Protohistoric potter’s wheels in the Iberian archaeological site ‘Cerro de las Cabezas’ (Valdepeñas, Ciudad Real)

Abstract

The Iberian archaeological site ‘Cerro de las Cabezas’ has provided four stone pieces that we identify as belonging to potter’s wheels. This oppidum has been revealed as a producer and spreading centre of Iberian pottery. Through the analysis and interpretation of these pieces, as well as the references obtained from other sites in the Iberian Peninsula and the Middle East, we are able to confirm that two of these findings correspond to the same potter’s wheel. As a result, we could take into account this fact as an exceptional circumstance, because, so far, we only know about some scattered pieces taken out of context in the Iberian Peninsula. Consequently, we have maybe found the first complete protohistoric slow potter’s wheel dating from around the third century BC.