasm expressed by David Davison, editor of Archaeopress, in fostering the publication of this book, and the great work of Darko Jerko, who was in charge of the complex layout.
I wish to put an end to this prologue with a consideration. Since the first publication by Professor Francisco Jordá Cerdá, the San Chuis hillfort has always been a first line reference in the study of the Asturian Iron Age. More than fifty years have elapsed since it was unearthed for the first time, and now, we have in our hands a beautiful book which gathers, in a quite synthetic way, the different investigations undertaken. It will surely become a new reference in the research of the Spanish Iron Age; however, the book does not represent the end of the archaeological investigations in the San Chuis hillfort, quite the opposite, it opens a pathway for proposing new hypotheses and for the development of new lines of research. The San Chuis hillfort and its discoverers deserve it.
Mestres Torres, and García Martínez 2002; Manzano 1986–7; Marín 2007; Marín and Jordá 2007. In this chapter we re-examine the site and present the results of an interdisciplinary study undertaken by a team of different specialists, including geoarchaeologists, archaeologists, and geologists from three different research institutions in Spain. The aims of this chapter are to present, first, the results of the archaeometrical research undertaken in recent years (including geophysical prospection, radiocarbon analysis and physical-chemical characterization of the
metallic materials); secondly, the analysis of the pottery of San Chuis hillfort using a methodology based on Technological Operative Chains (TOC); thirdly, to present the first typological sequence of pottery for western Asturias (from the early and later Iron Ages and Roman period); and finally, to present our social interpretations of certain handmade technologies.