Portal de Caravaca de la Cruz
www.portaldecaravaca.com
The University of Oxford, through its Radiocarbon Laboratory is analyzing the remains to date the precise age of the burial
Discovery
The site was located during the construction of a residential development, when an excavator shovel, doing some staves, burial and side sections inadvertently unearthed human bones, at which time the work was halted and reported to the competent authorities according to what the law requires in relation to the findings of archaeological value.
Thus began the archaeological work is ongoing.
Reservoir description
It is a fossil cavity originated around an upwelling of water, once dried reused as a burial site, probably because the inhabitants of the nearby village Chalcolithic Paper Mills, made between 5,000 and 4,000 years.
The cavity, about 7-8 m in diameter and a depth of nearly 2, housed inside a burial continued Chalcolithic period, accumulating a large number of human skeletons, which are likely to reach the figure of 250-300 individuals and possibly have been deposited there for hundreds of years.
Human remains, among which appear both men and women and children, appear to have been placed at first in a fetal position as misplaced after more bodies were still being deposited.
The result of this relocation has been both anarchic dispersal of much of the bones and skulls buildup along the walls of the cavity.
Alongside the human remains are emerging, for now at senior levels, carcasses of dogs that should accompany the deceased on his last trip.
In addition, recovering some fragments of pottery in poor condition and very few remains very fragmented, sharp stone.
So, for now, the objects accompanying the dead speak of a community dedicated primarily to agricultural and livestock, as many also point to data from the paper mill town.
Description of work
The large number of individuals makes the Mill Road site in prehistoric burial more human remains of any prehistoric mainland and can provide invaluable information about the first settlers, those who first inhabited what is now known as the city of Caravaca.
It has therefore been necessary to combine efforts from different institutions to ensure proper site survey, and the preservation of all possible information for further research.
In this sense, work is conducted by a collegial leadership as part D.
Brotons Francisco Yagüe, as director of the Museo de la Soledad de Caravaca, D.
Mariano López Martínez and D.
Francisco Ramos Martínez by the company undertaking the fieldwork, ArqueoWeb, and D.
Joaquín Lomba Maurandi, professor of prehistory at the University of Murcia and specialist in the period to which the deposit.
Given the complexity of the work has been necessary to design a new system of recording information that can have a photo of the entire plant site is constantly updated, from which are carried out excavations and take all field data .
In addition to the archaeologists and many workers are involved in the excavation several trainees from the University of Murcia, in an agreement between it and the city of Caravaca, and everything is under the constant supervision of an anthropologist in charge of identifying and registering each one of the thousands of bones that come to the surface.
A number of researchers collaborate in the work from their respective specialties.
Thus, by the University of Murcia, several scholars have taken charge of specific studies:
Dr. Carrión García (Faculty of Biology): a study of prehistoric pollen site in order to reconstruct the landscape of the area (palynology)
Drs Auton and Gil Vázquez Cano (Faculty of Veterinary Science): study of the remains of dogs and wildlife in general (Zooarchaeology)
Dr. Osuna Carrillo-Albornoz (Medical School): a study of injury to human remains from a forensic perspective (paleopathology)
Dr. Delgado Iniesta (Faculty of Chemistry): identification of materials through X-ray diffraction
Dr. Belmonte Serrato (Faculty of Arts): geomorphological study of the cavity and the environment
Ms. Azucena Avilés, anthropologist: a study of all aspects of human remains morphometric (age and sex identification, control of debris during excavation)
Ms. Soledad García (Faculty of Biology): a study of prehistoric charcoal (Anthracology)
It also involves researchers from other universities.
The case studies of parasites from the reclaimed land in the lower abdomen of some skeletons, which will be discussed at the University of Granada, or signs of wear on the objects of stone, to be submitted for study by staff of the University and the UNED in Madrid.
During the field work samples are being collected subsequently be made palaeodiet studies and DNA.
Finally it should be noted that, through Dr. Michael Walker (University of Murcia), and given the interest of the site, the Radiocarbon Laboratory of the University of Oxford has taken on a first shipment of 8 samples of coal and bone to be accurately dated by the C14 method, the age of the burial, which at first believe that is in the third millennium, that is, between 3,000 and 2,000 BC, 5000-4000 years ago.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Caravaca de la Cruz
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