Murcia Exposed

The Northeast is the most northern district of the Region of Murcia. Limited to the east by the Alto Vinalopó and the Vinalopó Medio (in the county of Alicante); to the south with the Vega Alta del Segura (in the Region of Murcia); and to the north and to the west, with the county of Albacete. It is a less mountainous area with a large expanse of dry farming land well suited to the cultivation of the vine and the olive. Here the climate is much harsher, with low temperatures in winter and extenuatingly hot summers.
It is constituted by four municipalities, principally Yecla and Jumilla which has over 56,000 inhabitants, and Fortuna and Abanilla. It is formed by wide valleys crossed by a net of watercourses, most of which empty into the rí­o Segura.
Its early history starts in the early Palaeolithic Age with remains at La Rambla de Jumilla and La Fuente in Yecla; and the deposit at El Cerco in Jumilla from the first human groups who developed carved and bifacial stones.
The largest number of remains in Murcia date from the Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) period - Loma de las Gateras (Jumilla), and the most important Late Palaeolithic cave deposits in Murcia include Monte Arabi in Yecla.
Until now few Neolithic findings have been found in the Northeast with the exception of El Prado (Jumilla).
The Region of Murcia is one of the most privileged parts of the Peninsula in terms of post-Palaeolithic cave paintings, and in particular the sites at Monte Arabi and Cantos de Visera (Yecla), El Peliciego, Canto Blanco, El Buen Aire and La Calesica (Jumilla).
El Prado seems to have been a farming plain settlement from the Chalcolithic period, and the burial traditions of this age, false-domed tombs, being the most frequent, are found at Cueva de los Tiestos (Jumilla), Las Atalayas and Cuchillo (Yecla), and el Barranco de la Higuera (Fortuna).
At the height of the Iron Age, Iberian culture was one of the most important movements in western Europe and Jumilla"s Coimbra del Barranco Ancho was where remarkable archaeological relics have been unearthed.
Remains of villas and factories from the Roman culture have been discovered at Los Torrejones (Yecla) and Los Cipreses (Jumilla).