Kelin was an ancient Iberian city located on the hill of Los Villares (Caudete de las Fuentes, Valencia). The site was inhabited from the Proto-Iberian period (7th century BC) to the Late Iberian period (2nd to 1st centuries BC). [1] [2] The site was walled and covered around 10 hectares. The archaeological site has been known from the mid-18th century, although it was first excavated archaeologically in 1956, with later campaigns as recent as 2011.
Coins with the name 'Kelin' written in Iberian script have been found both at the site and through the Iberian Peninsula. The coins are Iberian ases and semis and were minted sometime between the mid-2nd and early 1st centuries BC. [3]
Remains found around Caudete de las Fuentes itself indicate that the main settlement moved to the banks of the Madre river following romanisation of the area from the 2nd century BC. From this new location arose the Latin name Caput Aquae (water source) from which the name of the modern town derives, via Muslim Qabdaq and Valencian Cabdet. [2]
Kelin may have been the capital of a complex Iberian polity covering much of the submeseta de Utiel-Requena. At 10 hectares in size, and with perhaps around 3,800 inhabitants, Kelin is the largest known Iberian site in the area. [4] Throughout its long occupation, the site has a greatest range of imports in the submeseta, suggesting it dominated trading and distribution networks. [5] More written material has also been found at the site than at its neighbours, and it appears to have been the only site to mint coins during the Roman Republican period. Taken together, these indicators suggest Kelin was at least the pre-eminent site in the area, and may perhaps have acted as a form of capital controlling the surrounding area.
Two zones of house remains can be seen at the present site, showing the evolution of building styles from the 7th to 2nd century BC. The houses have elongated rectangular rooms with few internal divisions. The materials used were a stone foundation and adobe brick walls. At the edge of the site, a section of wall is visible as well as a quarry which may have provided building material for the wall or houses. The pottery found at the site includes hand-made forms, some of which imitate wheel-made forms, as well as remains of amphorae, Western Phoenician storage containers and Iberian Red Slip ware.
The Iberian language was the language of an indigenous western European people identified by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-Migration Era. An ancient Iberian culture can be identified as existing between the 7th and 1st centuries BC, at least.
The falcata is a type of sword typical of pre-Roman Iberia. The falcata was used to great effect for warfare in the ancient Iberian peninsula, and is firmly associated with the southern Iberian tribes, among other ancient peoples of Hispania. It was highly prized by the ancient general Hannibal, who equipped Carthaginian troops with it during the Second Punic War.
The Contestani were an ancient Iberian (Pre-Roman) people of the Iberian peninsula. They are believed to have spoken the Iberian language.
Hellín is a city and municipality of Spain located in the province of Albacete, Castilla–La Mancha. The municipality spans across a total area of 781.66 km2. As of 1 January 2020, it has a population of 30,200, which makes it the second largest municipality in the province. It belongs to the comarca of Campos de Hellín.
Requena-Utiel is a comarca currently in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community, Spain. The area was transferred to this province in 1851, as a result of a reform of the 1833 territorial division of Spain; before that it was a part of the Crown of Castile and of the former province of Cuenca. The inhabitants of the comarca have traditionally been monolingual in Spanish, i.e. they're not Valencian speakers.
Sagunto is a municipality of Spain, located in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community. It belongs to the modern fertile comarca of Camp de Morvedre. It is located c. 30 km north of the city of Valencia, close to the Costa del Azahar on the Mediterranean Sea.
Utiel Requena is a Spanish Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) for wines located in the province of Valencia. It takes its name from the two neighbouring towns of Utiel and Requena. It is renowned for the predominant use of the Bobal grape variety.
Iberian sculpture, a subset of Iberian art, describes the various sculptural styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze Age up to the Roman conquest. For this reason it is sometimes described as Pre-Roman Iberian sculpture.
Urci was an ancient settlement in southeastern Roman Hispania mentioned by Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, and Claudius Ptolemy. The writings of these historians indicate that the city was located in the hinterland of what is now Villaricos, Spain, in the lower basin of the Almanzora River. Some modern encyclopedias and historians have wrongly located Urci at Pechina, El Chuche or the City of Almería.
The Olcades were an ancient stock-raising pre-Roman people from Hispania, who lived to the west of the Turboletae in the southeastern fringe of the Iberian system mountains.
Manchuela or La Manchuela is a comarca located in Castile-La Mancha and Valencian Community, Spain.
The Prehistory Museum of Valencia is a museum of the city of Valencia, in Spain, that exposes archaeological materials covering from Paleolithic to the Visigoths period.
Valencians are the native people of the Valencian Community, in eastern Spain. Legally, Valencians are the inhabitants of the community. Since 2006, the Valencian people are officially recognised in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy as a nationality "within the unity of the Spanish nation". The official languages of Valencia are Valencian and Spanish.
Federico Martínez Roda is a professor of history at the Valencia Catholic University.
La Bastida de les Alcusses is an Iberian city of the 4th century BC located near Mogente/Moixent, Valencia. It is considered to be one of the principal Iberian archaeological sites of the Valencian Community due to its sudden abandonment and good preservation. The site is located 741 metres above sea level at the southwest end of the Serra Grossa. The site covers over 4 hectares and is 650 metres long and 150 metres wide. The site is now an archaeological park, surrounded by pine forest and bush but accessible by road.
The history of ancient Iberian coinage begins as early as the fifth century BC, but widespread minting and circulation in the Iberian peninsula did not begin until late in the third century, during the Second Punic War. Civic coinages - emissions made by individual cities at their own volition - continued under the first two and a half centuries of Roman control until ending in the mid-first century AD. Some non-civic coins were minted on behalf of Roman emperors during this period and continued to be minted after the cessation of the civic coinages. After the cessation of the civic coinages, these Imperial coins were the only coins minted in Iberia until the coins of the Suebi and Visigoths.
Puntal dels Llops is a small Iberian hilltop fort located near the modern town of Olocau, in Valencia province. It overlies an earlier Bronze Age site. Its original name in Iberian is unknown. It was built in the late fifth or early fourth century BC and destroyed violently around the end of the Second Punic War or in the early second century BC. The site is part of a network of fortified sites that surround the large Iberian town of Edeta and so is important to understanding the formation and organisation of Iberian polities. The archaeological site may currently be visited.
Consuelo Mata Parreño is a Spanish Teacher who specialises in Iberian material culture. She is currently the head teacher of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Valencia.
Helena Bonet Rosado is a Spanish archaeologist who specialises in Iberian material culture. She has published two books and numerous articles and chapters on Iberian archaeology. She is currently the Director of the Prehistory Museum of Valencia.
Villares refers to: