Abstract:

The progress of excavations at València la Vella enables an increasingly precise characterization of the site’s urban morphology and architectural aspects, while expanding the debate on its identification, historical context, and the objectives of its founding. The results document several construction phases and underscore the geostrategic value of its location within a frontier setting, both in relation to nearby urban centers and to the principal routes of communication. This study reflects on these issues and describes in detail the architectural characteristics of the areas excavated to date. In particular, the architectural sequence shows an evolution that suggests a transition from an initially predominantly defensive functionality toward everyday urban dynamics in a subsequent phase. As a new contribution, recent data point to the settlement’s persistence beyond the geopolitical transformations that occurred in the early eighth century.