Overview
- The Universidade de Vigo’s GEAAT team, which excavated in April–May 2026, confirmed the first large Iron Age house ever documented on the Cíes Islands, establishing clear pre‑Roman settlement.
- Archaeologists identified two occupation layers dated to the 5th–6th and 9th–10th centuries, showing the site stayed active into the early Middle Ages.
- A shell‑rich trash mound nearly three meters deep yielded animal remains now headed to the University of León for testing, with early finds pointing to molluscs and fish not seen in nearby Ons.
- The dig recovered a large trove of pottery that GEAAT’s Ourense lab will study to learn what tools people used and to trace possible trade links.
- The campaign runs under the Sentinela program in the Atlantic Islands national park, and the team says further work, including at Ons, depends on new funding.