Iberic Bibliography (English)
The beginning is almost imperceptible, but from time to time it shows itself until it reaches the rock which has been hollowed in order to let it through. In its third part, its depth is about 2 meters and then suddenly, goes down reaching almost 4 to 5 meters. This footpath, presently covered by bushes, pines and undergrowth, you can still see the wheels of the vehicles belonging to the inhabitabts of Meca. These tracks are very deep, indicating the frequency of communications between the people from the fortress and the ones from neighboring villages or the plains.
From the plain to the beginning of the deep path, we estimate a distnce of 900 - to 1000 meters, the sunken path is about 200 meters and its exit would be at the city gate and from this point, in plain Meca, we see in perfect state of conservation 600 meters of streets, missing 150 which remains show what could have been the ruins of a sanctuary and where there are found lots of black and gray tiles/mosaics.
On the deep part of the ditch, there are signs showing that possibly, in that site, trained archers could defend the city without being hurt since the ditch served as a suitable protection as well as an advantageous lookout . We can only marvel at the work done in this ditch and the importance of its city and the ruins herein described.
MESSRS. BREUIL AND COBRE, in Meca, and the cave known as the King Moor, also called to our attention, the rustic paints. The Cave of the Moor King, located under the City of Meca, is a big place measuring 80 meters in length, 15 meters in depth and 10 meters in height, and in prehistoric times was used as a habitat. From its pain, the view is magnificent. Its orientation towards the cave is very close to the precipice, and to walk it, one needs a strong head and firm footage as to not be distracted by the abyss. This path, today being a difficult task even for the mountain goats, show signs that in the past was an accesible roadway, due to the tracks of wheels that slowly and in time, deteriorate it. There are signs of other inhabitants in that area and close to the city of Meca, no doubt living quarters for farmers and laborers in times of peace, and the surrounding caves also show that at one time were lived in.
We believe these caves were dwellings of the ancestors of the people who built the city of Meca. Maybe the authors of the paintings (Neolitic) that have given notoriety to the village of Alpera.
COMMENTS
Due to the times it came to light, in his description of the ruins of Meca stated in a very limited way: "There was a civilization here, most likely roman". Nothing more was added because in those times it didn't matter how far back it was.
CAVANILLES
Same as Escolano describes the ruins, its importance being as dating from the XVIII Century. Description being exact and Meca has not changed much. He also makes notice of the amount of red and grey ceramic fragments.
CANON LOZANO:
Treats Meca somewhat confused as he does with all his other works in his book of Bastitania and Contestania. We can't really pay too much attention to him due to the fact that he tends to let his imagination run very easily. Of course Meca has nothing to do with Almansa. Is far away from it - about 20 or more kilometers, being on the opposite side of Mugron.
Besides, there are other villages closer to Meca, among them Alpera who is only about 3-4 kilometers distant. The reason as to why it is called Meca (these ruins) there is no assurance that at one time there were arabs in the region, as well as no ruins have been found that would give foundations to believe that this city, at one time, was populated by muslims.
We suppose that Meca got its name due to the fact that like many peasants of those
times, everything old was believed to be moorish as we find places in Spain that have names that sound moorish, like: Meca, Sierra de Valdemeca, Meca - in the province of Cadiz, etc. etc. and they called this one Meca, past- present and probably in many years to come, because the people from that area still believe that the moors built it.
The coins of Commodo and Linicio - which Lozano saw in Almansa- and was told were from Meca, doesn't really mean much because they could or could not be from it; and also he doesn't tell us who found them and when.
It seems unlikely also that Meca's name dates back close to a thousand years, even if the arabs were living there; they would not forget the older/primitive name so quickly, it would take some time for them to do so and rename it, as well as there is no radical proof or documents showing otherwise.
CEAN BERMUDEZ:
In describing Almansa erroneously, affirms that it belonged to Villena., no doubt that he wanted to state that during the old times, Almansa as well as the rest of the region at one point, was part of the Marquesatte of Villena (Salazar & Castro- Genealogical History of the House of Lara - Imprenta Real, Madrid 1697).
Everything Cean Bermudez has written is a copy- as can be seen- of Lozano's, thus making the same mistakes as in making Meca part of Almansa.
Also in his referring to Cofrentes/Cofrontes, he is also wrong because Meca is pretty distant from this place. The third statement is the one that speaks about "our" Meca, and he either visited it or was correctly informed about it, because he gives accurate information-given the time of his archeological interest.-
MADOZ:
Due to the nature of his works, limits himself to a simple description.
ARTHUR ENGEL:
As we can see, is very light on the subject and abstains himself of giving a concrete opinion.
PIERRE PARIS:
He starts transcribing Cean Bermudez and notice the error of his mistaking Almansa with Meca, no doubt remembering Paris of what Canonigo Lozano said about Castellar de Meca, and he could not realize that Cean Bermudez copied it exactly from the text Bastitania and Contestania, in the belief that Meca-Almansa was different from Meca-Mugron.
Professor Paris saw in Meca many fragments of ceramic (arabic). We, like him, spent several days in Meca, went to different places and dug in the houses, roads, cisterns and surrounding areas, and did not find a single indication that would point out to the arabs or Mahoma's people, therefore we can only assume that when Tarik and Muza step in, Meca was already deteriorated and collapsed. What caught the attention of Pierre Paris,in finding such ceramic fragments, which is very common in the region,is that everything is smashed except for the ones in the Necropolis in which the urns and other funereal objects are buried deep. This, a problem for Paris, we will try to solve - with all due respect to him- since we are more knowleadgeble about the area and spent quite some time in it (several months).
In the area of Cerro de Los Santos (Hill of the Saints) - Llano de la Consolacion (Meadow of the Consolation) in Marisparza in Los Hitos, in Torreones, in Carrascal, in Villares and other places, this is what happens: it is not a disaster of Nature nor man made conciously, what it is: when the farmer is ploughling, whatever is buried, is snagged by the plough therefore broken into hundreds of pieces, sometimes almost reduced to dust.
In Meca, there are lots of stones that make small pyramids; they are the material that were part of the houses and walls of Meca. They are in this form because in those times, the plains that were part of the city, were used to grow cereals, therefore the pebbles were cumbersome on planting time. The farmers grew tired of working with such a difficult land and when they abandoned it, the earth closed , packing tightly around the fragments that were brought to surface by the ploughs. The water cisterns, now filled with earth were also subject to the strong mudslides, typical of bad weather, of which we bear witness while in Meca, to the terrible storms (in summer) and that is one of the most awesome, imposing and savage spectacles to watch.
Hence, everything is moved, confused and the explanation as to why there is no chronological order showing through the different layers.
SERRANO:
Even though we agree with almost all of his writing, can not accept some of his particulars, especially the one "covered path" which was unnecessary for the people and it could be made up, just to make Meca more inexpugnable - in the mind if the Maestro of Bonete.-
SABATER:
Nothing worth, maybe his feeble imagination made up these giants, marauders, savages and mysteries. His memo-letter is just pure fantasy that makes contrast with the other descriptions. What this person states, makes us think that he just wanted to have fun and wrote his oriental tales, "-Thousand and One Arabian Nights style-".
ALMARCHE:
His "Ancient Iberic Civilization in the Kingdom of Valencia"; magnificent piece of work is limited to the antiquities of Ayara, to what others say of Meca, giving preference to ESCOLANO and CAVANILLES, and states this is the first time that one of the old writers gets his attention; the rest is reference to the iberic ceramic.
DIAZ LLANOS:
In his scientific work of "Notations in reference to Earth and Man", he speaks of the ancient civilizations of Spain- a whole chapter dedicated to Meca, in which it talks about the different versions of different writers, it shows as if he is giving the public, the best information available.
MENENDEZ PELAYO & BOSCH:
A very light work about Meca, done with their professional assertiveness as usual.
Others have written in books and magazines but their work: a) either have not reached our hands or b) or have been incidentally written about.
1. Biblioteca de El Escorial- Manuscritos -"Relaciones Historico-Geographicas de los pueblos de Espana." Tomo 5, Pagina 519.
1. Library of El Escorial - Manuscripts -" History-Geographical tales of the villages or towns of Spain". Volume 5, Page 519.
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