La Contestania. La Illeta Ibérica
Illeta dels Banyets is located within the Iberian territory of Contestania.
Distribution of contemporary peoples on the Iberian Peninsula. Hall of Iberian Culture at the Marq
Traditional researchers limited the Contestan territory to the area between the Jucar and Segura rivers, a space similar to that of the current province of Alicante. Nowadays, researchers such as Lorenzo Abad propose to extend the limits to include part of Albacete and Murcia.
Iberian contestania 30 years later L. Abad
Recent archaeological surveys in the vicinity of the Illeta have documented sites from the Iberian period, mainly concentrated in the valleys leading from Penya Roja, Busot, to the coast. Metallurgical activity related to the open-cast iron mines located at Penya Roja has been documented at several sites (17).
Location of the Iberian sites in the immediate surroundings of the Illeta.
http://aiguesbaixes.wix.com/elcampello#!arqueologia/c10fk
In this context, the Illeta would act as a Emporio. It is an economic enclave that collected iron ore and natural raw materials, such as grapes, olives, cereals and esparto grass, and processed them for export. In addition, materials imported from other parts of the Mediterranean such as Ibiza, Carthage, the area around the Straits of Gibraltar, Greece and Magna Graecia have been found at the site, indicating the intensity of the trade that took place.
This is the distribution of the streets and buildings on the Illeta from the middle of the 4th century BC until the first half of the 3rd century BC. This plan shows all the known structures; those that are preserved today, some documented by Enrique Llobregat and by Francisco Figueras Pacheco but which have now disappeared, and the remains visible on the surface that have not yet been excavated.
