The origins of any property ultimately lie in the very origins of the land itself, so we could go on with tons of bibliography and documents, but let’s focus on the more recent past, “only” 4,200 years ago…(after all, it is estimated that the Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old, so it is only 4,200 little years)… For this we will go back to the year 3,000 BC (give or take a year…), the Bronze Age, and what in our region was called the “Motillas culture”. The so-called “Motilla del Retamar” dates from that period, located entirely in Pago los Cerrillos. And it is still the subject of in-depth archaeological studies today, as it is believed that it can show us wonders of the time even more relevant than those already shown to the public in the nearby “Motilla del Azuer”, in Daimiel, also in the province of Ciudad Real.

The wheat that resisted climate change 4,200 years ago

An investigation reveals how ancient farmers in La Mancha circumvented the devastating effects of low temperatures.

Rain disappeared for centuries, rivers dried up, valleys transformed into deserts, and finding water became a pipe dream. Perpetual drought wasn’t the only problem facing those who inhabited this planet 4,200 years ago. The significant drop in temperatures forced them to face severe climate changes and learn to survive in extreme conditions. In the area we know today as La Mancha, settlers designed innovative structures called motillas (hills) that served to monitor available groundwater and store grain. Research led by archaeologist Luis Benítez de Lugo, a professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, has just discovered carbonized wheat seeds that managed to adapt.
The discovery was made on the Retamar motilla, built on the Guadiana River in Argamasilla de Alba (Ciudad Real) and surrounded by the exceptional vineyards of PAGO LOS CERRILLOS. The seeds were found inside ceramic containers, although they date back to the Bronze Age, the period in prehistory when tools made of this metal began to be developed. Research confirms that wheat grains were exposed to much lower temperatures than we know today and still survived. In this way, the population was able to overcome the adversities of climate change, which had nothing to do with human intervention. Those human beings based their livelihood on livestock and agriculture, and there were no economic inequalities among them because all resources belonged to the group.
To overcome the effects of climate change on their livelihoods, the inhabitants of the La Mancha plain found a successful solution: they realized that if they dug a little into the earth, they could find large reserves of water. To control them, they built motillas, networks of monumental wells serving a livestock community primarily dedicated to raising sheep. Currently, 45 motillas are known, the most important being the Azuer, in Daimiel (Ciudad Real). This site was declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 2013, a goal that Benítez de Lugo also pursues with the Retamar motilla located in PAGO LOS CERRILLOS. “These monuments don’t exist anywhere else. The important thing is the whole. We must prevent destruction and plundering of one of the earliest examples of regional architecture,” he emphasizes.

Estructuras milenarias
Las motillas son instalaciones construidas en zonas llanas, de planta circular, con doble o triple muralla y una torre central. En su interior se abre un pozo de grandes dimensiones realizado con los medios rudimentarios de la época. El objetivo era alcanzar el nivel freático, el lugar donde se concentran los acuíferos. Su existencia se conoce desde tiempos inmemoriales, pero las primeras referencias escritas no se encuentran hasta finales del siglo XIX. La motilla del Retamar comenzó a estudiarse arqueológicamente en 1984, y las últimas actuaciones datan de los años 90. Los trabajos desarrollados durante septiembre y octubre de 2019 por el equipo de Benítez de Lugo han sido financiados por el Gobierno autónomo, el Ayuntamiento de Argamasilla de Alba, un patrocinador privado y la colaboración de Bodegas Montalvo Wilmot, y han servido para descubrir recipientes cerámicos que han arrojado un halo de luz sobre el uso de estas estructuras milenarias.
“Es una prueba de que las motillas, además de ser fuentes de aprovisionamiento de agua, eran lugares en los que se almacenaba grano. También debieron de estar dotados de una fuerte carga sagrada y simbólica, porque existen enterramientos alrededor de estos pozos, probablemente para legitimar su propiedad y uso”, confirma Benítez de Lugo. En su opinión, las motillas son el reflejo de un cambio social de gran calado, porque suponen un incremento de las desigualdades y el inicio de la jerarquización social. Todo está vinculado a la escasez de recursos, que limitó por completo el acceso al agua. El arqueólogo sostiene que el objetivo de la investigación era averiguar las fórmulas que las sociedades de la Edad del Cobre utilizaron para hacer frente a una contingencia climática. Y así fue como descubrieron unas semillas que serán analizadas por Leonor Peña, arqueobotánica del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). Benítez de Lugo indica que los granos pertenecen a dos variedades, triticum durum y triticum dicoccum, capaces de resistir a condiciones climáticas extremas. Y, como ha quedado demostrado, también de mantener con vida a nuestros ancestros.

THE ORIGIN OF THE HALBERD

The excavation at the Retamar motilla has also yielded an exceptional instrument, a reflection of a society subjected to tension and violence: the halberd. It is an elongated metal piece made from a copper and arsenic alloy and is being studied by Ignacio Montero, an expert in archaeometallurgy at the CSIC. Halberds are characteristic of the early Bronze Age, the period in which motillas emerge. Although there are fragile pieces that may have had a ceremonial purpose, they are generally instruments specifically designed to cause death by means of a spike inserted into the neck.

Halberds were a weapon widely used by infantry troops much later, during the Middle Ages, to repel heavy cavalry. It has been used in China since ancient times, and until now, it was believed that it was introduced to Europe in the 14th century by the Teutons and Scandinavians, although it was Swiss mercenaries who made it famous. The halberd, Benítez de Lugo points out, is the remote origin of the pikes the Spanish used in Flanders.