History of Cabrera (Pre-history to 8th Century)

This page gives an account of the history of the Cabrera area up to the beginning of the Moorish era. Click here for a briefer account of how history impacts on the village today.

Pre-History

In this first part, we look briefly at the beginning of human settlement in the Iberian peninsula and, of course, the area near Sierra Cabrera. Pre-history, generally taken to be the period of human life on earth before written records were made, will help to set the scene for all that followed.

Human habitation in Spain began when the elephant hunters of Torralba (Soria) appeared. They lived during the Old Stone (Palaeolithic) Age, when the inter-glacial climate resembled that of equatorial Africa. Along with quartzite hand-axes and other weapons, the bones of elephants, hippos, rhinos, giant bears and lions have been unearthed.

The Gibraltar woman and her more famous cousin dug up in Germany about the same time: the Neanderthal man, were from the same period, circa 50,000 BC. These legendary low-brows, who fashioned the first spears and observed funeral cults, probably came from beyond the Pyrenees; African origin is unlikely. They were nomadic hunters who used fire and stone tools, but didn't have a clue about agriculture, the raising of livestock or building boats.

The Neaderthals were first Iberians to feel the brunt of foreign invasion when Cro-Magnon man began arriving around 40,000 BC. Whether they came from Africa or north of the Pyrenees is not yet clear. The Cro-Magnons were precursors of modem man in physical appearance and could boast flint tools, rituals and art. Because theirs was a colder time, they tended to live in caves, and still used rough (rather than polished) stone implements, hunted mammoth, bison and reindeer, and had quaint customs like fashioning drinking cups from human skulls. Among the many caves that sheltered this race is the one at Nerja (Málaga).

Old Stone Age life reached its pinnacle in the Magdelanian culture, which stretched across southern France and the Cantabrian range in Iberia over a period of some 10,000 years. These are the cultural innovators who painted animals in Altamira and hundreds of other caves around present-day Santander. One outpost may have been at Benaojan near Ronda (Málaga), site of the La Pileta Cave and its magnificent wall paintings. However, there is some debate about the origins of this marvel of troglodyte art, as the drawings depict a giant fish and an archer, rare subjects in the Magdelanian world.

Another major discovery of prehistoric art was the unearthing of several thousand stone plaques, mostly engravings of animals, at Parpallo Cave (Valencia). This astounding collection consists of sketches from a period stretching over three thousand years.

Even more mysterious are the origins of the now extinct Guanche culture of the Canary Islands, which still existed when the first Europeans arrived around AD 1400. Some romantics believe the Guanches were survivors from the "Lost Continent" of Atlantis, but archaeological evidence suggests that the tall, fair people arrived from North Africa during the Cro-Magnon era. The Guanches left hundreds of caves and an alphabet which has not yet been deciphered.

In tracing the beginnings of the use of Sierra Cabrera as a location for habitation, it is clear that in the valley that stretches in a more or less east-west direction from Tabernas through Sorbas to Garrucha, protected by the Sierra Cabrera and the Sierra Bedar, productive life has existed for many thousands of years. The area has a strategic position near the sea and has undoubtedly played an important role in Mediterranean life and trade for a very long time.

There are not many early Stone Age remains here though there is no doubt that humans have lived in the Sierra Cabrera from early on in the history of man. Some indications and traces have however remained of the people that first walked in these mountains back in Palaeolithic times. In the cave "Las Palomas de la Cerró de Teresa", and in the cave "Algarrobo" in the mountains about 2.5 kilometres south-southwest of Cabrera, pottery, primitive tools and simple implements have been found.

The end of the last Ice Age (about 8000 BC in Iberia) ushered in a long transitional period before the arrival of Neolithic (New Stone Age) cultures from the eastern Mediterranean five millennia later. With the gradual warming, the nomadic life of the hunters began to melt away too, as reindeer, vital to their survival, migrated north. One theory holds that with the climatic changes, Magdelanians departed en masse, leaving behind isolated pockets of stay-at-home types. Hence the possible origin of the Basques, who speak a language unrelated to any other.

The Neolithic period brought a host of remarkable changes marking the dawn of civilisation in Mesopotamia and Egypt about the year 5,000 BC. With the arrival of these reforms - cultivation of wheat, use of the plough, livestock raising, use of polished stone implements, basket and pottery-making, permanent villages and fortifications, communal burial rites, boat building, weaving of cloth, even rudimentary work with copper - we can see the arrival of modern man.

In contrast to the painfully slow development of the Old Stone Age, when it took man 100,000 years to figure out how to use stone chips for tools, the innovations of the new era arrived at breakneck speed within the span of three millennia; the blink of an eye in pre-historic time. The shortage of excavated finds means a lot of guesswork, but it appears that the new age reached Iberia by 3,000 BC and spread slowly during many centuries.

Most likely this new culture came from Egypt along the north African coast and from the eastern Mediterranean area via the Danube Valley. The impact of being drawn into this new world was as dramatic for the Iberian Peninsula as the arrival of Spaniards would be to America thousands of years later.

Evidence suggests that various races entered the peninsula during the last 5,000 odd years BC, probably mostly from north Africa. These 'new-comers' have been called Iberians, proto-Berbers, or even refugees from Atlantis, for lack of more concrete evidence. Whoever they were, they brought their own form of art, the "rock-shelter" paintings which have survived along Spain's eastern coast. These are quite distinct from earlier cave drawings and resemble African and even Anatolian (Turkish) art. They were out-of-doors for all to see and depicted group hunting and dancing scenes that seem extrovert compared with the brooding introspection of Altamira.

On the one hand, rock-shelter painting showed progress, using human forms to tell stories. Animals are different species from those in cave art: cattle, deer, mountain goats, wild asses and boars. Civilisation was changing. On the other hand, the new art took a distinct dip from earlier standards; the images are smaller, often just red or black stick men.

This new influence explains the rise of what is called the culture of Almeria, a Neolithic society in south eastern Spain dating from about 2,500 BC. Hotly debated theories abound regarding the roots of this culture, which is considered one of the ethnic cornerstones of the Spanish people. One school traces them to the Hammites, descendants of the biblical Ham; another says that the newcomers were migrants seeking refuge from the choking aridity then transforming much of north Africa into a desert.

There are in fact a number of Neolithic dwellings near Cabrera (late Stone Age 2,500 BC) in the form of caves that can be seen in certain areas such as around Teresa and in the mountains behind El Dondo. They have, however, been vandalised over the years and are no longer yielding any useful information about their inhabitants. There is also one such cave as close as on the perimeter of Cortijo Grande that can be seen high up from the road from Turre.

A second phase at Almeria is called the culture of Los Millares, and the faint ruins of its capital now stand on a bare, eroded hill which 4,000 years ago yielded rich harvests. This emerging bronze culture revolved around local copper deposits. Again theories of its origins proliferate: the Aegean area or perhaps Crete, is mentioned most often.

One intriguing chapter of Iberian pre-history emanating from the Almeria beachhead, was the "era of megaliths". These striking stone burial chambers, often called "dolmens", are found throughout Europe, but appear in abundance on the peninsula. The origins of the megalith-building culture are obscure, but probably go back once again to the eastern Mediterranean. According to the bible, "in those times the earth was inhabited by giants" (Genesis 6,4). Similarly cryptic references also appear in ancient Scandinavian and Germanic lore.

With the spread of these great prehistoric stone cathedrals, Iberia achieved its first "golden age" of architecture. The best examples of megalithic dolmens are found near Antequera north of Málaga, but some examples of Megalithic architecture exist near us in the form of fortified enclosures from 3000 to 4000 years ago, as occur in the archaeological site of Cortijo Gatár in the sierras northeast of Cabrera.

Early History

Throughout most of the peninsula's lengthy history nearly every advanced culture that has developed has then flocked to the "periphery", the hospitable eastern coast and Andalucia. Both the 'meseta' and the rainy north were shunned by civilised men and reserved for barbarians. Hence, the central plateau was little touched by the megalith builders.

At the beginning of the second millennium BC the Los Millares culture of Almeria was in decline caused by internal strife and anarchy. The times were changing and megalithic practices were dying out in favour of individual burials in cists (coffins of stone). More importantly, true bronze technology (mixing copper and tin to the correct proportions) began to appear on the peninsula, with ore-rich Almeria once again taking the lead.

The bronze age - in which metal replaced stone, wood and bones for tools and weapons - lasted until the introduction of iron many centuries later. Metal workers made everything from bronze jewellery to shields (the same level of technology Spaniards encountered in Mexico 3,500 years later). The centre of this new way of life was El Argar near Almeria from which it spread north and west over the next few centuries. Many historians like to call these Bronze Age people, the first “Iberians".

A number of artefacts dating from the Bronze Age have been located near us at Teresa, particularly from the period 1700 to 1300 BC (Argaric period). Mostly, these remains consist of flint tools, shells from the sea and abundant examples of ceramics.

The Iberians were most likely a dark people with elongated skulls who lived in easily defended hilltop settlements. Using various sources, we can piece together a common character sketch of the typical Iberian: he was stoical, quarrelsome, devoted to bulls and horses, suspicious of strangers, superstitious in religion and respectful of elders. Above all, he was individualistic and disliked organisation. In short, much like Spaniards throughout history.

Several European and Middle Eastern cultures now began to intermingle and periodically engage in warfare for the control of Spain. Greeks were followed by Phoenicians, Celts and Carthaginians, attracted by Spain's strategic position at the mouth of the Mediterranean and by its mineral wealth.

The Phoenicians are believed to have arrived in the Mojácar area around the year 1100 BC. They were doubtless attracted to this region - called Murgis - by the fame and riches of nearby Urci (present-day, Villaricos), a market town where silver was abundant, and they settled on the hill which we know as "Old Mojácar" (the terraced flat-topped hill on the left as you approach Mojácar from Turre). The plain that the rivers Almanzora, Antas and Aguas now flow across was a bay of the sea in ancient times, bordered by the Sierras de Almagrera and Cabrera. Excavations have brought Phoenician, Iberian and Roman remains to light at various places along the coast (e.g. at nearby La Roza) at more than five metres below sea level.

The Carthaginians came from present day Tunisia. Remarkably little is known about this era although they ruled most of the Mediterranean coast (from the Algarve to Valencia). Later, it fell to Rome to rule the Iberian peninsula, which they called Hispania, for more than six centuries (218 BC to 409 AD). During this decisive period the country was changed to such a degree as to make previous history seem irrelevant. Romans brought the language that forms the base of all peninsular tongues (except Basque), an advanced legal system, and architectural and engineering principles still used to-day. Some have argued that under Rome, Spain enjoyed political and cultural unity for the first and the last time. The Mediterranean coast also suffered a series of earthquakes in the year 365 AD which may have changed the coastline somewhat; hence the differences noted above.

During this period the Goths were trickling into the Iberian peninsula from the North, whilst a Visigoth domination remained in the north-west, until they were subjugated during the rule of King Leovigild, considered the greatest of all Visigoth rulers.

In our own area remains of urbanisations and walls more than 2000 years old have been found at the Iberian-Roman Villa at Cadima, situated half-way between Turre and Los Gallardos. Cadima was almost continually inhabited in the Ibero/Roman period from about 200 BC to the 8th century AD. It may have been abandoned during the 9th and 10th century and then had another period of use as a population centre by the Moslems, but was finally abandoned in the 16th century.

In the next section, we shall look more closely at early events in the area around Sierra Cabrera and also consider the Moorish domination of Spain which started during the 8th century and lasted for some 7-800 years. The legacy of these years has certainly influenced Spanish life right through to today.

This page is based on an article written in 1996 by runo Ravander for the Cabrera Courier.