Depósitos rituales de fauna en el oppidum prerromano de El Molón (Camporrobles, Valencia). Ritual pits from the oppidum El Molón (Camporrobles, Valencia). III-I BC

Three faunal deposits from the oppidum of El Molón are analysed which characteristics and placement suggest to be related to ritual practices. Two of them are of domestic origin, in each case two piglets of one month of age approximately, which were placed inside a small pit. They present evidence of having been butchered, cooked and eaten in a ritual banquet linked to familial worship, maybe foundational. The third one was traced under the south tower of the main access to the settlement. It had two hemimandibles of a sheep and a pig of the same age (4 years old) both being from the right side of it. They were found inside a sealed pit covered with an irregular stone pavement, which could be interpreted as a foundational offering of public nature. The first two groups have been dated being from the end of the III or II century B.C., whereas the third one is associated to the renovation of the defensive system of the main gate towards the end of the II or the first quarter of the I century B.C.