Los Millares –  5,000-Year-Old Advanced Copper City In Europe

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - About 5,000 years ago, Los Millares was Europe's biggest and most important town. The ruins of the city of Los Millares are situated on a plateau at an altitude of 270 meters - a perfectly chosen strategic location near Almeria, on the southern coast of Spain.

Credit: Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España

Los Millares' people possessed highly developed technical knowledge and introduced copper metallurgy in the Western Mediterranean Sea. They also grew farming and built a vast cemetery for collective burials.

Inhabited by approximately 1,000 people at the time of maximum splendor, the city had an extensive and complex defensive system of defensive solid walls and forts with several outposts for protection.
The site's history is not yet precisely known, but historians are sure it was abandoned about 250 years after the pyramids were built in ancient Egypt.

After many years of plunder and neglect, the city's historical importance was finally recognized thanks to the first excavation made in 1891 by two Belgian mining engineers, Luis Siret, and his brother. They became intrigued by the city's archaeological remains.

Remains of tomb. Credits: Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España

The sparsely excavated archaeological site revealed many circular huts with a diameter of 4 to 7 meters, stone plinths, earthen floors made of rammed earth, and stone mills.

Finally, the city looked like a fortified fortress with four lines of thick walls of six-meter (20 ft). The last one was 310 meters long and 4 meters high and punctuated at intervals of twelve to fifteen meters, with a sophisticated gateway, a series of towers and 15 bunkers for outer defense, and a water cistern.

Several simple dwellings lay inside the citadel, as well as a complex structure with traces of smelting and a hall-like rectangular stone building that was probably used for inhabitants' meetings, ceremonies, and other entertainment.

The history of the site is not yet exactly known but is known that it was abandoned about 250 years after the pyramids were built in ancient Egypt. Illustration of the village of Los Millares, the first city on the Iberian Peninsula. / IÑAKI DIEGUEZ URIBE.

The discovered necropolis ('city of the dead') consists of a collective burial mound and about 100 'tholos tombs' - beehive tombs.

Similar structures have been discovered in Turkey and Greece and built with stone roofs forming a dome. An interior system comprises an atrium or hall, a corridor separated by slabs, and a circular perforated chamber about four meters in diameter lined with a slate plinth.

5,000 year old pottery shards have been found scattered across the site.Credits: Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España

The graves were decorated with symbolic ceramic objects, metal weapons, richly decorated ivory items, and many idols.

In excavations of some circular cabins close to the town's defensive walls, archaeologists unearthed numerous household objects such as plates, dishes, pots, traces of cheese making, arrows, and handmade clay objects.

During excavations of some circular cabins located close to the defensive walls of the town, archaeologists unearthed numerous household objects such as plates, dishes, pots, traces of cheese making, arrows, and handmade clay objects. Credits: Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España; Arte Historia

Many unanswered questions remain regarding this most unique and mysterious city of Neolithic Europe.

Prehistoric Spain

How did they obtain advanced metal smelting techniques? How did the metal culture of Los Milllares evolve? What kind of danger did the inhabitants face? Was the harassment of the city's population related to the possession of copper mines and the existence of metallurgy highly developed copper?

Recent carbon testing showed that the Los Millares existed much earlier than previously thought, so the appearance of metallurgy in this area would have a local explanation by the existence and development of a previous culture (Culture of Almería), 3,000 years BC.

Article in Spanish - here

Article in Portuguese - here

Written by A. Sutherland – AncientPages.com Staff  Writer

Updated on September 19, 2022

Copyright © AncientPages.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of AncientPages.com

Expand for references