History of the research

​In 1989 the Spanish team of Oviedo University led by Juan Antonio Fernández-Tresguerres Velasco started a collaboration with the French Institute of Archaeology of the Middle East, during which Fernando Junceda produced a first map of Jebel al-Mutawwaq and performed the first inventory of the megalithic structures. The excavations continued in different areas of the site (in particular the EB I village) since the premature death of Prof. Fernández-Tresguerres in 2011. Since 2008 several campaigns were also conducted in order to modernize and systematize the studies on the Jebel Al-Mutawwaq area. In 2009 and 2012 a new cartographic base was made by the Arqueocad SL company including the megalithic structures fields (mounds and dolmens).

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During the April 2012 campaign, over 5000 points were taken for the structures of the, including both the outer wall and the preserved houses. These structures are dated at the end of the Chalcolithic Period and at the beginning of the Bronze Age. The points of the soundings made by Juan Tresguerres in its various campaigns work have also be taken.

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The purpose of this measurement and the realization of this plan was the establishment of a network of bases and consistent references to campaigns carried out on the site for the future. After that prof. Fernández-Tresguerres died, in a meeting in Oviedo between his scholars Juan Muniz and Valentin Alvarez with Andrea Polcaro of Perugia University in winter 2012, the new project about the exploration of the Jebel al-Mutawwaq dolmen field was organized. Now the project is coordinated by Andrea Polcaro of Università degli Studi di Perugia and Juan Muniz of Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca.