The basic aim of the Ambrona Valley Integral Actuation Plan is the archaeological research, and for that reason the fieldwork activities (archaeological excavations and surveys) have a fundamental role, from which the obtained data are later analyzed by the research team members.

Those archaeological seasons began in 1994, with the first rescue excavation in La Peña de La Abuela (Ambrona), whose first discoveries made it interesting to follow the fieldwork in this monument until 1998. In this excavation we were able to establish the complex functioning of this Neolithic monumental tomb which provided very interesting insights into the people that built and used it about 6000 years ago.

During those years two other sites were excavated: La Lámpara and La Revilla del Campo (both in Ambrona). They were not graves but habitats of the first Neolithic settlers of the Valley. Those pioneers were responsible for the introduction of new ways of life based on the agriculture and livestock raising, unknown until then in that area. La Lámpara is located in the same emplacement of the La Peña de La Abuela tomb, but belongs to a much older occupation, about 7700 years ago. There cereal and cattle remains, pottery and stone mortars,... have been discovered, dating to the beginning of the VIth millennium cal B.C. In the La Lámpara site an individual pit grave was also located, with the human remains of an old woman that was buried there together with several grave offerings (mostly decorated pottery). This type of tombs is remarkably different from the monumental graves that were built about a millennium after.

The La Revilla del Campo (in Ambrona) site has also offered similar information that the La Lámpara one, indicating that it was not an isolated case but a generalized phenomenon.

During the winter between 1997 and 1998 the ARATIKOS commercial archaeology company was committed by the direction of this Project to develop and intensive archaeological survey of the whole Valley. From this huge documentation task resulted the discovery of 107 prehistoric sites, which is an enormous density of occupation for a small territory of 15 x 2 km. With this evidence it was easier to decide what were the most interesting sites to be excavated in the different stages of the Research Project development.

In the summer of 1999 the excavation of the La Sima Mound (Miño de Medinaceli) began, which continued until 2001. It is another monumental tomb, the bigger and more complex one of what had been excavated in our Research Project up to the present. This monument was built in a roughly contemporary date to the La Peña de La Abuela one, with a first “lime-kiln” tomb type level (Sima I). Later a new burial chamber was built over this one (Sima II) in the Late Neolithic. Finally, the monument was reused to introduce individual tombs, accompanied by rich grave goods, during the Copper Age Beaker period.

Amongst those grave offerings were the pottery vessels containing a primitive wheat beer, one of the oldest ones documented in Europe. Until that discovery the spanish San Miguel Beer Company has been interested and strongly supported our Research Project. Those vessels, the Bell Beakers, have a quite characteristic shape and decoration, giving name to a whole period of our Prehistory.

In 2002 two new sites were excavated. First, the Carlos Álvarez rock shelter (Miño de Medinaceli), that was previously known by the existence of very interesting schematic paintings. The excavation revealed the existence of an intense and prolonged human presence in the site, right from the Early Neolithic (around 5700 cal BC) until modern times, with important Copper Age (Beaker) and Early Bronze Age occupations, and also Iron Age and Roman remains.

Simultaneously the La Tarayuela (Ambrona) small Neolithic collective tomb was also excavated, yielding an important amount of human remains and grave offerings.

During 2003, together with the excavations of the Carlos Álvarez rockshelter (second and last season), other sites were surveyed like 18 sites from the so-called Paramo Sur, or excavated, such as El Pozuelo and Los Dolientes I Beaker settlements or the Valdepernales Beaker individual Mound.