El Oral: the Iberian settlement before San Fulgencio

San Fulgencio is often read through its eighteenth-century reclaimed fields and modern residential districts. El Oral takes the story much further back. This Iberian settlement occupied a position near the ancient lower Segura coast, and its excavated plan shows houses and streets belonging to a community connected to Mediterranean exchange.

The local story

MARQ records El Oral as an Iberian archaeological site in the San Fulgencio municipality and dates key material to the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Imported amphorae show that this was no isolated village. The coastline and river have shifted since then; today's dry fields make the old maritime setting easy to miss. That change is part of what makes the site worth understanding.

Plan the visit

Read the MARQ material first, then use only authorised public viewpoints or a formally arranged site visit. Low walls are archaeological fabric, not paths; do not cross fences or pick up fragments. The settlement's value lies in the plan and its relation to the ancient river mouth, so a map or museum display often helps more than a hurried drive to an unstaffed gate.

How it connects

Guardamar's La Fonteta adds a Phoenician chapter to the same ancient coastal network.

Sources

Written in September 2026 using MARQ, Museo Arqueológico de Alicante.