Twelve sites for the knowledge of the 'kingdom of tartessos'. decree 3833/1973: Biography of an unaccomplished declaration

Abstract

In the beginning of 1974, the Ministry of Education and Science published a decree declaring a series of sites of public interest, which were considered representative of Tartessian culture. The fascination caused by the archaeological discoveries that took place in Andalusia in the mid-twentieth century also led to an awareness of the risk of losing a large part of this heritage due to urban and rural development. We will examine the real scope of this provision through the particularised analysis of all the cases and their subsequent joint assessment, including both the scientific exploitation and the protection, conservation and dissemination measures adopted in these sites from the enactment of the Decree to the present day. The main conclusion reached was that the application of the Decree had poor continuity and was highly uneven, partly due to the political changes that took place in the following years.