First surveys in the 90s
The archaeological site is known since the 90s in the twentieth century when the first surveys in the area began but from the year 2004 the Provincial Archaeological and Prehistoric Research Service took charge of its documentation. It started a systematic study program of the territory that allowed identifying and distinguishing three different archaeological areas, according to the material collected.
The first is Morrón Royo, located to the South of the farmhouse above one of the last limestone escarpments that give its name. They belong to the Cenomanian Age (approximately 100 million of years ago). Its large chronology starts with an occupation in the Bronze Age, a tower in the Iron Age and finally, its transformation in an Iberian village. Los Morrones, located to the North of the previous one above a small flat surface, has the best-preserved structures at first sight with ceramics of the Iron Age. Finally, we have the farmhouse of Morrones. Here, archaeologists have found pottery from the Iberian, Roman and Islamic periods in the crop fields that remain now unproductive.
A reference and solid construction
After ten digging campaigns in extension2 in the area of Morrones, the research group could conclude the delimitation of the plant of the settlement. It shows their own construction features adapting the structures to the orography of the land. The tower and the two stretches of wall based on the Eastern and Western flanks of the tower, closing the village to the North, are remarkable. Each stretch of wall has a thickness of about five metres and it’s composed of two structures filled with stones. Its solid construction shows us the image of a stunning construction that should highlight in the territory and locate the village as a central place for reference.
In the Iron Age village it is highlighted the presence of a tower with two stretches of wall with five meters of thickness.
The settlement of the Iron Age is completed with the tower of Morrón Royo. It was also built in the seventh century BCE and it would function as a complement to the South of the one located at the entrance of the village on the North. In the walled enclosure there are, totally, ten structures of some rooms and storage places and some spaces used to move inside the village.
Living spaces
We know that the village was fortified by the presence of two stretches of wall whose walls were used to attach the first structures. One of its peculiarities is the using of cut rocks to adapt the walls. The sedimentary rocks marines that form the support on which the settlement is settled are easy to work with. Thus, the parts that project too much are readjusted to take advantage of the inner space.
The living spaces are organized in three main groups. The first one is located on the Eastern area. There are four areas with different sizes and structures. Two of them are rectangular, one quadrangular and the last one is very damaged by the erosive processes of the hillside. Domestic objects indicating a dwelling use have been found in all them. There is a stone bench, a fireplace and post-holes to the basis of the ceilings as well as for other elements of the daily life or to divide the indoor area. We find, in room 3, a small domestic oven that preserves part of its dome, as well as a troja (a kind of saddlebag or sack) with a lot of carbonized seeds inside.
The finding of tools and materials is large and diverse: pottery, bronze and iron pieces and fauna and vegetal remains.
