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51-571: There is evidence of settlement in the area from Middle Paleolithic . However, it is on dispute if the current city dates from visigothic times or before, though certainly it existed in the 11th century, during the Muslim period . After the Christian conquest , it became Seigneury , Principality , Duchy and finally Marquisate , until the people, encouraged by the Catholic Monarchs , revolted against

102-574: A brief Carthaginian period, the Romans took over. Romanization in this part of Iberia was intense, the Via Augusta communicated this part of the Empire to the metropoli and so several cities thrived, from which the one known as Ilici Augusta (now Elche) even reached the status of colonia . After a brief period of Visigothic ruling, the area was taken by Islamic armies and became a part of Al Andalus . From

153-718: A historic, artistic and archaeological point of view, the Treasure of Villena constitutes a "unicum", a non-normalised deposit, according to its weight and content (A. Perea). In fact, it is the second most important golden tableware finding in Europe, after that of the Royal Graves in Mycenae in Greece (A. Mederos) Middle Paleolithic Fertile Crescent : Europe : Africa : Siberia : The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic )

204-547: A low ebb due to harsh competition from fast pace growing economies in Asia. The traditionally important toys industry around the Ibi and Onil area is another one competing internationally with those same areas. A sector which has gained preeminence during the last 20 years is marble quarrying and processing, it happens mostly in the Novelda and Pinós area. Still, what the province is known for

255-576: A molecular biologist, has controversially claimed, based on a comparison of canine DNA, that dogs may have been first domesticated during the Middle Paleolithic around or even before 100,000 BCE. Province of Alicante Alicante ( / ˌ æ l ɪ ˈ k æ n t i / , also UK : /- t eɪ / , US : / ˌ æ l ɪ ˈ k ɑː n t i , ˌ ɑː l -/ ; Spanish: [aliˈkante] ; Valencian : Alacant [alaˈkant] ; officially: Alicante / Alacant )

306-674: A number of museums, standing out the Archaeological Museum "José María Soler" . Among the main cultural events are the Moors and Christians festival and the Concurso de Jóvenes Intérpretes " Ruperto Chapí " (Young Interpreters Contest). The first known name of the area is Ad Turres , which appears in the Vascula Apollinaria and has been identified with some of the Roman villas or postae in

357-532: Is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community . It is the second most populated Valencian province. Likewise, the second and third biggest cities in the Valencian Community— Alicante and Elche , respectively—are located in this province. Alicante is bordered by the provinces of Murcia on the southwest, Albacete on the west, Valencia on the north, and

408-640: Is an important archaeological site of the Bronze Age located on a hill 2 km from the town of Villena. It was a regional center inhabited between 1500 and 1100 BC, and probably belonged to Argaric culture . After the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula the city was called Medina Bilyana ( Arabic : مدينة بليانة ) and was one of the seven cities mentioned in the Treaty of Tudmir . Calatrava knights conquered

459-468: Is believed that, based on its resemblance to the previous Cabezo Redondo hoard, the trove was buried by the ancient inhabitants of Cabezo Redondo. Villena is home to the most crowded festival of Moros y Cristianos in Spain. It is also home to one of the biggest rock / heavy metal festivals in Spain, Leyendas del Rock , which takes place every August. The economy of the city is based on footwear (like in

510-582: Is its massive tourism sector . The Costa Blanca 's generally mild and sunny weather attracts millions of tourists from other European countries such as the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Norway or France and also from other parts in Spain like Madrid. Thousands of families from other places own a second home in the Alicante province which they use for their vacation time. Traditionally, Alicante province

561-512: Is mostly flat to the south, in the Vega Baja del Segura area; the most elevated points in the province are Aitana (1,558 m), Puig Campana (1,410 m), Montcabrer (1,389 m), Carrascar de la Font Roja (1,354 m), Maigmó (1,296 m), Serra de Crevillent (835 m) and El Montgó (753 m). All of these peaks are a part of the Subbaetic Range . The coast extends from the cape, Cap de la Nau , in

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612-559: Is the place where the Via Augusta led first into the Meseta Central ), and, being at the middle of towns as Biar , Sax , Font de la Figuera , Yecla or Caudete made Villena an important transports junction. Villena's municipality, having an area of 345,6 km in the second widest in the province of Alicante. Villena region played an important role during the Bronze Age , and in the development of early metallurgy. Cabezo Redondo

663-561: Is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe , Africa and Asia . The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic broadly spanned from 300,000 to 50,000 years ago. There are considerable dating differences between regions. The Middle Paleolithic was succeeded by

714-484: The Madrid–Levante high-speed rail network , and Villena, which sees Renfe local and regional trains. Desde el punto de vista histórico, artístico y arqueológico, el Tesoro de Villena constituye un «unicum», un depósito no normalizado, por su peso y contenido (A. Perea). De hecho, se trata del segundo tesoro de vajilla áurea más importante de Europa, tras el de las Tumbas Reales de Micenas en Grecia (A. Mederos). [From

765-703: The Mediterranean Sea on the east. The province is named after its capital, the city of Alicante (also known in Valencian as Alacant ). According to the 2018 population data, Alicante ranks as the fourth most populous province in Spain (after Madrid , Barcelona and Valencia ), with 1,838,819 inhabitants. Cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants in the province are Alicante (334,757 inhabitants), Elche (230,112), Torrevieja (101,792), Orihuela (86,164), Benidorm (71,034), Alcoy (61,552), Elda (55,168), and San Vicente del Raspeig (53,126). The province has

816-707: The Upper Paleolithic subdivision which first began between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago. Pettit and White date the Early Middle Paleolithic in Great Britain to about 325,000 to 180,000 years ago (late Marine Isotope Stage 9 to late Marine Isotope Stage 7), and the Late Middle Paleolithic as about 60,000 to 35,000 years ago. The Middle Paleolithic was in the geological Chibanian (Middle Pleistocene ) and Late Pleistocene ages. According to

867-472: The Via Augusta itinerary, at some point between Villena and Font de la Figuera . Near the latter there is evidence of an old Tower already ruined by the 14th century. As for the origin of the term Villena , there is some polemic. Menéndez Pidal proposed an evolution from a hypothetic antroponym Bellius or Vellius and the sufix -ana, as in Lucena (Lucius + -ana) or Maracena (Marcus + -ana), which would give

918-516: The ǃKung and Mbuti peoples . Both Neanderthal and modern human societies took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle Paleolithic. Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have arisen in Middle Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply. It has usually been assumed that women gathered plants and firewood and men hunted and scavenged dead animals through

969-560: The 13th century, kings like Ferdinand III of Castile , James I of Aragon , Alfonso X of Castile , James II of Aragon reconquered the cities that Moors occupied. What today is the Alicante province was initially split between the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon by means of the Treaty of Almizra , however later on the whole territory became under the control of the Kingdom of Valencia , which

1020-480: The 50 provinces of Spain, Alicante is the only one with three metropolitan areas —Alicante–Elche, Elda–Petrer and Benidorm—even though only one of them (Alicante–Elche) is ranked within the Spanish top ten metropolitan areas. It has an area of 5,816.5 km (2,245.8 sq mi), and so it has a population density of 313.8 inhabitants/km . The province is mountainous, especially in the north and midwest, whereas it

1071-874: The Middle Stone Age inhabitants of the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large 1.8-metre (6 ft) long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago, and Neandertals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point , in Africa. Anthropologists such as Tim D. White suggest that cannibalism

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1122-557: The Moula rock shelter in France – may imply that Neanderthals, like some contemporary human cultures, may have practiced excarnation for presumably religious reasons (see Neanderthal behavior § Cannibalism or ritual defleshing? ). The earliest undisputed evidence of artistic expression during the Paleolithic period comes from Middle Paleolithic/ Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos Cave in

1173-481: The Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by ambushing them and attacking them with mêlée weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectile weapons. An ongoing controversy about the nature of Middle Paleolithic tools is whether there were a series of functionally specific and preconceived tool forms or whether there was a simple continuum of tool morphology that reflect

1224-598: The Paleolithic. However, Steven L. Kuhn and Mary Stiner from the University of Arizona suggest that this sex-based division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic . The sexual division of labor may have evolved after 45,000 years ago to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently. Although gathering and hunting comprised most of the food supply during the Middle Paleolithic, people began to supplement their diet with seafood and began smoking and drying meat to preserve and store it. For instance

1275-480: The Roman word Belliana or Velliana . However, Belliana or Bellius have not been documented in Roman times, as well as the evolution from Belliana to Villena involves several phonetic difficulties. So, Domene Verdú indicates that the origin of the toponym would be the term بليانة Bilyāna , purely Arabic , meaning "the filled (by Allah )". This Arabic term, documented from the 11th century on, evolved in two ways. On

1326-485: The Upper Paleolithic. Nonetheless it remains possible that Middle Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of excarnation or predation by carnivores such as saber-toothed cats , lions and hyenas . Around 200,000 BP Middle Paleolithic Stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the prepared-core technique , that

1377-464: The bodies were buried for secular reasons. According to recent archeological findings from Homo heidelbergensis sites in the Atapuerca Mountains , the practice of intentional burial may have begun much earlier during the late Lower Paleolithic , but this theory is widely questioned in the scientific community. Cut-marks on Neandertal bones from various sites – such as Combe Grenal and

1428-480: The city by the king James I of Aragon . This caused some tensions between Castile and Aragon , since Villena should have been reserved to Castile under the treaties of Tudilén and Cazorla , so both crowns had to sign news treaties: The Treaty of Almizra , Torrellas and Elche . After the Christian conquest, Villena becomes the capital of an important seigneury , later duchy, principality and marquisate, until

1479-517: The coast such El Fondo and the former wetlands and now salt evaporation ponds in Santa Pola and Torrevieja. All of them are key Ramsar Sites which make the Alicante province of high relevance for both migratory and resident seabirds and waterbirds. Important coastal dunes are present in the Guardamar area which were planted with thousands of pine trees during the 19th century in order to protect

1530-519: The earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals who possessed a Middle Paleolithic level of technology appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons. Nonetheless Neanderthal usage of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and

1581-401: The extent of edge maintenance, as Harold L. Dibble has suggested. The use of fire became widespread for the first time in human prehistory during the Middle Paleolithic, and humans began to cook their food c. 250,000 years ago. Some scientists have hypothesized that hominids began cooking food to defrost frozen meat which would help ensure their survival in cold regions. Robert K. Wayne ,

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1632-594: The following Upper Paleolithic period. Middle Paleolithic burials at sites such as Krapina in Croatia (dated to c. 130,000 BP) and the Qafzeh and Es Skhul caves in Israel ( c. 100,000 BP) have led some anthropologists and archeologists (such as Philip Lieberman ) to believe that Middle Paleolithic cultures may have possessed a developing religious ideology which included concepts such as an afterlife ; other scholars suggest

1683-827: The form of bracelets, beads, art rock, ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual, though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the Venus of Tan-Tan and the patterns found on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Thuringia may have been produced by Acheulean tool-users such as Homo erectus prior to the start of the Middle Paleolithic period. Activities such as catching large fish and hunting large game animals with specialized tools indicate increased group-wide cooperation and more elaborate social organization. In addition to developing advanced cultural traits, humans also first began to take part in long-distance trade between groups for rare commodities (such as ochre (which

1734-559: The fourth quarter refer to the Lagoon of Villena or the Fuente del Chopo , formerly big wealth sources for the city; the first as a salt evaporation pond and the second as a source of fresh water . The crown is a symbol of the marquisate of Villena . As the coat of arms has never made official, there are different versions according to the City Hall's terms of office, as well as certain polemic about

1785-586: The inner part of the province (Monforte, Novelda, Pinós), also near the coast in the Marina Alta area. Fishing is important all along the coast, with important fishing harbours such as Santa Pola, Calp or Dénia. Industry has been historically important in the textile sector around Alcoy. Footwear still remains as the flagship industrial sector of the province, which occurs in Elche, Elda, Petrer and Villena, both labour-intensive footwear and, specially, textile are at

1836-744: The largest ratio of foreigner population among all Spanish provinces. The total of 446,368 foreigners are registered in the province, which represents 23.6 percent of the total population. Out of 141 municipalities that make up the province, foreign population is above 25% in 54 municipalities, and above 50% in 19 municipalities. The latter include San Fulgencio (80%), Rojales (74%), Benitatxell (69.8%), Algorfa (69.7%), Llíber (67%), Teulada (65.5%), Daya Vieja (64.4%); San Miguel de Salinas (64.3%), Calp (62.8%), Els Poblets (61.6%), Alcalalí (60.8%), Benijófar (58.5%), L'Alfàs del Pi (56.6%), Orba (55%), Xàbia (54%), Torrevieja (53.5%), Murla (52%), Fondó (51.7%), and Benidoleig (50%). From

1887-517: The longest inscriptions remaining in the undeciphered Iberian language were found there. Along the coast and contemporarily to the Iberians, the seafaring Phoenicians (in Guardamar) and Greeks (along the coastal section to the north of the Alicante city) settled stable trading colonies and interacted with the former (see Lady of Elche for the most renowned archeological piece of this period). After

1938-667: The marquis. In 1525 Charles V conceded the title of City to Villena. This is the most economically prosperous period, as shown by the monuments that survived to nowadays. Although a railway station was inaugurated in 1858, economy kept being mainly agricultural until the rural exode that took place in the 1960s. Then, the economic model changed rapidly so that currently economy is based mainly on tertiary sector and industry , chiefly footwear , construction and furniture . The historical city and surroundings contain an important group of historical remains, including two castles and several churches, hermitages, palaces and squares, as well as

1989-463: The neighbouring cities of Elda and Novelda ), pottery , furnitures and wines . Juan Carlos Ferrero , former world no. 1 tennis player, developed the Ferrero Tennis Academy , which has produced such players as Guillermo García-López and Carlos Alcaraz . Villena is located close to Autovía A-31 . It has two railway stations; Villena AV serving AVE high-speed rail services on

2040-587: The north to almost reaching the Mar Menor (Minor Sea) in the south. With regard to water sources, due to the dry rain regime there are no major rivers, but mostly ramblas (dry rivers), which fill in with water when torrential rains occur. The only remarkable streams are the Vinalopó , Serpis , and the river Segura . Other minor seasonal creeks (some completely dried out in summer) are Girona , Algar , Amadorio and Ebo . There are saline wetlands and marshlands along

2091-527: The one hand, following the rules of Medieval Spanish, to Belliena , as is written in the Historia Roderici (around 1180). On the other hand, Belliena was replaced by the Aragonese term Billena after the Christian conquest, which was carried out mostly by Aragonese. The current spelling was consolidated around the 15th century, since Spanish had totally lost the distinction between [b] and [v] and writing

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2142-454: The popular rebellion against the Marquis, instigated by the Catholic Monarchs . The Cabezo Redondo gold hoard was an important archaeological find. It was made by the Spanish archaeologist José María Soler García . The treasure was found in 1959, and contains 35 items of jewelry, including a tiara, finger rings, bracelets, and pendants. Treasure of Villena , another find that is much bigger,

2193-613: The position of the second and third quarter. Villena is placed northwest in the province of Alicante , in the comarca of Alto Vinalopó . It is in the middle of an important crossroad which links the Valencian Community, the Region of Murcia and Castile-La Mancha , in a natural corridor known as Villena's Corridor or Vinalopó's Corridor , since the river Vinalopó flows through the municipal territory of Villena. This corridor has been of capital importance since prehistoric times (this

2244-552: The theory of the recent African origin of modern humans , anatomically modern humans began migrating out of Africa during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic around 125,000 years ago and began to replace earlier pre-existent Homo species such as the Neanderthals and Homo erectus . The earliest evidence of behavioral modernity first appears during the Middle Paleolithic; undisputed evidence of behavioral modernity, however, only becomes common during

2295-470: The ville from the dunes advancing, which has created now an area of remarkable ecologic value. The climate is strikingly diverse for such a reduced area. Three major areas can be cited: The Iberians were the oldest documented people living in what today is the Alicante province. Belonging to these there are several archaeologic sites from which is especially known the one in La Serreta (near Alcoy) because

2346-533: Was a component Kingdom of the Crown of Aragon. Alicante contributes with 12 deputies in the Spanish Parliament and with 36 deputies in the Corts Valencianes , the regional Parliament of the Valencian Community . The main industries in Alicante province are, in the primary sector, intensive agriculture , especially in the fertile Vega Baja del Segura, Camp d'Elx (Elche's countryside) and vineyards in

2397-654: Was also hidden in the Cabezo Redondo area, near Villena, by its ancient inhabitants. This was also found, in 1963, by José María Soler García. It is the most important ancient treasure find in the Iberian Peninsula and the second one in Europe , just behind that from the Royal Graves in Mycenae , Greece . This find was not made at Cabezo Redondo, itself, but at the Rambla del Panadero, 5 km east of Villena. Nevertheless, it

2448-410: Was attracted by the word villa , meaning "town". The coat of arms of Villena has been used traditionally since at least 1477, but has never been made official. The castle in the first quarter comes from the symbol of the Crown of Castile , whereas the lion in the second quarter and the winged hand in the third are legacy of don Juan Manuel , second lord of the city. The three pinetrees and the pond in

2499-519: Was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, based on the large amount of "butchered human" bones found in Neandertal and other Middle Paleolithic sites. Cannibalism in the Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages. However it is also possible that Middle Paleolithic cannibalism occurred for religious reasons which would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during

2550-505: Was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques. Wallace and Shea split the core artifacts into two different types: formal cores and expedient cores. Formal cores are designed to extract the maximum amount from the raw material while expedient cores are based more upon functional need. This method increased efficiency by permitting the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes. This method allowed Middle Paleolithic humans correspondingly to create stone-tipped spears, which were

2601-640: Was often used for religious purposes such as ritual )) and raw materials during the Middle Paleolithic as early as 120,000 years ago. Inter-group trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e., famine or drought). Evidence from archeology and comparative ethnography indicates that Middle Paleolithic people lived in small, egalitarian band societies similar to those of Upper Paleolithic societies and some modern hunter-gatherers such as

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