Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

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Lavanda
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Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby Lavanda » Mon Mar 07, 2022 9:51 am

In the old, old days Spain was not divided into provinces but areas settled and controlled by one tribe or another. Then along came the Romans. Modern Badajoz province in Extremadura was part of the western bit of modern Andalucia and formed the Roman province called Baetica (although there are other ways to spell that). Badajoz has a lot of old shared history with Andalucia and recently I finally went to visit the ruins of a Celtic hilltop village called Castrejón de Capote. It was a thriving community of several hundred years standing until it was destroyed by the Romans; the men were killed and the women and children enslaved. Here's the link but try to ignore the misplaced Celtic music:

https://arqueotrip.com/capote-yacimiento-celta/

On the day when I went there was no one else around and I could enjoy the place in silence at my own pace. The interpretation centre is currently under renovation but the man there is very knowledgeable and delighted to answer questions. Most of the artefacts discovered in the village are in the Archaeological Museum in Badajoz but some Phoenician amphoras are on display and these originally contained oil.

The site itself is magnificent, surrounded on three sides by two rivers. Looking out at the surrounding landscapes of dehesa it is easy to imagine the area has not changed that much in millennia. The village has an impressive (ruined) gateway and there are signs of a plaza and working area for the village men who worked iron. The main street with dwellings off to both sides is clear and the ruins are easy to interpret. The buildings were constructed of stone until about chest height when the rest of the walls were made of adobe. The roofs were thatched and/or made of various vegetable-plant-based materials. These would have been the first to deteriorate and they are all gone.

There are easy and enjoyable walks around the site — which is not big and the rivers are pretty. Give it another month and the cistus and lavender will be in flower. There are benches and areas shaded by oaks in which to have a picnic BUT the whole place is rubbish-free — as it should be.

The site is a few kilometres south of the town of Higuera de Real which is very Andalucian in aspect, especially the houses. It is, after all, only a few kilometres from the Andalucian border and people speak with an Andalucian twang. They make great coffee.

BENIDORM
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Re: Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby BENIDORM » Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:45 pm

Lavanda,
Very interesting,Thank You, and we hope that when life is calmer we will be able to visit it.

Celtic,La tene culture was big, covering most of Europe including the Iberian peninsular, but seemed to be mainly in the North West of Spain.
I have a few Celtic ,'La tene culture' aretfacts exhibited in my museum, small items such as straight pins and ring money, found in the UK but probably originated in Gaul..
Saludos,
Gordon.
Last edited by BENIDORM on Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lavanda
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Re: Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby Lavanda » Mon Mar 07, 2022 2:36 pm

I am hoping to visit your museum in April. The Argentine parents of my daughter-in-law have bought her an apartment on the Costa del Sol and my OH and I plan to visit next month. Your museum sounds like my sort of place and I am looking forward to it.

olive
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Re: Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby olive » Mon Mar 07, 2022 6:38 pm

Informative write up. It is already on our list, thanks.

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elizabennett
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Re: Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby elizabennett » Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:46 pm

That is amazing. Thank you for sharing.

olive
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Re: Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby olive » Sat Apr 30, 2022 6:55 pm

Well we finally got ourselves to Capote today.

Mixed bag. First the good news. We came up from Seville and approached via the Aracena road as it is shown as scenic n our map. We weren’t disappointed. Lovely sweeping green countryside. Dehesa with livestock. The spring flowers are magnificent. I havenever seen so much wild lavender. The cistus are much bigger plants than the ones prevalent in the Poniente. Ours are pink. These are the white ones with coloured eyes.

Finding the site was easy enough but not signed in the distinctive manner of Andaluca. The turning is on the right on the way up to Higuera Real.

Now the not so good. It was closed with a not very clear handwritten sign saying when it might be open. Having come so far ( as part of a much longer journey) we were very disappointed. We toyed with the idea of circumventing the fences and gates and having a look around outside. That might have been acceptable twenty years ago but the thought of an internet intruder alert put us off. We will just have to come back as part of a planned two day visit to Caceres. One thing for sure, I will check on opening hours before visiting again. There is one in Higuera. Might be worthwhile for anyone else visiting to do the same before the place is up and running normal hours.

Onward and upwards. We are staying in a bodega hotel just north of Zafra.

Lavanda
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Re: Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby Lavanda » Sat Apr 30, 2022 7:16 pm

How disappointing. When I visited, the Interpretation Centre was undergoing refurbishment. The man there did say the place would be closed over the usual lunch hours but if we got back from our visit before he was back we should just go over the wall to the left of the (locked) gate, coming from the centre. We did do this. However, I can understand your frustration and I feel I want to apologise personally ...

olive
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Re: Capote — Celtic Hilltop Village

Postby olive » Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:30 pm

No need to apologise at all. Life is too short! We do like the lesser known stuff. Alta Mira is brilliant but the-bat caves at Zuheros are equally impressive. Just less well known.

For years we lived looking at a defensive wall around a meeting place. We went and examined it and concluded ( wrongly) it was just a natural feature. Now each summer it is being excavated and knowledge is being gained. The local farmers including us, all have examples of ancient hide processing tools. Mine are just fragments of stone but some friends have exquisite examples in rare stone. Give it twenty years and there will be a visitor centre there too.

On a separate subject, we have had a look at mawky olive trees here in extramadura and can understand how you might think sheep might graze under them but our Poniente trees are completely different productive animals!


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