The Cigarralejo museum

The Cigarralejo is about 4 km. Mula city in the right bank of the River, the northern tip of a mountain chain oriented in SW- NE. Has the peculiarity of being one of the few settlements in the Iberian simultaneously known town, the necropolis and the sanctuary. Located at a crossroads that links to other sites Iberian environment, as the head of Uncle Pio ( Archena ) and Coimbra del Barranco Ancho ( Jumilla ), via Yéchar . This route passes an ancient Roman road that links all with the High Andalusia meseteño southeast and east coast .

Emeterio Cuadrado discovered by chance the sanctuary in 1945 , carrying out excavation between 1946 and 1948. Its privileged location atop a rock wheel , give it a natural defense , while overlooking the entire area. This is a unique building that would complement the town in its political, administrative and religious . 29 x 12 m. , consists of a central aisle along which articulate a series of units , made with masonry walls of various thicknesses, perfectly adapted to topography . Done in the same period , possibly in the s. IV a. C., still in use until s. II a. C., when it was abandoned after suffering a fire , but not before ritually hide beneath a wall of the room H.11 , a set of votive or offerings. Most of them are small sandstone carvings in the form of horses , either singly or in pairs or mare with foal pairs , some richly caparisoned . There is no shortage of human representations , male and female , in the round and collected attitude . The detailed study of these votive has enabled a deeper knowledge of the harnesses of the horses of the Iberian clothing and appreciate different hand craftsmanship .

Inscripcion Ibérica
At the foot of that wheel , the cemetery sits , with an approximate area of 1940 m2. E. It Iberian burials discovered 547 square , framed chronologically between the early century IV and I a. C. The campaigns were conducted between 1948 and 1988, when that ran out of land that was his property , leaving for future interventions , some 800 m2. The systematic excavations have been allowed to have an understanding of the religious and funerary ritual in Iberian -Segura Mula area , where much of the graves where the dead were deposited once or cremated on the pyre ustrinum , with his " grave goods "were covered with a square-shaped mound of cobbles and different size , based on the social status of the deceased. Another feature of this cemetery is the presence of stone sculptures in the type - Estela Pilar , placed on top of some of the most ancient tombs , sculptures that are destroyed in the second half of the s. IV a. C. for reasons yet to be defined .

The grave goods recovered are very varied , being basically composed of tools and implements used in daily life such as pottery containers , agricultural tools, or related to the textile and tanning of hides , ornaments and weapons and prestige . The study of all as it was approaching us daily activity in the town , which still can be seen on the surface, the layout of the house walls and the remains of the wall that had to protect it in case of danger , but needed for the conduct of the relevant archaeological excavations allow us to have an overview of this interesting group Iberian .