Galera is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

comarca A ''comarca'' (, or , or ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, ...

Huéscar Huéscar ( la, Osca) is a municipality of the province of Granada, Spain. History When the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Rome, Osca was a town of the Turdetani, and incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Baetica. However, purporte ...

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Granada,

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...

, Spain, roughly from the provincial capital, Granada.

Demographics

The population of the municipality is distributed among the districts in the following manner (2008): Dama de Galera reducida

History

Two significant archeological excavations have taken place in the vicinity of Galera. One has uncovered the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

Argaric culture The Argaric culture, named from the type site El Argar near the town of Antas, in what is now the province of Almería in southeastern Spain, is an Early Bronze Age culture which flourished between c. 2200 BC and 1550 BC. The Argaric culture ...

, at "

El Castellón Alto EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American ...

" or "Castellón de Arriba", where archeologists have excavated many tombs in several artificial terraces on a hill of vertical walls. The other excavation involves the Iberian Necropolis of Tútugi (in the Cerro del Real) which has several types of tombs. The most numerous of those types consists of a rectangular chamber, covered by a circular

tumulus A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones bu ...

and reached through a long passage. Various objects have been found in these tombs, such as ornaments,

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

and Iberian vases, weapons, and such funerary goods as

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that include ...

clay figures. These have been dated between the 6th and 3rd centuries

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

. The "

Lady of Galera Lady of Galera is an alabaster female figurine, made in the 7th century BC, that probably represents the Near Eastern goddess Astarte. It is at the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, in Madrid. The Lady of Galera is most likely of Phoenici ...

" or "Goddess of Galera" (''see image at left'') was found in the 5th century BCE tomb number 20, zone 1 of the Necropolis.La diosa de Galera
official site of the Ayuntamiento de Galera. Access date 2010-02-03. It is a

n figurine from the 7th century BCE (similar to another found in

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

, North Africa), made of alabaster, and probably represents the goddess

Astarte Astarte (; , ) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess Ashtart or Athtart ( Northwest Semitic), a deity closely related to Ishtar ( East Semitic), who was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name ...

. The "lady" or "goddess" is seated between two

sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...

es and has an opening through which liquid can be poured into it, which will emerge from small holes corresponding to the nipples of the breasts. The robust forms of the figure suggest

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

n influences; the stylization of the clothing and hair suggest

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

influences. It is believed that this sacred object was passed down for many generations before being used as part of a burial. The city maintained its importance in the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

era as "TVTVGI", but fell somewhat in population during the

Visigoth The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kn ...

ic period and the era of Muslim-ruled

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...

. In 1230 by

Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada Rodrigo Jiménez (or Ximénez) de Rada (c. 1170 – 10 June 1247) was a Roman Catholic bishop and historian, who held an important religious and political role in the Kingdom of Castile during the reigns of Alfonso VIII and Ferdinand III, a per ...

, archbishop of Toledo, conquered Galera; it was recovered in 1319 by

Ismail I of Granada Abu'l-Walid Ismail I ibn Faraj (, 3March 12798July 1325) was the fifth Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula from 1314 to 1325. A grandson of MuhammadII on the side of his mother Fatima, he was the first of the lineag ...

, and conquered definitively by Castile in 1488, during the reign of the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being bot ...

Isabella Isabella may refer to: People and fictional characters * Isabella (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Isabella (surname), including a list of people Places United States * Isabella, Alabama, an unincorpor ...

and

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

.Galera
, Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada. Fecha de acceso 2010-02-05. The people of Galera participated in the

Morisco Revolt Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the open p ...

of 1568. In Galera, the revolt was personally suppressed by Don John of Austria, who made a house-by-house assault of the city and salted the fields to make it impossible to grow crops. All the 2500 inhabitants were slaughtered in what is known as the Galera Massacre In the 16th century, Galera was repopulated by families coming principally from

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

, and

La Mancha La Mancha () is a natural and historical region located in the Spanish provinces of Albacete, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, and Toledo. La Mancha is an arid but fertile plateau (610 m or 2000 ft) that stretches from the mountains of Toledo to th ...

.F. Gutiérrez
Fuego para recibir la Navidad
diariosur.es. Access date 2010-02-05.

Notes

External links

official page {{authority control Municipalities in the Province of Granada