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Maatje visited on 17th Mar 2024 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4 La Bastida is dated 2200 - 1550 BC. This site can be visited with a guide during the weekend. It is signposted from Totana. More information is on the website. It is a very remote site high upon a hill, at the steep borders of a canyon river. It was discovered in the end of the 1869. La Bastida is a Bronzeage city of the Al Algar Culture that conquers cities as Knossos and Mykonos. Archeologists are still excavating the hill and probebly is was completely inhabited. The defence walls are thick and high. The work, which continues today, shows an authentic city of some 40,000 m2 which, at its peak, some 3,800 years ago, was inhabited by some 1,000 people. At that time, it was one of the largest settlements in Europe and the western Mediterranean. Dozens of dwellings have been found, terraced in artificial terraces along the slopes of the hill. The enclave itself is situated in a strategic location, hidden from the Guadalentín valley and with good natural conditions for defence. The tombs are of particular interest, as they are located under the floor of the dwellings. They usually contained one or, sometimes, two individuals in a shrunken position, inside ceramic vessels or cists, i.e. boxes made of stone slabs or walls. Some of these tombs also contained offerings, such as ceramic bowls and pots, weapons, tools and ornaments of copper or silver, and necklaces of bone, shell and stone beads. The differences between these offerings tell us of a community divided into social classes. It was an overwhelming archeological site.

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