Aportaciones hidrogeológicas al estudio arqueológico de los orígenes de la Edad del Bronce de La Mancha: la cueva monumentalizada de Castillejo del Bonete (Terrinches, Ciudad Real, España)

Recent studies show that the motillas of the Bronze Age in La Mancha contain the oldest wells in the Iberian Peninsula. But why are there no motillas in Campo de Montiel, a territory traditionally placed inside this cultural area? In Castillejo del Bonete, an archaeological site located in Campo de Montiel, there is a cave used and sealed during Late Prehistory. We here report the first paleohidrogeological interdisciplinary research in La Mancha, analyzing some spring and freatic levels from the Campo de Montiel aquifer, as well as from inside the Castillejo del Bonete chasm. Our findings suggest an association between the hydrogeological substrate and the spatial distribution of the motillas, discarding the idea that the chasm at Castillejo del Bonete could be a mine or an aquifer access. This supports the idea that Castillejo del Bonete was an exceptional symbolic monument during the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age, within a new type of site of the cultural group of the Bronze Age of La Mancha.