Archaeology 2 (Investigation of the Millares society)

Research of Los Millares Society

Luis Siret found the site of Los Millares in Santa Fe de Mondújar in the late nineteenth century, when, along with his foreman Pedro Flores, started an excavation at the necropolis next to the settlement and in one of the forts he had found nearby.

In 1943, Georg and Vera Leisner studied the materials from the necropolis in their monograph on megalíthic graves from the southern Iberian Peninsula. Die Megalithgrâber der iberischen Halbinsel. Der Süden. ( Berlin 1943 )
From 1953 onwards, Martín Almagro and Antonio Arribas directed the excavations in four campaigns, which focused on the outer wall of the settlement and in the re-excavation of 21 burials, which provided documents about building techniques and burial goods.

In 1978, the Department of Prehistory of the Universidad de Granada picks up the investigation, under the direction of professor Antonio Arribas and Fernando Molina, who uncovered a complicated defensive system around the settlement, made up of four lines of walls, a large necropolis with around 80 preserved graves, and an outer line of 13 forts, which controlled visually the access to the settlement.
In the last decades, other contemporary sites such as Ciavieja ( El Ejido ), Barranquete ( Nijar ), Terrera Ventura ( Tabernas ), Zájara ( Cuevas del Almanzora) and Las Pilas ( Mojácar ) have also provided information about the territorial extension, economic organization and life of this society