EL CASTELLAR D'ELX: THE ORIGIN OF THE MEDIEVAL CITY
Next Friday 1st October until 8th December, in the temporary exhibition rooms of the Museu Arqueològic i d'Historia d'Elx "Alejandro Ramos Folqués" will take place the inauguration of the exhibition El Castellar d'Elx: L'origen de la ciutat medieval (El Castellar d'Elx: The origin of the medieval city).
This exhibition is the result of a new scientific collaboration between the Provincial Council of Alicante, through the MARQ, the University of Alicante and the City Council of Elche, through the Municipal Institute of Culture.
Castellar d'Elx or de la Morera is one of the most interesting archaeological sites that the panorama of Islamic archaeology has to offer in the province of Alicante.
This scientific project also aims to study one of the most controversial and forgotten sites in the field of Islamic archaeology in the province and to find a historical explanation for the existence of this important settlement on the outskirts of Elche in the light of the convulsive processes of the formation of an Islamic society between the 8th and 10th centuries, Among these is the problem of the location of the Arabic place name "Al-'Askar" (the camp), a name that appears in a small number of historical sources relating to events in this region at the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th century.
The project, which began in 2007, is directed by the eminent Hispanist Pierre Guichard, Emeritus Professor at the Université Lumiere II in Lyon (France); by the Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Alicante, Sonia Gutiérrez Lloret and by the medieval archaeologist of the MARQ, Jose Luis Menéndez Fueyo. Together with them, the research team is completed by a large multidisciplinary group of medievalists and researchers from all over our Valencian community.
El Castellar sheds light on the study of the settlement of the city of Elche and its surroundings, being one of the few archaeological sites that can offer specific data to explain the founding of the current city of Elche. For this reason, this exhibition opens a year in which the main cultural events will be directed towards the medieval city that has given rise to the current city of Elche and which will have their climax in the events of the 15th Medieval Festival of Elx.
This exhibition assumes the MARQ's commitment to publicise the most recent research carried out in Alicante archaeology, in this case, on the Islamic world in Alicante, the result of the excavations carried out by the Provincial Council through its Museum, which began almost thirty years ago with the work in the Ribat de Guardamar, in the Castillo del Río de Aspe, in the Castell d'Ambra in Pego and more recently with the restoration of the Almohad Tower of Almudaina.
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