La Loba : Fuenteobejuna, province de Cordoue, Espagne : la mine et le village minier antiques

The metal-bearing veins to be found in the vicinity of La Loba (Fuenteobejuna, Corduba, Spain) were exploited from the Eneolithic period onwards in the area of Los Castillejos and at least since the Late Bronze Age at La Loba. Although the exploration of the mine has had to cease, the neighbouring Roman settlement has been partially uncovered: occupied only at the end of the second and the start of the first century BC, it provides an excellent example of a mining village in the Sierra Morena at the end of the Roman Republic. 

The tools found there prove that the inhabitants of La Loba were miners and laboratory analysis of the waste left over from metal-smelting shows that they produced silver, copper and lead. The archaeological finds (coins, tableware, amphoras) are not only important for the chronological information that they provide, but also reveal the lifestyle of this mixed population from the region and immigrant Italians, as well as their contacts with the outside world, in particular with southern Italy.