The Olèrdola complex. A guide to 4,000 years of a Penedès wine country hilltop town

Olèrdola museum, built in refurbished old masia / rectory overlooking the Penedès wine region and Montserrat, Olèrdola monumental complex

Sitting proud on top of a limestone hill, overlooking the vineyards of the Penedès wine country, and the framed by the majestic Montserrat Mountain in the background, Olèrdola is a fascinating look into the history of wine and wine culture in the Barcelona and Catalonia area of Spain. The Olèrdola complex is located 45 minutes … Read more

Catalonia archaeology heritage – time periods and ages

Chronology Catalonia Time Periods

In archaeology, a standard convention is the division of prehistory and history into three main ages, the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. This three-age system has been used since the nineteenth century, and as a general framework works well. Since the introduction of radiocarbon dating in the mid-twentieth centuries – which allowed for the absolute dating rather than the relative dating used previously –  the three-age system has continued to be used and matched to relatively precise dates.

Across Europe, and the world, different chronologies occured and researchers use different names and definitions, which match the regional or national archaeology. The table below provides the time periods and ages’ names & divisions used by the Inventari del Patrimoni Cultural Immoble Català (Catalan Cultural Heritage Inventory), Generalitat de Catalunya, as it relates to the archaeology of Catalonia. This provides a general resource and resource guide for the dates used in the literature on the prehistory and history of Catalonia. The dates, however, are a moveable feast, in that new sites and finds can change the upper and lower ranges, and more recent publications will use a different sequence.

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What do bp, bc, bce, ad, ce, and cal mean?

BC - BCE and AD - CE terms, with BP

In almost all archaeology books and articles the authors use dates. Seeing ‘bp’, or ‘BP’, or ‘BC’ is common, and they are often used together. So, what’s the difference between them, and why use both? AD, ad, CE ‘AD’ means Anno Domini. This is the Christian era in the Gregorian calendar, starting from 1 AD … Read more

The archaeology and history of Catalonia, Part 1 – first hominins

Homo heidelbergensis group, Atapuerca, by artist Mauricio Antón. From http://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/historia/grandes-reportajes/atapuerca-la-cunade-los-humanos-mas-antiguos-de-europa_7021/3

A million years before modern humans (Homo sapiens) inhabited present-day Catalonia, this northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula was home to communities of hominins who shared the landscape with other large fauna such as mammoth, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, as well as carnivores such as hyena, jaguar, and wolf. Compared to later periods of prehistory, we have … Read more