archaeological site DOÑA BLANCA Panoramic view of the Bay of Cádiz from the Sierra de San Cristóbal, with the archaeological site in the foreground

The archaeological site of Doña Blanca occupies approximately 6.5 hectares on a small hill rising 31 metres above sea level. It is located in the township of El Puerto de Santa María, between the hills of the Sierra de San Cristóbal and a vast plain formed by sediment deposited over centuries at the mouth of the River Guadalete, now occupied by farmlands, salt pans and marshes.

The sierra, rising to a maximum altitude of 129 metres above sea level, dominates an otherwise flat landscape, and from the heights one commands a sweeping view of the bay and surrounding countryside. As a result, these hills have always been a site of strategic interest, and in ancient times they must have been an important landmark to help sailors find their bearings. THE CHRONOLOGICAL SEQUENCE

The Doña Blanca site is only a small portion of the Doña Blanca Archaeological Zone, a protected area of roughly 2 million m2 that includes other singular heritage elements such as the settlement of La Dehesa, the Sun and Moon Hypogeum, the archaeological site and necropolis of Las Cumbres and the quarries, all of which testify to the different relationships that humans have established with the same physical environment throughout history. The only one of them currently open to visitors is the archaeological site of Doña Blanca.

The oldest ruins found at this site pertain to the late Copper Age, towards the end of the third millennium BCE. The bases of several scattered huts that follow the contours of the original terrain date from this period. This was followed by a phase of abandonment, in which the site remained uninhabited, that lasted until the mid-8th century BCE, when it was occupied

Cover: Tower of Doña Blanca Tower Cover: once again. Group of visitors

In the 8th century BCE it became a veritable town, complete with a defensive wall, and was continuously inhabited until the end of the 3rd century BCE. During those five centuries of uninterrupted activity, the town’s urban layout was altered several times and two additional walls were built. The site was abandoned once again in the late 3rd century BCE, and humans did not return until the medieval Islamic period, when an Almohad alquería or farm estate was established here (12th century). THE TOUR ITINERARY

The tour itinerary is a circular path approximately 1,600 metres long that takes us across the top of the hill and through the different areas of the archaeological site.

Tower of Doña Blanca TOWER OF DOÑA BLANCA

This small structure with a Greek cross floor plan was built in the late 15th century as a watchtower overlooking the bay and lower course of the River Guadalete. What we see today is actually a reconstruction from the second half of the 19th century, as the tower was practically in ruins after the Peninsular War. Some modern historians believe this to be the tower where Blanche of Bourbon (Doña Blanca de Borbón), wife of King Peter I, was imprisoned and died in 1361, hence the name by which we know it today. Other scholars sustain that this building was a country chapel. THE LANDSCAPE

The area around the Sierra de San Cristóbal has changed so significantly over the centuries that its first settlers would hardly recognise it today.

One of the most important transformations affected the inner bay, which was silted up with sediment deposited by the River Guadalete. The entire plain south of the archaeological site was once part of the sea, and the river mouth was located near El Portal, close to the modern-day boundary between the townships of Jerez and El Puerto de Santa María.

The natural vegetation has gradually adapted to variations in climate conditions, soil, terrain and rainfall over the years. However, throughout history humans have been responsible for the most dramatic and enduring changes to local plant life, primarily due to the clearing of wooded areas, herding and farming, and today no trace remains of the primeval forests of cork oak, carob and pine trees that carpeted these hills in ancient times.

Cross-section pit STRATIGRAPHIC CROSS-SECTION

The first excavations were conducted in 1979 by the tower entrance with the aim of establishing a chronological-historical sequence for the site. To this end, the lead archaeologist dug a deep pit in the subsoil down to the bedrock.As they worked, the excavation team recorded the details of each deposit they came across and carefully retrieved as many elements 4th/3rd-century BCE dwellings sector. In the foreground, large sinks probably used for wine-making from each as they could, which were later analysed for clues that would help to interpret and date that deposit or the period to which it belonged.

In this area, the deepest excavated pit reached bedrock 9 metres below the surface of the hill; those 9 metres are archaeological deposits built up over the town’s five centuries of existence. This tells us that the hill on which the site stands is manmade, the product of sediments and architectural ruins accumulated over time. In archaeology, this type of artificial hill is known as a tell. DWELLINGS FROM THE 4TH-3RD CENTURY BCE

Walking along the southern embankment brings us to a large excavated area measuring nearly 1,000 m2. Here we can see a group of dwellings and structures dated to the 4th-3rd century BCE that tell us much about the urban layout of this phase. The dwellings were organised into fairly regular blocks along wide, straight streets. The street discovered here, 4 metres wide and with an excavated length of 36 metres, ran parallel to the curtain wall and was paved with pottery sherds, cobbles and rammed earth.

In the houses, the lower sections of the walls were made of masonry, and calcarenite blocks were occasionally used for the corners and doorframes to make the structures sturdier. Most dwellings had bare earth floors, but some areas, identified as courtyards, are paved with stones. Beside the houses are other spaces with large sinks and ovens believed to have been used for making wine Barcid wall

To the south of this excavated area we can see the ruins of the town’s defensive wall. The structure actually consists of two parallel walls, and the space in between is divided into square chambers or casemates by smaller perpendicular walls. Continuing along the circular route, further south we can see a section of this same wall made of finely dressed calcarenite blocks of different sizes, perfectly joined and fitted together. This type of stonework is frequently found in other Punic defensive constructions, such as the city walls of Carthage and Carteia (San Roque), which date from the Barcid period. DWELLINGS FROM THE 8TH CENTURY BCE

Remnants of structures from the 8th century BCE are generally buried under a thick layer of sediment accumulated in subsequent periods, meaning that archaeologists must excavate to a depth of between 7 and 9 metres to reach them. However, a large area was discovered outside the walls of the ancient town over which nothing had been built in later phases, facilitating the surface excavation of an entire sector

8th-century BCE dwellings sector of dwellings from that era. The houses were built on artificial terraces to make the most of the naturally sloping terrain. Each dwelling had 3 or 4 rooms, and the walls, built of masonry up to certain height and continued with mudbrick, were finished with a clay daub and whitewashed. The floors are of tamped red earth, and the roofs, wood beams covered with plant fibres, were flat or mono-pitched. Most dwellings had a bread oven consisting of a domed clay structure approximately 1 metre in diameter at the base. THE ANCIENT WALL

The town was defended by a powerful wall since the 8th century, a small portion of which still stands today. Resting directly on the ground, the wall is made of irregular stones bound with red clay and rises to a height of 3 metres in the excavated zones. A V-shaped moat was dug directly in front of the wall, 20 metres across and 4 metres deep. This wall remained in use until the 6th century BCE. In the 5th century BCE, a new wall was built around the town, reusing only part of the older structure. Finally, the last fortified enclosure was erected in the 4th-3rd century. NECROPOLIS

The necropolis lies across the road (Carretera de El Portal) from the town, on the slopes of the Sierra de San Cristóbal. A mound approximately 20 metres across and 1.8 metres tall at its hi- ghest point was excavated there, and in the centre archaeo- logists discovered an ustrinum, the place where corpses were cremated.¬ Around it they found 63 burials of various types, ranging from cinerary urns of different shapes and sizes to sim- ple pits dug in the soil for interring cremains.

Ancient wall LOCATION AND CONTACT DETAILS

Carretera de El Portal, km. 3,200 11500 Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz)

+34 956 874 474 / +34 670 946 506

Fax: +34 956 860 799 [email protected]

Free admission

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1. Torre de Doña Blanca 2. Corte estratigráfico 3. Viviendas (ss. IV-III a.C.) 4. Viviendas (s. VIII a.C.) 5. Fortificación (s. III a.C.) 6. Muralla (s. VIII a.C.) A. Oficinas y talleres i. Información