Site where unique Iberian wolf ceramic was found excavated again

An archaeological site in Cunit, on the northeastern coast of Spain, that was flattened by urban development decades ago, is now being excavated again. The ancient Iberian Corral del Castell site was discovered when the housing development was built, but after all the moveable artifacts were recovered, the site was destroyed in the construction of the buildings. The current location was made into a park, so there’s hope that there may be archaeological material surviving under the surface.

The archaeological investigation is particularly important as a painted ceramic fragment depicting a wolf was found here. It is the only representation of a wolf on Iberian pottery ever discovered in the region.
Iberians held the wolf to be a sacred animal, representing the power, strength of the hunter and warrior. Depictions of wolves have been found in sculpture, on armor pectorals, ceramics and exceptional pieces like the silver paterae found in Castellet de Banyoles.

The Corral del Castell site was built around 2,400 years ago on a hilltop parallel to the coastline about 35 feet above sea level. It was occupied in two phases: the exclusively Iberian phase of the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., and the Romano-Iberian phase of the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C. There is no evidence that it was still occupied in the Imperial era.

Archaeological materials recovered at the site are primarily utilitarian ceramics like amphorae for transport of goods and pithoi for storage. In addition to Iberian ceramics, there are examples imported from Greece, Italy and Carthaginian territories, attesting to the commercial activity that took place along the coast.

The few structures that have been documented — the remains of stone silos, a few walls — suggest that it was not an inhabited urban center, but rather a grouping of storage structures shared by surrounding villages or farms. This system of populations spread out over agricultural nuclei was supplanted by urban centers after the arrival of the Romans.

* This article was originally published here