The Chalcolithic Mega-Site of Valencina de la Concepción near Sevilla, Spain. Settlement History and Economy of the Northern Area in the 3rd Millennium B.C.

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The chalcolithic site of Valencina de la Concepción is located in Andalusia in southern Spain, on the western edge of the Lower Guadalquivir river basin. The settlement area and a contemporaneous necropolis of the first half of the 3rd millennium B.C. extend over more than 460 hectares. Valencina de la Concepción is thus one of a series of chalcolithic mega-sites in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Although megalithic tholos tombs (La Pastora) of the necropolis were discovered since the 19th century, the investigations in the 230 hectares settlement area only began in the 1970s as rescue excavations. The numerous archaeological interventions during construction work in the city of Valencina de la Concepción remained, however, mostly fragmented and scattered. The chalcolithic settlement areas to the north of the modern town are located on agricultural land and thus, in principle, accessible for systematic investigations such as field surveys and excavations. Recent archaeological and geophysical prospection in selected zones has provided evidence of five large earthworks with concentric ditches and a minor ditched enclosure, as well as habitation areas with numerous clusters of pits including also pit-houses. The project focusses on the chalcolithic settlement history of Valencina de la Concepción. The investigations include excavations and field surveys on the agricultural land in the northern area of the archaeological site. Furthermore, the results of selected earlier rescue excavations in the adjacent northern part of the modern town are evaluated. Through field surveying and geomagnetic and geoelectric prospection the expansion and structure of prehistoric settlement areas is explored. Then, excavations are carried out to investigate and date the multiphase chalcolithic earthworks and settlement areas and to reconstruct the settlement history. Initial 14C-data attest to continuous habitation from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC and occasional subsequent settlement activity in the early first millennium BC. By intensive scientific analysis using radiocarbon dating, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology, archaeometric materials analysis and pedology the spatial, chronological, functional and economic aspects of the chalcolithic settlement of Valencina de la Concepción are investigated. Thus, the project aims are clarifying the cultural sequence, the dynamics, density and structure of the settlement activities, the supply with raw materials, craft production, long-distance contacts, and ultimately the social organisation of the mega-site.