TOTANA, THE POTTERY

LEGACY FROM
PREHISTORY TO TODAY
DOSSIER OF CULTURAL AND TOURIST RESOURCES
ARGARIC CULTURE, A UNIQUE PREHISTORIC CULTURE

The Argaric culture, named from the type site El Argar near the town of Antas,
in what is now the province of Almería in southeastern Spain, is an Early Bronze
Age culture which flourished between c. 2200 BC and 1550 BC.

The Argaric culture was characterised by its early adoption of bronze, which
briefly allowed this tribe local dominance over other, Copper Age peoples. El
Argar also developed sophisticated pottery and ceramic techniques, which they
traded with other Mediterranean tribes.

The center of this civilization is displaced to the north and its extension and
influence is clearly greater than that of its ancestor. Their mining and metallurgy
were quite advanced, with bronze, silver and gold being mined and worked for
weapons and jewelry.

Pollen analysis in a peat deposit in the Cañada del Gitano basin high in the Sierra
de Baza suggests that the Argaric exhausted precious natural resources, helping
bring about its own ruin.The deciduous oak forest that covered the region's slopes
were burned off, leaving a tell-tale carbon layer, and replaced by the fire-tolerant,
and fire-prone, Mediterranean scrub familiar under the names garrigue and
maquis.

The pottery was made manually, it was

of good quality and with standardized
typologies, among which goblets,
glasses, bowls and cooking pots stand
out. Pottery undergoes important
changes, almost totally abandoning
decoration and with new types
VISIT THE PREHISTORIC SITE OF LA BASTIDA IN TOTANA
THE “TROY OF THE WEST” AND PREHISTORIC POTTERY
WORKSHOP

Did you know that the archaeological site of La Bastida is the largest from
prehistoric times in the Region of Murcia? It is located in a spectacular natural
setting, on the side of a hill, a watchtower over the confluence of the Salado
ravine with the Lébor boulevard.

The town, of enormous dimensions, is more than 4,000 years old, and its remains
represent the most important sample of the development achieved by the Argaric
culture, one of the most important of the European Bronze Age, which developed
between the middle of the III and II millennium BC. c.

The Argar culture is characterized by the location, and the fortification of its
towns, by its square-plan houses built with stone and adobe, and because they
buried the dead in the ground of the houses themselves, in cists, jars or covachas.

We will visit the town to see how our Argaric ancestors lived and what their towns
were like. During the visit we will learn how they were protected with a wall and
what was the main access to the town. We will also learn about their houses,
their burial customs, visiting a reconstructed house, and the remains of an old
and huge raft to take advantage of water resources.
Along with the visit you can take a prehistoric pottery workshop in the
archaeological site. In it, a ceramic artisan will show us live how the Argarians
worked with ceramics, what types of ceramic pieces they made. Visitors will make
a small clay piece with their own hands and will experience the sensation of
modeling clay, as prehistoric people did. They will be able to take home not only
an experience but also the piece they have made as a souvenir.
TOTANA MONUMENTAL CITY AND THE POTTERY TRADITION

Totana preserves an interesting monumental

heritage in its streets. Starting from the Plaza de
la Constitución or the Balsa Vieja, where the
noble City Hall building, the Parish Church of
Santiago and the unique Baroque fountain by
Juan de Uzeta are located, the tour also includes
Calle Mayor Sevilla, that still preserves the
covers of old mansions. As well as Ollerías street,
where the traditional potteries were located,
which still exist, and where you can visit the
Moruno Oven. We also take a look at the Rambla
de la Santa, which divides the town into the
neighborhoods of Seville and Triana. Above it
crosses the aqueduct and we can see the Arch
of San Pedro.

A visit to a traditional
pottery workshop is
included, to learn about
the rich artisanal pottery
tradition of the town. In
the pottery workshop
some artisans will show
how the ceramic pieces
are made and how they
are also painted by hand.
We will know the different
types of pieces and their
traditional polychromies.
LUIS SIRET, THE ARCHAEOLOGIST DISCOVERER OF LA
BASTIDA

Luis Siret y Cels (26 August 1860, in Sint-Niklaas,

Flandes, Belgium – 7 June 1934, in Las Herrerías,
Almería, España) was a Belgian-Spanish archaeologist
and illustrator.

He was born in Belgium, but when he was 21 he went to

Cuevas del Almanzora (Almería) when he was contracted
as a Mining Engineer in the Sierra Almagrera.Brought up
in an intellectual environment, his father was the
historian and poet Adolphe Siret, director of the Journal
des beaux-arts et de la littérature.

Through 50 years, Luis Siret and his brother Henri Siret

investigated Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age sites
in Almizaraque, Palacés, El Argar, El Gárcel or Los Millares. His discoveries meant
a great advance in the prehistory of the South-eastern Iberian Peninsula and
helped settle the sequence from Palaeolithic to Iron Age in the zone.

Material which he collected was exhibited in 1889 Exposition universelle de Paris

and 1929 Exposición Universal de Barcelona. Items are currently exhibited in the
Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Almería, in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in
Madrid, in the Musée du Cinquantenaire in Brussels and several other important
collections including the British Museum in London and the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford.

Enrique and Luis Siret published the results of their first excavations in 1887 in
Antwerp under the title Les premiers âges du métal dans le Sud-Est de l'Espagne
in two volumes, one of text and the other of folio plates, in which Luis Siret has
drawn with great skill some eight thousand objects and the plans and views of
the excavated sites. That same year the work
received the Martorell prize, a gold medal at the
universal exhibition in Toulouse and the
following year another gold medal at the one in
Barcelona. In 1890 a version in Spanish saw the
light of day in Barcelona: Las primeras edades
del metal en el sudeste de España. These
unprecedented findings represented a great
step forward in the study of the prehistory of
the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. After
Enrique's definitive return to Belgium in 1886,
Luis Siret continued his excavations alone with
his foreman Pedro Flores for the rest of his life.
ADDITIONAL IMAGES