The province of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain), despite being declared the European territory with the largest number of defensive constructions (castles, fortifications, etc.), has few conservation plans, with many remains included on the Red List of Spanish Heritage lying abandoned. This poses a challenge for landscape conservation and the optimal use of the province’s tourism potential. In this paper, we present the early implementation of an ongoing methodological approach designed to alleviate this situation. It takes advantage of data from the Sentinel 2A and 2B satellites, HBIM, RPAS, GIS, and fieldwork that will be applied across five archaeological case studies. It was tested for the first time in the village of Magaña. Three main objectives and phases of this methodological approach were designed: 1. Preparation of an environmental risk chart with which to answer such questions as “How have climate change, anthropic alterations and environmental characteristics affected the state of conservation of certain heritage sites?” 2. Preparation of HBIM models to foster monitorisation and conservation policies for the main archaeological remains and improving their protection based on digital and technological tools. 3. Building a smart tourism app for mobile devices aimed at promoting smart tourism by digitalising and virtualising tourist itineraries and archaeological remains. Finally, public administrations will be apprised of the need to implement a conservation policy for cultural assets and their surroundings in a simple, quick, and cost-effective manner.

The difficulty of obtaining funding often places the continuity of research projects at risk, forcing researchers to resort to low-cost methodologies. Such methodologies sometimes require a high degree of technical knowledge which, in many cases, poses an insurmountable obstacle to the development of a project. This article shows a low-cost, easy-way methodology for diachronically analysing terrain in search of archaeological evidence on different scales (micro and semi-micro) in both already known and new archaeological sites through the analysis of orthophotographs taken with UAVs, the DEMs generated from them, and public LiDAR data. It allows researchers with small budgets but with a basic knowledge of GIS and photogrammetry to undertake some aspects of their project without necessarily having to call on the assistance or support of specialists. Thanks to this methodology, the researcher will be able to continue until they are able to obtain the funding that will enable them to take their research further, with specialists. This article presents the first conclusions obtained after applying the proposed methodology at the Giribaile (Vilches, Spain) archaeological site—a site of interest in its territory which possibly functioned as an advance defensive post for the town, a hypothesis based on the towers and numerous internal structures that have been identified.

El Área 11 se ubica junto a una de las puertas laterales de acceso a la ciudad de Giribaile. El contexto de destrucción por incendio ha permitido conservar un conjunto de evidencias de materiales de construcción, clavos, carbones e improntas de vegetación, básicamente, que permiten plantear una hipótesis de restitución de la cubierta del almacén. En el Área 11 también se ha documentado una importante cantidad de adobes o ladrillos conformados en frío, fabricados con un alto contenido de cal, que abre un debate sobre su posible localización en las paredes e, incluso, con función de solería de un segundo piso. Del interior del almacén se ha recuperado un importante conjunto de ánforas y también elementos relacionados con otras actividades domésticas, entre ellas un conjunto de fusayolas y pesas para tejer.

Cumplidos veinte años desde la publicación del monumento funerario de Giribaile, se aportan datos de excavación para revisar su entidad y relevancia histórica. La nueva intervención ha documentado los cimientos de una construcción monumental y restos de otras estructuras, entre ellas parte de una cenefa de guijarros, característica de las necrópolis de Cástulo. También se incluye la catalogación del conjunto más relevante de fragmentos de cerámica ática y barnices negros que ha proporcionado hasta el momento el asentamiento. El estudio se completa con el análisis del escaneo tridimensional sobre los elementos arquitectónicos dispersos en la zona, que ha posibilitado la realización de una propuesta de restitución volumétrica. Este monumento se convierte en el elemento central de un espacio ideológico de legitimación del poder político y se muestra como un hito destacado en el paisaje que entronca con la tradición púnica y también ibérica del cenotafio. Esta nueva aportación reabre el debate sobre el peso de la cultura cartaginesa en el pago de Cástulo.