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ARCHIVED - Remains of 10-metre-high tower built by Iberian tribes found in Santomera
The tower was built at least 2300 years ago by tribes inhabiting pre-Roman Murcia
A team of archaeologists investigating the mountains of the Sierra del Balumba in the municipality of Santomera have identified the remains of one of the largest known defensive tower structures created during the era when most of Spain was inhabited by the Iberian tribes, between the 7th and 1st centuries BC.
The tower at the top of the Sierra del Balumba (also known as Monte de las Brujas) could have reached a height of up to 10 metres, according to the team led by José Ángel Ocharán, and would have enabled local inhabitants to monitor movements along the natural communications routes of the Rambla Salada and the Segura valley.
The structure found is the 8-metre square base, but it is difficult to calculate the exact height of the building it supported as the Iberians often placed adobe walls on such a stone base. It has been established, though, that a wooden platform was constructed at the top, and that this would originally have been between 6 and 10 metres off the ground. Inside the tower were a series of support buttresses, and traces of the original adobe have also been discovered.
As for the exact function of such a tower well over 2,200 years ago, speculation is based on the location of Santomera on communications routes which lead not only to the coast (along the Segura valley) but also inland, with connections to the Guadalentín valley (heading for Lorca and Andalucía), Fortuna and the Altiplano area in the north of Murcia. No surrounding wall has been found, but it seems likely that it was a defensive structure as well as providing an advantageous vantage point over the routes leading to other pre-Roman settlements such as those at Lorca and Coimbra del Barranco Ancho, not far from Jumilla.
At this point in history the mouth of the River Segura was a very important strategic and trading location, and the remains of significant settlements have been found in many locations in the Segura valley and flood plain, including Los Saladares and Las Laderas de San Antón in Orihuela, Cabecico del Tesoro and Monteagudo close to what is now the city of Murcia, and in Santomera.
At the same time, the location of the Sierra del Balumba is on the boundary between the lands occupied by the rival Contestani and Bastetani tribes, who permanently vied for the control of more territory.
Although it is not among the best-known areas of archaeological interest in the Region of Murcia, Santomera boasts a wide range of important sites and in the last two years alone research has begun at 25 of them. The first dig in the Sierra del Balumba took place in the 1970s, when remains from the Bronze Age and the Iberians were found, and in 2009 the site was declared an Item of Cultural Interest, but it is only now that further excavation has been undertaken.
There are known to have been three periods of human occupation at the Balumba site, in the Bronze Age (1800-1500 BC), the Late Bronze Age (around 1000 BC) and the Iberians (approximately the 4th and 3rd centuries BC), with most of the archaeological findings belonging to the latter. José Ángel Ocharán expected to find the remnants of dwellings which had been home to those members of the settlement who enjoyed the highest status, due to the location at the top of the hill, and was surprised to find the tower instead, he reports, although homes have been found further down the slopes.
The intention of the Asociación Patrimonio Santomera local heritage group is now to carry out a more detailed investigation of the Iberian settlement and, in the immediate future, to make the archaeological wealth of the area better known by organizing guided visits. Looking further ahead, they aim to put the town on the map by spreading the word not only about this site but also others in the municipality which date from the Copper Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
Images: Asociación Patrimonio Santomera