 | The oldest archaeological remains in Eastern Almería stretch back to the very dawn of history, the Palaeolithic, as we can see in Cueva de la Zájara I and II caves ( Cuevas del Almanzora ). From that period to the present, the district has been the cradle of important cultures such as the Argar culture and it has absorbed people from all corners of the Mediterranean, such as the Phoenicians.
Remains from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic period have been discovered in several boroughs in the district, while remains from the Copper Age belonging to the Los Millares Culture are to be found in Turre and Vera. Later, the inhabitants of el Argar (Antas) would put their own particular seal on Bronze Age cultures. It was they who would develop the Argaric culture which evolved in south-western Iberia between 1900 and 1300 BC. Several sites in the district belong to this same cultural context, the most noteworthy being that of Fuente Álamo in Cuevas de Almanzora.
The 7th Century BC witnessed the arrival of the Phonecians to the coasts of Eastern Almería, setting up a factory in Villaricos, location for the prosperous Romano- Phonecian city of Baria and on of the largest archaeological sites in the province. Iberians, Carthaginians and Romans had all settled here before the arrival of the Moors in the 8th Century AD. | |
It was these last settlers of Al-Andalus who left a stamp on the province which, even several centuries after their expulsion, can still be seen in vernacular architecture, in the district’s placenames and in the dispersed pattern of settlements recalling Moorish hamlets and farmsteads.
In the Modern Age, the coastline was dotted with watchtowers and castles to face the threat posed by Berber incursions. Once this period of uncertainty came to an end, mining, whose industrial archaeology is to be seen throughout the district, fuelled the 19th Century economic upturn. Today the economy is based on both tourism and agriculture. | |