Old sites, new investigations. An Approach to the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age in the middle Ebro valley from the excavations in the settlement of El Morredón (Fréscano, Zaragoza)

Abstract

The study of the results of the archaeolocigal excavations carried out for three consecutive years (2002-2004) at the El Morredón site (Fréscano, Zaragoza) has allowed to identify a succession of occupations that extend from Late Bronze to the end of the Early Iron Age (1200 - 500 cal BC). The existence of at least three settlements has been proved by absolute radiocarbon dating. The study of the different archaeological materials supports the existence of that three phases and allows to determine the internal evolution of the human occupation of the hill. A long occupation that also been documented in other places of the Ebro valley, especially in its middle part, and that allows to contrast an accurate stratigraphy, reflecting of a complex reality in which processes of economic and social interaction occur among different communities who, in an ecosystem with few variations among nearby regions, modulated the historical evolution of the first half of the first millennium BC