ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE · 01

Els Vilars: a Fortress Before the Classical Iberians

The fortress of Els Vilars had towers, ditches and a stone field that made approach difficult.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Interpretative aerial reconstruction of Els Vilars I, towards 600 BCE: oval enclosure, adjoining rectangular houses and stone field set in the ground; hypothetical elevations and roofs. — **ELS VILARS I · TOWARDS 600 BCE · INTERPRETATIVE RECONSTRUCTION · HYPOTHETICAL ROOFS**
Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Interpretative reconstruction generated by AI of Vilars I, towards 600 BCE, guided by the published phase plan by the team of the University of Lleida. Rectangular houses, oval enclosure and stone field respond to archaeological evidence; elevations, roofing, compartment details and landscape are hypothetical. It does not reproduce an exact metric survey. Landscape reference: Chixoy, CC BY-SA 4.0; consulted plan: F. Riart, Els Vilars catalogue, fig. 5.
OpenAI ImageGen; accredited photographic references separately · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source and provenance ↗Terms of use ↗

**ELS VILARS I · TOWARDS 600 BCE · INTERPRETATIVE RECONSTRUCTION · HYPOTHETICAL ROOFS**
Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Interpretative reconstruction generated by AI of Vilars I, towards 600 BCE, guided by the published phase plan by the team of the University of Lleida. Rectangular houses, oval enclosure and stone field respond to archaeological evidence; elevations, roofing, compartment details and landscape are hypothetical. It does not reproduce an exact metric survey. Landscape reference: Chixoy, CC BY-SA 4.0; consulted plan: F. Riart, Els Vilars catalogue, fig. 5.
OpenAI ImageGen; accredited photographic references separately · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source and provenance ↗Terms of use ↗

History and context

Ditches, walls, towers and a stone field protected a settlement from the Early Iron Age; its long sequence obliges us to recount antecedents and transformations.

Evidence and interpretation

Synthesis based on National Archaeological Museum · Auletrix; Museum of Prehistory of Valencia · Iberian world; Museum of Jaén · El Pajarillo. The comparison serves to formulate questions, not to fill gaps in the record with certainties.

Catalogue facts

Civilisation or trajectory: Iberian peoples of the peninsula
Scope: Building and Power
Main area: Mediterranean façade and south of the Iberian peninsula, with communities, languages and trajectories different.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

The Wall Ended Up Containing Centuries of Reconstructions

The new houses of Els Vilars were repeatedly raised over remains of earlier phases. The accumulation within the enclosure produced an artificial mound or tell. Mechanised agricultural work of the 20th century razed part of the upper levels, but a margin between properties conserved a section that still allows viewing the superposition. The case explains why an archaeological plan does not necessarily gather buildings that are contemporary. It also shows that modern losses condition our image of the last fortress as much as ancient abandonment and erosion processes.

Research · University of Lleida · The Vilars Site, Stratigraphic Sequence and ConservationAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

Reference images and provenance

Documentary reference: Els Vilars: a Fortress Before the Classical Iberians. — **REFERENCE PHOTOGRAPH · Chixoy · CC BY-SA 4.0**
Aerial photograph by Chixoy of the current landscape of Arbeca. Els Vilars appears small, in the lower central part: the framing serves to situate the fortress in the plain, not to interpret the detail of its dwellings. Plots and paths are modern. Only format conversion and web reduction; no reconstruction by AI.
Contextual image · Contextual correspondence
Chixoy
Image provenance CC BY-SA 4.0

Location and territory

REGIONAL AREA

Mediterranean façade and peninsular south; not all Iberia was IberianMediterranean fringe and southern peninsula; not all Iberia was Iberian. The footprint indicates the orientative centre of the area, not a boundary nor an exact point.

Sources and references

Consult the sources of this cultural synthesis

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