Abstract:

The Alto de la Cruz archaeological site is a fortified settlement located on the right bank of the Ebro River. Its urban structure makes it stand out as a population center and allows it to control the territorial organization of the region between the Bardenas Reales and Moncayo mountain ranges. Its location, at the confluence of the Ebro and Huecha rivers, gives it a significant position over the population and production structures of the area, a dominance reflected in the stratigraphic sequence, as well as in the furnishings and construction types, especially its mudbrick defensive structure. The chronostratigraphic sequence of the Alto de la Cruz site covers a chronological period between the end of the Bronze Age (around 1100 BC) and the late Iron Age (around 350 BC), and is the key to the study of the transition and continuity of settlement between the indigenous substratum of the Middle-Late Bronze Age in the Ebro Valley and the communities that settled in the territory at the end of the Bronze Age. In this communication we will present the latest results of the research at this site, focusing our intervention on its characteristic mudbrick and earthen architecture and its magnificent defensive constructions, which stand out in their surroundings both for their layout and development and for their uniqueness in the set of archaeological evidence on the Iberian Peninsula.