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the Ebro valley to the north of this area, the Castillo de Lapoblación (1.243 m.;
hereafter Lapoblación but also called León Dormido), appeared particularly prominent from the location of Hechicera.
Thus, inspired by Clive Ruggles’ work on the island of Mull (Ruggles and
Martlew, Archaoastronomy, 17: S1–S13, 1992; see also, Ruggles, Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland. Yale University Press, Yale, 1999, pp. 112–124). We
explore in this paper why Chabola de la Hechicera has that peculiar orientation and
whether its location can be connected to the sighting of that mountain. In particular,
we will explore if this prominent spot could be related to astronomical features
providing a connection with a sacred landscape for the people who built this megalithic burial chamber.
2 Hechicera in Context
Chabola de la Hechicera is located near the small village of Elvillar, in the vicinity
of Laguardia, the capital of the wine region of Rioja Alta, to the south of Alava
province (Basque Country) and at a short distance, as the crow flies, to the Ebro
river (c. 6 km).
Discovered in 1935, the corridor and part of the chamber were excavated in the
following year (1936; Barandiarán, 1957), the same year when the Spanish Civil
War started. A new excavation took place in in 1947 and a larger excavation was
carried out in the mid 70s when some major restoration work was undertaken
(Apellániz & Fernández, 1978). Finally, the last intervention took place in 2010,
which cleaned up the structure and delimited the tumulus (Martínez-Torres,
Fernández-Eraso, Mujika-Alustiza, Rodríguez-Miranda, & Valle-Melón, 2014;
Pérez Vidiella, Miranda, & Valle Melón, 2012).
Chabola is a passage grave formed by a polygonal chamber with 7–9 orthostats
(Fig. 1). The uncertainty in the number of orthostats in the chamber is due to the
presence of two large orthostats between the chamber and the corridor, which are
larger than those inside the corridor, but slightly smaller than those in the chamber
(Narvarte Sanz, 2005: 88–99). At present, a covering stone is placed on top of the
rear part of the chamber, but it was probably broken at some point in the past. Three
pairs of orthostats form the corridor. This is nearly 5 m long and slightly less than
1 m wide. It is apparently segmented in two parts by a closing stone. The 30s and
70s excavations recovered a number of severely damaged human remains together
with stone tools, ceramics and beads from both the chamber and the corridor. In the
upper layers there were also some metallic elements and decorated ceramics perhaps indicating the long use of the chamber (from 3800 BC to 1100 BC in several
phases and stages, see below). In fact, several closing layers, i.e. deposits that are
interpreted as being meant to seal and close the burial in several phases, have been
indicated from the late Neolithic until the early Bronze Age (Narvarte Sanz,
2005: 88–99).
A. C. González-García
the Ebro valley to the north of this area, the Castillo de Lapoblación (1.243 m.;
hereafter Lapoblación but also called León Dormido), appeared particularly prominent from the location of Hechicera.
Thus, inspired by Clive Ruggles’ work on the island of Mull (Ruggles and
Martlew, Archaoastronomy, 17: S1–S13, 1992; see also, Ruggles, Astronomy in prehistoric Britain and Ireland. Yale University Press, Yale, 1999, pp. 112–124). We
explore in this paper why Chabola de la Hechicera has that peculiar orientation and
whether its location can be connected to the sighting of that mountain. In particular,
we will explore if this prominent spot could be related to astronomical features
providing a connection with a sacred landscape for the people who built this megalithic burial chamber.
2 Hechicera in Context
Chabola de la Hechicera is located near the small village of Elvillar, in the vicinity
of Laguardia, the capital of the wine region of Rioja Alta, to the south of Alava
province (Basque Country) and at a short distance, as the crow flies, to the Ebro
river (c. 6 km).
Discovered in 1935, the corridor and part of the chamber were excavated in the
following year (1936; Barandiarán, 1957), the same year when the Spanish Civil
War started. A new excavation took place in in 1947 and a larger excavation was
carried out in the mid 70s when some major restoration work was undertaken
(Apellániz & Fernández, 1978). Finally, the last intervention took place in 2010,
which cleaned up the structure and delimited the tumulus (Martínez-Torres,
Fernández-Eraso, Mujika-Alustiza, Rodríguez-Miranda, & Valle-Melón, 2014;
Pérez Vidiella, Miranda, & Valle Melón, 2012).
Chabola is a passage grave formed by a polygonal chamber with 7–9 orthostats
(Fig. 1). The uncertainty in the number of orthostats in the chamber is due to the
presence of two large orthostats between the chamber and the corridor, which are
larger than those inside the corridor, but slightly smaller than those in the chamber
(Narvarte Sanz, 2005: 88–99). At present, a covering stone is placed on top of the
rear part of the chamber, but it was probably broken at some point in the past. Three
pairs of orthostats form the corridor. This is nearly 5 m long and slightly less than
1 m wide. It is apparently segmented in two parts by a closing stone. The 30s and
70s excavations recovered a number of severely damaged human remains together
with stone tools, ceramics and beads from both the chamber and the corridor. In the
upper layers there were also some metallic elements and decorated ceramics perhaps indicating the long use of the chamber (from 3800 BC to 1100 BC in several
phases and stages, see below). In fact, several closing layers, i.e. deposits that are
interpreted as being meant to seal and close the burial in several phases, have been
indicated from the late Neolithic until the early Bronze Age (Narvarte Sanz,
2005: 88–99).
A. C. González-García