Some 4,900 years ago, during the Copper Age, a group of humans constructed a formidable fortress on a hill in what is now the Spanish city of Almendralejo in Badajoz province. This stronghold was protected by three concentric walls, 25 bastions or semicircular towers, and three deep ditches measuring up to four meters wide and two meters deep. Spanning 13,000 square meters, the complex featured robust stone and adobe walls, with a single entrance just 70 centimeters wide — designed to make it virtually impregnable.
Yet, despite its formidable defenses, the fortress was ultimately destroyed, burned, and razed by enemies, then abandoned 400 years after its construction.
It has been a while since we have had a good archaeology post. Badajoz is a strategic area. It was the site of a key battle in a the Napoleonic Wars several millennia later.
Read the whole thing at ElPais.com
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