The Wall and the First Traces of Settlement of the Early Iberian Phase of La Alcudia (Elche, Spain)

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary results of the recent excavations carried out in the Sector 11D-E of La Alcudia, close to where the Lady of Elche was unearthed. We focus on the findings related to the earliest phase of Iberian presence, which feature a drawers wall, located in various trenches along a 55m-long stretch. The wall is raised upon soil devoid of human presence, with a stone base consisting of one or two rows of stones atop which a mud brick wall was erected. In the area we have most intervened, the wall is associated with a nascent settlement (LAI-1), the remains of which have provided us with an absolute date, the fifth century BC. We have also identified three spaces sealed during the Middle-Late Iberian period (LAI-2). To the strictly defensive function of the wall we must add its symbolic and prestige value, linking with its role as a central settlement in the territory of southern Alicante, position held from an early date. This would explain the exceptional number of sculptures recovered there, which includes the Lady as its most emblematic piece, possibly hidden in a stretch of what we now know to be the foundational wall of the Iberian Ilici.