Archaeoseismic analysis of the Pozo Moro monument: Did an earthquake topple it?

Abstract

Archaeismic analysis of the Iberian funerary monument of Pozo Moro, located in Chinchilla, Albacete, Spain, currently preserved in the National Archaeological Museum. This monument, almost 10 m high, was built with ashlars around 500 B.C. and was destroyed a few years later by an earthquake, according to what seemed to indicate a certain deformation of the terrain and the position of the fall of the ashlars found in the excavation. The archaeoseismic analysis has identified different deformation structures: fractured corners, displacement of ashlar blocks, and oriented collapses. These deformations are compatible, according to the geological structural analysis, with a dominant direction of movement of the NE-SW substratum, which could indicate a seismic origin, a hypothesis supported by its proximity to the active Pozohondo fault, located 20 km to the SW. Consequently, the most probable hypothesis is that an earthquake destroyed the monument of Pozo Moro, like others documented throughout history in those areas of the Southeast of Iberia.