Non-Invasive Prospection Techniques in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park (Almería, Spain): Torregarcía’s Site

Abstract

Along the Southeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula are numerous remains linked to the ancient purple exploitation destined for elaborating dyes. Our study focused on analysing the Torregarcía’s site (Almeria, Spain), which is set in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park, a protected coastal space of huge ecological interest. Torregarcía was excavated in the 1980s. Despite its importance, it has remained invisible to the historiography of the last three decades due to the lack of scientific publications on the matter. The current archaeological works, performed by non-invasive prospection techniques, such as GPR, magnetometer or UAV, revealed the relevance of purple exploitation as one of the main activities and have made possible the documentation of more complex facilities associated with excavated structures and the extensive shell midden. Along with these, other buildings and shell middens have been found throughout the coast of this location. This study emphasised the first results of the 2019 and 2021 campaigns.

Keywords

• purple
• landscape
• Torregarcía
• Roman Empire
• Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park
• non-invasive research