Ethnography and archaeology in Upland Mediterranean Spain

Manolo’s World is an archaeological and ethnographic exploration of a landscape and traditional lifestyle under threat. It examines the structures, fields, history, people and nature of a rugged upland zone of eastern Spain – one away from the chaotic resort expansion of the coasts but one being eroded by local tourism. The survey, undertaken by archaeologists from Leicester and Valencia University and from Denia Ethnographic Museum, investigated the upland region of the Serra de l’Altmirant in the La Safor district, some 30km inland from the coast, between Alicante and Valencia. The Serra landscape comprises a plain enclosed between heights from 623m to 1011m and the exposed slopes of the Vall de Gallinera; it is dotted with corrals, farms, stores, cisterns and terraces now largely abandoned and shrouded in scrub. The fieldwork examines the form, evolution, setting and roles of these varied structures, mapping through these and through ethnographic study the history and character of upland exploitation through time.