Andújar () is a Spanish municipality of 38,539 people (2005) in the province of Jaén, in Andalusia. The municipality is divided by the Guadalquivir River. The northern part of the municipality is where the Natural Park of the Sierra de Andújar is situated. To the south are agricultural fields and countryside. The city proper located on the right bank of the Guadalquivir and the Madrid-Córdoba railway. In the past, Andújar was widely known for its porous earthenware jars, called alcarrazas or botijos, which keep water cool in the hottest weather, and were manufactured from a whitish clay found in the neighbourhood. History Antiquity Paleolithic artifacts have been found in the area, associated with the Acheulean Culture, but it is during the Neolithic Age when the area became increasingly populated, with agriculture being developed in the fertile land, and mining activities beginning in the Sierra Morena. According to archaeological studies, the first people who inhabited the area where the Oretani, an Iberian people, who founded in the area the town of Isturgi, today occupied by the hamlet of Los Villares de Andújar. Isturgi should not be identified with the ancient town of Illiturgis, which was situated on the hill called Máquiz (Mengíbar). Nevertheless, iliturgitano is used to describe an inhabitant of Andújar. Isturgi had contact with various peoples: Turdetani, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and other towns, such as Obulco (Porcuna) and Castulo. During the times of the Roman Empire, the Municipium Isturgi Triumphale was part of the province of Hispania Ulterior and then Hispania Baetica and the area known as the Conventus Cordubensis. It flourished due to its production of Terra sigillata and its location on the Guadalquivir. After the fall of the Roman Empire, it existed as a Visigothic town named Sturgi. But with the invasion of the Moors in the 8th century, the population fled to what are now the actual limits of the town of Andújar, where they may have already existed an Ibero-Roman settlement. Medieval era In 711 AD, after the Battle of Guadalete, the entire region became part of Al-Andalus, and the town of Andújar first became known as Anduyar during the emirate of Muhammad I of Córdoba (853). The city was fortified by the Almohads during the 12th century. In 1225, the Muslim king of Baeza handed over the castles of Jaén, Andújar and Martos, to Ferdinand III of Castile, although some scholars believe the transfer