There are places whose history can be taken in at a glance, and others that compel us to look much deeper to understand everything they hold. El Provencio, in the province of Cuenca, belongs to both worlds. Its landscape, its farming tradition, its wine culture and its buildings speak of relatively recent generations; yet beneath this same ground lie traces capable of taking us back hundreds of thousands of years.
On September 25, 26 and 27, 2026, that extraordinary relationship between past and present took centre stage with El Provencio Imperial: a cultural programme that brought together archaeology, Prehistory, historical reenactment and public outreach across different parts of the town and, in particular, along the banks of the Záncara.
As part of those activities, the 8th International Conference on Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology, “When We Were Beginning to Become Us”, was held—an event designed to bring to the public the research that makes it possible to reconstruct some of the earliest chapters of human presence in these lands.
La Hospedería Bodega Nuestra Señora del Rosario had the privilege of hosting the conference on Saturday morning, once again turning a historic building in El Provencio into a meeting place—this time around science, research and public outreach.
For our four-star hotel, doing so also carries a special significance.
La Hospedería occupies part of the former winery of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Cooperative, a space that for decades was linked to farmers, harvests and wine, and that today welcomes travellers, diners and cultural gatherings.
Two stories separated by an immense span of time thus met under one roof.
And both remind us of something essential: to truly discover a place, it is not enough to visit it; we must also understand everything that happened before we arrived.
EL PROVENCIO IMPERIAL 2026: WHEN HISTORY LEAVES THE BOOKS
For three days, El Provencio turned part of its heritage and public spaces into settings for approaching the past from very different perspectives.
The banks of the Záncara hosted a Medieval Market with stalls, atmosphere, reenactments and activities, while the 8th International Conference on Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology provided the scientific dimension of a programme capable of guiding visitors from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages.
The programme addressed research on hunter-gatherer groups, the work of archaeology and ethnoarchaeology, the El Provencio Palaeolithic Complex, medieval society, the history of Cuenca, and various aspects related to knights’ equipment and combat techniques.
Historical reenactment and academic research use different languages, yet they can pursue the same goal: to spark public interest in what happened before our time.
Science, public outreach and reenactment to bring heritage closer
An archaeological find can have enormous scientific value and yet be difficult for a non-specialist to interpret.
That is where public outreach becomes essential.
When a researcher explains how a stone tool makes it possible to reconstruct certain behaviours, or how the age of an archaeological layer can be established, what initially seemed distant begins to take on meaning.
Historical reenactment offers another tool. It makes it possible to visualise objects, clothing or certain practices, and helps very different audiences find their own point of entry into heritage.
El Provencio Imperial succeeded in bringing these two ways of communicating history together within a single experience.
LA HOSPEDERÍA, VENUE FOR “WHEN WE WERE BEGINNING TO BECOME US”
That La Hospedería hosted the 8th Conference is especially consistent with the establishment’s own philosophy.
Our hotel does not occupy a building created to imitate tradition.
It is part of a place that had a previous life.
In 1950, farmers in El Provencio founded the Cooperativa de Campo Local Nuestra Señora del Rosario. Growth in production and the need for greater capacity led to the construction of a dedicated winery on the plot where La Hospedería now stands.
Work began in 1955 and, in 1964, the increase in the number of members made an expansion necessary, with new storage halls.
For decades, that space was closely linked to the grape harvest and to generations of residents of El Provencio who came there to deliver their crop.
Living heritage, not heritage frozen in time
The passage of time changed the building’s function, but it did not erase its ability to bring people together.
Its restoration made it possible to turn it into a hotel establishment connected to the former winery, preserving part of the memory of one of the most significant spaces in El Provencio’s recent wine-making history.
Today it welcomes travellers.
It is home to gastronomy.
It hosts celebrations and gatherings.
And during these conference days it also welcomed researchers and people interested in learning about the territory’s most remote past.
There is a particularly valuable way to preserve a historic building: to allow it to remain useful.
Restoring heritage does not necessarily mean immobilising it. It can mean adapting it, integrating it into the present, and enabling it to generate experiences once again.
This philosophy lies precisely at the origin of La Hospedería.
The building preserves the memory of what it was without renouncing what it can still be.
“When we were beginning to become us”: more than 800,000 years to understand
The very name of the conference contains an extraordinarily powerful question: When were we beginning to become us?
Answering it requires travelling far beyond written documents and entering periods of human history that can only be reconstructed through the material evidence that has survived.
Tools.
Sediments.
Faunal remains.
Raw materials.
Geological contexts.
In El Provencio, these clues have made it possible to document an archaeological sequence of exceptional breadth.
THE EL PROVENCIO PALAEOLITHIC COMPLEX
The first comprehensive study carried out on the El Provencio Palaeolithic Complex, located on the La Mancha plain beside the Záncara River, produced numerical dates reaching approximately 830,000 years in the oldest levels analysed and 41,000 years in the most recent.
The research thus points to recurrent occupations by human groups over an extraordinarily long period.
This precision is fundamental.
Speaking of more than 800,000 years of record does not mean that the same population remained continuously settled throughout that time.
It means that different groups used this territory at different times and left behind evidence that allows part of their activity to be reconstructed.
A history written in flint and quartzite
Among the materials studied are tools made of flint and quartzite, classified within the so-called technological modes 1, 2 and 3—Oldowan, Acheulean and Mousterian.
Alongside them, faunal remains have been documented corresponding to Pleistocene species such as horses, bison and mammoths.
To a non-specialist eye, some of these pieces might look like simple stones.
To archaeology, they are documents.
Their shape, the traces produced during their manufacture, the raw material used, their location and their relationship with other remains provide information about human activities carried out hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The record’s vast time span also requires us to avoid simplifications.
The most recent levels may be linked to periods when Neanderthal populations existed, but the El Provencio sequence begins much earlier.
Therefore, the entire assemblage cannot be attributed to a single human group.
It is precisely this chronological diversity that makes the site a place of great interest for studying technological evolution and the different occupations of the Iberian interior.
Researchers who bring Prehistory closer to the present
The conference brought together different specialists connected with archaeology, Prehistory, history and public outreach.
Among them was Ignacio Martín Lerma, PhD in Prehistory and professor at the University of Murcia, whose career combines Palaeolithic research and public outreach.
Also taking part was Santiago David Domínguez-Solera, PhD in History and Archaeology and head of HEROICA Arqueología, whose work has been closely linked to research carried out on El Provencio’s Palaeolithic heritage.
They were joined by Darío Moreno Ortega, researcher and technician at HEROICA Arqueología; the historian Miguel Romero, Official Chronicler of the City of Cuenca; Andrés Moreno and Javier Solé Calero, as well as the “Pedro de Baeza” Fencing School of Belmonte in the field of medieval reenactment.
When archaeology changes the way we look at the landscape
One of the greatest achievements of archaeological outreach comes when we return to the everyday landscape and begin to observe it differently.
The banks of the Záncara are no longer merely a natural space.
The river terraces take on another dimension.
A lithic tool stops looking like just any stone.
Knowledge changes the way we see.
And that transformation also holds extraordinary potential for cultural tourism in El Provencio.
The town does not need to invent a narrative to set itself apart.
It already has one.
The opportunity lies in researching, preserving, and ensuring that visitors and residents alike can understand it.
When research is made accessible to the public, another possibility emerges: turning heritage into a reason to travel.
Archaeotourism is part of a broader trend within cultural tourism that invites visitors to discover a destination through its sites, museums, interpretation centres, activities and historical narratives.
For small inland towns, this connection is especially important.
This is not about turning archaeology into spectacle, but about transforming knowledge into an experience that is both understandable and rigorous.
EL PROVENCIO: SMALL IN SIZE, GREAT IN STORIES
Small towns do not need to compete with major destinations in terms of volume. Their advantage lies precisely in what cannot be replicated.
Infrastructure can be built in different places. History cannot.
El Provencio’s Palaeolithic heritage belongs to El Provencio. So does its relationship with the Záncara, its farming past, its wine culture, and the memory of those who built the town as it is today.
One of the great challenges of rural tourism is giving visitors reasons to stop.
Then, reasons to stay. And finally, reasons to return or recommend the destination.
El Provencio Imperial helps generate that first motivation.
Archaeology provides singularity.
Reenactments make history more accessible.
Gastronomy completes the experience.
Wine adds another cultural dimension.
La Hospedería makes it possible to extend the stay.
The result is no longer a collection of independent resources; it is a narrative.
There is also a fundamental consequence when heritage and public outreach work together. What is understood is more likely to be valued, and what is valued finds more allies for its preservation.
That is why gatherings such as “When We Were Beginning to Become Us” have an importance that goes beyond the weekend itself.
They bring research closer to those who live in the town, help visitors better understand what they are looking at, and make it possible for a scientific heritage to gradually become part of the territory’s collective identity.
CONCLUSION: WHEN TRAVELLING ALSO MEANS UNDERSTANDING
The 8th International Conference on Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology, “When We Were Beginning to Become Us”, has come to an end, but the questions it raises remain open.
Who was here.
How they lived.
What resources they used.
What traces they left.
And what we do with that legacy.
For La Hospedería, having hosted this gathering means taking part in a way of understanding inland tourism that goes beyond offering accommodation.
