Watch as El Cerro del Villar in Malaga reconstructs its history thanks to remarkable findings during latest dig

"What was a catastrophe in the past is an opportunity for the archaeologist in the present,"admits José Suárez, the researcher leading the team that is uncovering the secrets of Cerro del Villar, the birthplace of Phoenician culture in Malaga. It is now known that around 2,700 years ago, a fire destroyed part of a large building, which is gradually being uncovered room by room at the entrance to the site. There are burned wooden beams, broken jars from the collapse and a black mark on the wall. However, paradoxically, this tragedy is key to the exceptional state of preservation of the oldest settlement discovered here to date, which dates from the late 8th century BC to the first half of the 7th century BC.

If it weren't for the fire, which turned the organic materials, the wooden beams of the ceilings and the floor mats into charcoal, they would have completely disappeared over time."What's most remarkable, is that there are buildings made of clay that still have their walls," Suárez remarks. The fire also preserved what was inside: the collapse of the charred wooden planks broke the jugs, but kept them protected in their original location. Up to six have been found in different rooms, "broken into fragments, but perfectly preserved" for reconstruction. Around the vessels there were seeds of grapevines and barley seeds-remains that provide information about what the inhabitants ate or stored in that space. New evidence of life in the settlement includes a bronze pendant and metal objects discovered at another location within the site.

The Cerro del Villar has concluded its third excavation campaign with new findings that reveal its strategic and symbolic importance to the Phoenicians. Its inhabitants were reluctant to leave, even though they knew that they were vulnerable to natural disasters because of their location in the delta of the Guadalhorce river. In fact, following that fire and a major flood (events that may have been part of the same occurrence), they constructed a second level with higher walls to withstand the river and sea surges.

However, it is now understood that even when they had no choice but to leave because of a severe storm, they still kept returning to this part of the city.The latest excavations have uncovered a small but delicately crafted terracotta head of a woman from the 3rd century BC, by which time the inhabitants had already relocated to Malaga. According to the researchers, it could be an offering "related to the memory that people still had of this as an ancient or sacred site"."They returned with offerings to the deities at what was likely once their temple or a building related to worship, which has not yet been found. This explains the votive figure featuring a female face and the well-preserved ointment jar that surprised specialists during the last excavation campaign. ¨We think they may be from the same time," confirms Suárez.

He was speaking during the penultimate day of excavation for the hundred or so people who have been working tirelessly at the site for four weeks. Professors, students, and volunteers from the University of Málaga, various Andalusian centres, and international institutions—including the University of Chicago (USA), which has a number of scholarship holders, and the University of Marburg (Germany)—are involved in the excavation. And this is also the penultimate campaign included in the programme that began in 2022, subsidised by the Ministry of Culture of the Andalusian Regional Government, with the support of the City Council and the Málaga Foundation.

“We’re guaranteed funding for next year, but after that it will depend on whether the authorities continue to support us financially,” says Suárez. Recently everyone supported the project during the presentation of the findings at the mouth of the Guadalhorce. In addition to the president of the University, Teodomiro López, the event was attended by the mayor, Francisco de la Torre; the delegate of tourism, culture and aports in Malaga, Gemma del Corral, and the manager of the Malaga Foundation, Gonzalo Otalecu.

Many mysteries about our ancestors remain. Of the 50,000 square metres of Cerro del Villar, only about 5% have been excavated. "There is still a lot of site left to explore, but from what we have seen so far, it's clear that it is exceptionally well preserved," says the team leader.

And that’s not all. At one end of the site, kilns used for pottery production from the Phoenician period have been uncovered, dating to the later part of the 6th and 5th centuries BC. "This was a time when Málaga was a key settlement in the Phoenician trading network, yet life and work continued here," explained Bartolomé Mora, professor of Archaeology. It became the industrial hub of the city, a role that the Romans would later adopt several centuries later.

Just nearby the kiln, which is filled with remnants of pottery discarded by artisans, lies a large Roman fish-salting factory featuring eleven interconnected basins, two of which have been excavated so far. This discovery extends the occupation of the area back to at least the late Imperial Roman period.