Zephyrus (Apr 2011)
An approach to the hillfort settlement in the Valley of Laciana (Villablino, León)
Abstract
The development of an archaeological excavation season in three of the hillfort settlements catalogued in the shire of Laciana (northwestern León region): La Muela, La Zamora and La Laguna, has revealed the presence of numerous stone structures in these three sites, also having documented a total of five different wall sections, as well as several evidences of the interior habitat of the villages. In the first two settlements, the recovered materials seem to point out a wide time frame ranging from the protohistoric period to the second century a.C. Meanwhile, due to the lack of movable findings, the contextualization of La Laguna has to be carried out following the morphological characteristics of its emplacement. The abundance of hillfort excavations in nearby regions of Asturias and León permits us to contextualize duly the vestiges found, organizing them in two sections: defensive systems and habitat structures. Finally a series of hypothesis related to the nature of the sites are presumed, particularly with regard to the possibility of a seasonal occupation in La Muela’s hillfort.
