New data on Ditch 5 from the site of Marroquíes (Jaén, Spain)

This study presents the results of an archaeological intervention (area RU-1 (1-2-3)/SUNP-1) in the city of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain) on a sector of the vast prehistoric site of Marroquíes. The excavation specifically explored a segment of Ditch 5, one of several concentric ditches forming part of the vast enclosure. As elsewhere at the site, this ditch is characterized by a trough-shaped section and, although there is no evidence of a flanking wall, one of its backfills (Stratigraphic Unit 11) could stem from the dismantlement or erosion of an adjacent earthwork or adobe wall. The presence of secondary depositions of specific human remains atop the layer of backfill (Stratigraphic Unit 11) of the ditch appears to correspond to the final phase of a funerary practice. As radiocarbon dates and stratigraphic analysis suggest, these secondary human depositions were deliberately placed here (in a partly filled and abandoned ditch along the boundaries of the settlement), probably long after their deaths. Radiocarbon dating places the deaths of these individuals in the second half of the 3rd millennium cal BC, but they ended up in the ditch at a later date. They appear not to have served as references to specific ancestors or families, but to the community as a whole, which would have been bonded by acknowledging these anonymous ancestors. In any case, the space between Ditch 5 and Ditch 4 was not intended for households but for funerary activities and possibly for farmlands and areas for livestock.