The Generalitat has agreed to declare the Iberian site of Puig Castellar as a Cultural Property of National Interest, in the category of Archaeological Zone. This archaeological site is located at the top of a hill that is part of the Serralada de Marina, just on the eastern side of the mouth of the river Besòs, and is on the border of the municipal boundaries of Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelonès North ) and Montcada y Reixac (Vallès Occidental).
The Puig Castellar site is a major heritage site for research, but it also presents a series of archaeological, historical, architectural and cultural values ??that facilitate the understanding of the entire Iberian world in the context of the protohistory of the western Mediterranean. The quality, significance and diachrony of the data allow us to understand the daily life of the inhabitants of the town, their social organization, the economic activities and religious practices that were developed, and the changes that occurred throughout the 300 years that it lasted. Your job.
Due to the quality, representativeness and good conservation of the site, and the balance achieved between research and dissemination, articulating the educational and leisure offer and involving citizens without stopping archaeological activity, it is declared a Cultural Asset of National Interest. to preserve it for future generations.
Puig Castellar is a relevant enclave of the former territory of Laietània and the Catalan Iberian world, and is part of a network of settlements designed by the leading political groups for the organization and control of the State. It is one of the sites with the oldest tradition in Iberian archeology in Catalonia, since the first excavations were carried out in the first third of the 20th century and continue, with some interruptions, to the present day. The site represents an example of the Iberian urban planning model, which covers the genesis and the entire validity of the Iberian world until its disappearance in the process of Romanization, with an archaeological sequence of 300 years of uninterrupted duration, from the 6th to the 2nd century. BC.
The Puig Castellar site has provided several finds of exceptional historical value, among which stands out an intact iron stoker, unique in the Iberian world; a stone ponderal with an inscription in the Iberian language; a notable batch of weapons parts; a little treasure of emporitan silver drachmas, etc. The site has also provided notable evidence of some of the most emblematic cultural patterns of the northern Iberian peoples, such as child burial rituals and the remains of embedded human skulls.
Its urban structure exemplifies the most characteristic urban planning model of Iberian culture. A fortification is configured with an elliptical enclosure surrounded by a retaining wall, to which the battery houses are attached, built on terraces that bridge the unevenness. This urban plot originates between the middle of the 5th century BC and the beginning of the 4th century BC, but earlier remains have been documented – fragments of walls, groups of stick holes and combustion structures – which, despite not having directly associated materials that allow their dating to be specified, they are stratigraphically located between the 6th century and the second half of the 5th century BC. .
Domestic architecture is dominant throughout the town, and only two possible specialized areas have been identified, given the presence of large homes that occupy most of the working surface of the respective pavements and that, therefore, would invalidate their use. as residential space. The most plausible hypothesis is that these would be areas, perhaps for community use, linked to tasks related to combustion structures, possibly food processing or cooking (cereal roasting, bread making, etc.). Regarding the typology of the houses, they can be grouped into two models: the simple ones, with a regular floor plan that systematically has a fireplace, and the complex ones, made up of more than one room.
Regarding the artisanal activities carried out, objects have been found that reveal the uses and functions of the spaces and the activities that were carried out, such as storage, weaving, grain harvesting or metallurgy.
