Point 4. CERRETANIAN TOWN PLANNING

Point 4. CERRETANIAN TOWN PLANNING

The Cerretanian oppidum covered an area of about 6,000 square metres, bounded by the strong southern wall and by the steep slopes on the other sides, where the walls of the houses formed the effective boundary. The houses inside were built with two rooms, an anteroom and a main room at the back. They were laid out next to one another in terraced rows.

So far 16 domestic units have been identified, all of them with a rectangular floor plan and  around the edge of the settlement. Extrapolating the number of houses according to the relief on the plateau, and placing them in a radial layout, would indicate that there were about forty houses. Bearing in mind that each domestic unit housed 4 or 5 people, this would give an estimated population of between 150 and 200 inhabitants.

The properties are all fairly similar in their structure, and there does not seem to be much detectable variation between them, though those in the southern neighbourhood are a little bigger than those in the eastern part. Separate mention should be made of a house of about 150m2, possibly a chief’s home; a house with two large community hearths; and the plot beside the entrance, with religious connotations.

As regards the central part, this is laid out as a ring of homes around a large square, and there would also have been some features of a communal nature here. Attention is drawn to the presence of a large number of silos for storing cereals, especially in the western half of the site and from the second half of the 3rd century BC onwards. But the presence of a water cistern, stable areas and even blocks of homes must be considered.

Images: Floor plan of Iberian structures, central zone in red.

Images: Floor plan of Iberian structures, central zone.

Illustration: Axonometric projection from inside a row of houses adjoining the wall with the street in front of them.