Poblado Ibérico / Poblat Ibéric - History

The settlement is one of the largest of its kind in northeastern Spain. The Puig de Sant Andreu and the Illa d'en Reixac, linked by a narrow isthmus of land, were already occupied by man in the Palaeolithic era, and here, probably from the seventh century B.C. onwards, a fortified ettlement grew up. By the sixth Century B.C. the Iberians, the original inhabitants of this region, had already developed active trading relations with the Phoenicians, the Etruscans and the Greeks. It was as a result of Greek influence that the Iberians began to build in stone and to use the potter's wheel. By the turn of the fifth century B.C. the Iberian town, now surrounded by a stout stone wall, was at the peak of its development and its prosperity. In the third Century, however, strong competition from the nearby Greek foundation of Emporion brought about its decline, and in the second century B.C. the town was abandoned. It remained forgotten until the thirties of this Century; then after its rediscovery systematic excavations began in 1947 and are still going on.