Cogotas II
Contenido
Es un yacimiento de la Segunda Edad del Hierro de la provincia de Ávila. Está ubicado en la zona norte del valle de Amblés.
El Valle Amblés es una fosa tectónica en el sistema Central, recorrida por el río Adaja, vía natural de comunicaciones, localizada en la provincia de Ávila. Tiene forma de triángulo y fondo plano por donde fluye el río con apenas desnivel, entre las laderas septentrionales de La Serrota y la sierra de la Paramera, que quedan al sur del valle, con altitudes medias que oscilan entre 1600 y 2200 m, la vertiente meridional de la sierra de Ávila y Villanueva que quedan al norte del valle, con una altitud media de 1600 m, para concluir, las estribaciones de la Serrota y la sierra de Villanueva cierran el occidente, y la sierra de Ojos-Albos en el extremo oriental.
Sobre los granitos y pizarras "Pizarra (roca)") predominan suelos silíceos ácidos, muy erosionables, de profundidad variable, con escasa capacidad de retención de humedad y con afloramientos rocosos. Suelos de vocación ganadera, poco aptos para la agricultura. En la vega, el río, gracias a los suelos aluviales ricos en minerales, aumenta las posibilidades de aprovechamiento agrícola. En los sectores más húmedos, encinas, fresnos y pinos piñoneros y resineros. En cuanto a la fauna local, hoy sólo pervive la fauna autóctona en lugares muy concretos protegidos, animales como lobos, jabalíes, cigüeñas, garzas, buitres y águilas.
El poblamiento más destacado en el valle es de la Segunda Edad de Hierro y se caracteriza por poblados fortificados, u Oppida, en las estribaciones de las sierras del valle. Los más importantes son: Ulaca, con más de 70 ha, siendo el más grande de ellos, el Castro de la Mesa de Miranda con 30 ha y Las Cogotas con 14,5 ha.
Hay indicios de que bajo la ciudad actual de Ávila se encuentre Obila, mencionada por Ptolomeo (2,5,7), aunque los materiales hallados hasta el momento no lleven su cronología más allá del siglo a. C. Se observa una ocupación importante en el valle desde el Bronce Final. Por otro lado, en las zonas llanas próximas a la vega aparecen hábitats no amurallados de menor entidad, como Muñogalindo, Padiernos o Ermita de Sonsoles, los cuales son considerados por sus investigadores como ”hábitats menores”. Los hallazgos son escasos y con materiales de superficie, por lo que no se puede afirmar que sean lugares de hábitat en todas las ocasiones. Los estudios del territorio de explotación de estos lugares revelan una tendencia agrícola entre el 60-80 % en un radio de 2 km, ya que los suelos que ocupan son aluviales, o están cerca de las dehesas, mientras que los castros revelan tendencias ganaderas.
Dentro del patrón de poblamiento se deben incluir las esculturas de toros y cerdos, conocidos como verracos. Se han interpretado de muchas maneras, dándoles un valor mágico de protección del ganado, para potenciar la reproducción, o atribuyéndoles la función de ser monumentos funerarios, ya que existen piezas con inscripciones de este tipo. Sin embargo, las últimas revisiones proponen una explicación distinta y complementaria, es decir, no descartan su valor simbólico. Gran parte de las esculturas carece de contexto arqueológico claro, se localizan a varios kilómetros de los poblados y la mayoría, en zonas de buenos pastizales. El alto coste de producción de los mismos puede tener mucho más sentido si con los zoomorfos se estableciesen hitos o referencias fijas en el paisaje de los recursos críticos, como lo son los pastos invernales.
Chronology
As for the chronology of the walls, it is not certain for the first enclosure, while there is dateable material associated with the second enclosure. The surveys carried out next to the wall in this area have provided wheel-turned ceramics, horse fibulas and other late ones with a La Tene scheme that allow us to think of a chronology from III-II BC. C., can be specified even more, since it was observed that it coincides with the foundation level of the pottery, documented next to it, and even the existence of a garbage dump under the wall, and therefore prior, leads its researchers to propose a chronological sequence: for the time of the first occupation of the place, that is, of the construction of the first enclosure, it would occur around the century BC. C. and a later time for the construction of the second enclosure and the pottery in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. c.
Castro
It is located on the southern edge of the Northern Plateau, in the central sector of the province of Ávila, six kilometers southwest of the town of Cardeñosa "Cardeñosa (Ávila)"), at the end of the easternmost foothills of the Sierra de Ávila, next to the Adaja River. Its maximum level is 1156 m above sea level, coinciding with one of the granite rocks, which, as mentioned before, gives its name to the site, rising about 140 m above the river. It covers an intramural area of 14.5 ha and its maximum axes are about 455 m by just over 310 m. It belongs to the Second Iron Age, although some ceramics belonging to the acropolis are attributed to a previous occupation of the Late Bronze Age, but not of great importance.
It responds to the types of location on a hill or acropolis and in a meander. Characterized by the proximity to river channels, the Adaja River, the ease of natural defense, by its steep orography and accessibility is determined by the slope. Las Cogotas is organized around two walled enclosures with three entrances each, the main entrance in the upper enclosure being the most complicated of all. These are powerful walls with thickenings like bastions, with fields of driven stones in front of the entrances, as is the case in other forts in the region at this time. In the upper enclosure there are some houses attached to the inner part of the wall. The construction technique used combines adobe with stone on a rectangular axis in plan.
Las Cogotas consists of two walled enclosures, one, the upper or first enclosure, which included the entire top of the hill and corresponds to the acropolis, and another, the lower or second enclosure, which develops towards the south and west descending the slope on the plain to the Rominillas stream, enclosing an area of 14.5 hectares, which was interpreted as a “cattle enclosure” by Juan Cabré. Recent excavations have shown the existence of homes, industrial areas, and the hypothesis has even been proposed that livestock fairs were held there. In the upper enclosure, the berrocales and areas of steep slope were included within the walled enclosure so as not to cross the canvases violently. The structure of the walls is made of granite tiles, stones and rocks, with dry masonry rigs, placed in irregular courses paved with countless wedges. The construction technique is a double wall system attached to the outside and to the inside, another with similar characteristics, between both walls there is a filling of stones and tiles, although the existence of any other interior wall is not known because it does not have any section of it, with adobe foundation. The thickness varies from approximately 2.5 to 11 m. It has an undulating layout, with large bastions, which seem to respond to a defensive system that takes advantage of cross shots, and at the same time serve as architectural reinforcement. In the most important areas there is a walkway on the wall, which begins at the main entrance and perhaps runs along the entire perimeter of the acropolis. Between the upper and lower enclosure there must have been a small walled and terraced space that is currently not preserved and can be observed with great difficulty, but that Cabré identified. Since it cannot currently be recognized, partly due to the ruggedness and inaccessibility of the terrain, it is not very well known what its functionality could have been. Due to its position next to the main entrance and with good visibility from it, it could have been a collective livestock enclosure from which the cattle could be easily controlled. Its construction system of wall sections with bastions, which arbitrarily cuts contour lines, has different heights depending on the areas, its layout does not follow the valley lines, dividing lines or natural limits. The fields are not used to form part of the defensive system, they are simply surrounded or used as the base of the canvas, and the wall is not interrupted by the ravines, it responds to the degree of adaptation of the defensive system that some authors such as González- Tablas " define as "Autonomous". Although other authors consider that the wall does accommodate contour lines. It is very likely that the top of the wall, and especially on the entrances, was made with a framework of branches and wooden sticks, as as the burning of the Pallantia wall in 74 BC after the siege of the city by Pompey should be understood, as described by Appian in his "Civil Wars".
Necropolis
This necropolis was discovered in 1930, in what was already the fourth excavation campaign in the Castro. After several failed attempts to locate it, it appeared in a piece of land called Trasguija. These attempts were ultimately due to the characteristics of the few necropolises that had been found previously, since these respond to very different characters. It was explored again in 1931.
Located 240 m north of the town, on a small slope facing east. It consists of four zones according to Juan Cabré and five plus one according to Guillermo Kurtz"). Other authors defend four zones and an isolated sector, such as Castro, Martín-Valls") or Álvarez-Sanchís"). Located on a slope, aligned from north to south and separated from each other by sterile spaces, that is, without tombs. It is cremation, with no inhumation having appeared, with individual graves, grouped around granite steles that protrude into the exterior at its upper end. The number of graves is 1613, of which 1447 can be studied, the rest lack an inventory and were not published. Only 15.5% of these (224) have grave goods.
The graves consist of the cinerary urn deposited in a hole, in which small stones were placed to support it and whose urn appears covered with a flat slab covered in turn by other smaller stones. We also find urns that have been covered with other upturned vessels (plates, bowls). Topsoil was placed on top of these. When the urns are accompanied by trousseau, different situations arise: if it is a warrior's trousseau, weapons and other objects are placed around or on top without a specific system. Small items, such as fibulas, balls, fusayolas or small glasses, usually accompany the ashes inside the urns.
It seems that its stratigraphy indicated a vertical chronological sequence, in addition to the horizontal sequence characteristic of necropolises, but Cabré interpreted the urns placed at different heights as belonging to the same contemporary grave.
In relation to the necropolis, in a northeasterly direction there are some granite boats located between the fort and the necropolis, with a wide and flat surface, without soil on them, on which funerary cremations were surely carried out. Around them, a multitude of charred bones, bronze or iron slags and ceramic fragments were found. The metal comes from the metal grave goods that would accompany the corpse.
Site exploration
The Castro "Castro (fortification)") of Las Cogotas has been known since 1876. After a series of excavations in it, loss of materials and many transfers of the same, the official excavations directed by Juan Cabré, the first with a "scientific method", began in the summer of 1927, during which campaign the walls of the acropolis were discovered and 18 houses were studied. In 1928 it was determined how much was missing from the walls of the second enclosure to draw up the general plan of the site, specify its military architecture and excavate the houses near the N gate. In 1930 an attempt was made to resolve the chronology of the fort "Castro (fortification)") with the discovery of a well-defined stratigraphy, the study of the funds of the somewhat poorer homes, scattered throughout the acropolis. In 1930 the necropolis was discovered and the four areas were excavated.
At the end of the century, and for reasons unrelated to the archaeological investigation, Las Cogotas was intervened again: In 1983, a project to construct a Las Cogotas dam was approved, whose left abutment and spillway rest on the eastern slope of the lower part of the Las Cogotas hill, therefore, a part of the archaeological site – 30% of the “cattle enclosure” – was covered by the waters when they reached the maximum level. of the reservoir. The Duero Hydrographic Confederation, together with the Museum of Ávila and the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Government of Castilla y León, decided in 1984 to dedicate 1% of the cultural amount to alleviate the effects of the dam on the archaeological remains. Possibly archaeological excavations would never have been carried out in Las Cogotas again if it had not been for the construction of this reservoir. The work began in 1985. A group of students from the Department of Ancient History of the Complutense of Madrid, led by Mª Paz García-Gelabert, prospected the area, finding the remains of a deserted area, which was conveniently documented. It was necessary to protect a paved path that crosses the second enclosure to the Adaja River, the so-called “Tío Juan mill path”.
In 1986, a geophysical survey was carried out in an area of 1,250 m² next to the SE door of the second enclosure, to evaluate the possible construction structures and obtain a basis for planning the excavation, although the results, due to the characteristics of the granite and sloping terrain, were not reliable. The excavation program began in September of the same year with a team from the Department of Prehistory of the Complutense University of Madrid directed by Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero") in conjunction with the Ávila Museum.
The objectives of these interventions were: 1) Documentation and rescue of possible structures and materials through systematic excavations, 2) re-study of the old excavations with new perspectives, also reviewing the materials of the National Archaeological Museum, 3) presentation of the archaeological complex to the general public, contemplating the problems of maintenance and conservation of structures.
How to get there
Currently you can access by car to the base of the hill of the same fort. On the AV-804 highway towards Cardeñosa "Cardeñosa (Ávila)"), taking a detour to the right, signposted, before reaching the town. Next, follow the signs and reach the outskirts of the town.
Another way to get there from Ávila is to take the Valladolid highway and get to the Cogotas reservoir dam. Once there, walk across the dam and go up the path to the fort (it leads directly to the door).
Related Castros
• - Castro de los Castillejos "Castro de los Castillejos (Sanchorreja)") (Ávila).
• - Castro de Ulaca (Ávila).
• - Castro de Las Paredejas, in the El Berrueco complex (Ávila).
• - Castro de la Mesa de Miranda (Ávila).
• - Castro del Raso (Ávila).
• - Castro del Berrueco") (Ávila and Salamanca).
• - Castro del Cerro de San Vicente "Archaeological Park of Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca)") (Salamanca).
• - Guisando Bulls.
• - Bell-shaped glass culture, with photographs of the ceramics mentioned in the article.
• - Boar of the Cogotas.