Mojácar Council, in collaboration with the University of Granada, the MemoLab Biocultural Archaeology Laboratory, the Valparaíso Foundation and Patrimonio Inteligente is preparing a General Research Project which will plan future interventions, consolidation, enhancement and content of the Mojácar La Vieja excavations for the next four years.
To this end, those involved in the work met at the Valparaíso Foundation. Present were Emmanuel Agüero Leclerc, Mojácar Council Tourism Councillor, the area which manages and promotes the project; Carmen García Campoy, Director of the Tourism Department; José María Civantos, University of Granada associate professor in the Medieval History Department and MemoLab Director; Beatrice Beckett and Teresa Santiago, Valparaíso Foundation President and Projects Director respectively.
At the meeting there was a review of all the achievements obtained during the three campaigns carried out, and looking to the future, the lines of action, preservation, dissemination and improvements to accesses, as well as the elaboration of the aforementioned project.
The Mojácar La Vieja General Research Project will be presented to the regional Culture Ministry together with the commitment of the Local Council for its development and support for financing.
At the same time, the works on Mojácar La Vieja resume, this time consolidation of the excavated elements for their protection, and which will continue until 8th November.
Specific works at the dig site since in fact works on the site continue throughout the year, but now at the facilities of the University of Granada and MemoLab, the University of Granada’s Laboratory of Biocultural Archaeology, where all the findings are catalogued, studied and digitalised.
For two weeks, five specialised archaeologists, financed by the company Patrimonio Inteligente, Mojácar Council and MemoLab, are responsible for ensuring the conservation of the structures discovered in anticipation of the start of the next campaign, which will be carried out in 2022.
Both Mojácar Council and the Valparaíso Foundation have been the driving force behind the restoration of “Mojácar la Vieja”, being one of the most important companies which the municipality deals with in its tourism, as well as historical and cultural projection. When they began the first restoration works on the site in 2018, Mojácar Council signed a collaboration agreement with the Valparaíso Foundation, the majority owner of the land on which Mojácar la Vieja stands, as well as with the owners of the other plots which make it up, land declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC), and which made the survey works and of its enhancement possible.
The archaeological investigation of this settlement can allow for obtaining interesting urban, archaeological and social data about the first Islamic communities settled in eastern Almería.
The results obtained so far are encouraging and speak of an important settlement with a strong military protection, as shown by the wall which surrounded it and the 14 towers which could have had defence purposes, as well as of an important population and trade centre.
