Almería´s Culture, Tourism and Sports Director from the Junta de Andalucía, Alfredo Valdivia Ayala, together with Ángela Suarez, Department Head of Museums and Culture, visited the excavations that the University of Granada and the Biocultural Archaeology Laboratories have been busy working on at Mojácar la Vieja.
Mojácar´s Mayor, Rosmari Cano, along with Emmanuel Agüero, the Councillor for Tourism, joined them to visit the ancient site to talk about the importance of the findings made by the archaeologists in ‘Old Mojácar’, as well as the magnitude of the discoveries and their relevance to the cultural legacy of Almería´s Levante area.
They all had the chance to tour La Vieja with research leader, Granada University Professor José María Martin Chivancos, who outlined the progress that has been made from the studies carried out during July, along with the initial conclusions. They also had the opportunity to discuss future projects that will allow further recovery works in the area.
Although the research team will now need to carry out further analysis on the remains they have found in order to make their final conclusions, it is clear that Mojácar was one of the first Islamic settlements in Almería´s Levante. Its political and defensive importance from the 8th Century (when it is estimated that the settlement was founded), is indisputable, until the 13th Century when the move was made to the new site of the present Mojácar Pueblo that we all know.
Although the archaeologists have only been able to work at a certain level during their short stay, they have been able to confirm the existence of important economic activity revealed by highly significant day to day working objects relating to that time, along with a strong defences and evidence of a high concentration of inhabitants.
