José María Soler García



José María Soler García was a Spanish archaeologist, historian, researcher and folklorist. He is one of the persons who most deeply studied Villena and its surrounding area, since the vast majority of his research was focused on what concerned his hometown.

In 1957 he founded Villena's Archaeological Museum with the findings he had collected from the 1920s on. In 1963, after he found the Treasure of the Cabezo Redondo in March and the Treasure of Villena in December, the museum's name was officially changed to Archaeological Museum "José María Soler". The José María Soler Foundation, constituted after his death, calls every year Research Awards in order to keep alive Soler's legacy.

Publications
Soler has written several books on his archaeological works, some others on historical or folkloric research and even one dictionary on Villena's Spanish dialect. He has written a large number of articles published in newspapers and magazines, and he has also given many lectures all over Spain. A list of his published books follows:


 * Archaeology
 * 1956. El yacimiento musteriense de "La Cueva del Cochino" (Villena-Alicante)
 * 1965. El tesoro de Villena
 * 1969. El oro de los tesoros de Villena
 * 1981. El Eneolítico en Villena
 * 1987. Excavaciones arqueológicas en el Cabezo Redondo (Villena, Alicante)
 * 1991. La Cueva del Lagrimal
 * 1993. Guía de los yacimientos y del Museo de Villena
 * History
 * 1948. Crónica de las Fiestas de septiembre de 1948
 * 1969. La Relación de Villena de 1575
 * 1976. Villena: Prehistoria - Historia - Monumentos
 * 1981-1988. Historia de Villena
 * 1993. La colección numismática de José Mª Soler
 * 2006. Historia de Villena: desde la Prehistoria hasta el siglo XVIII (re-ed. 2009)
 * Linguistics
 * 1993. Dicionario villenero (reed. 2005)
 * Music and folklore
 * 1979. El Polifonista villenense Ambrosio Cotes
 * 1986. Cancionero popular de Villena (re-ed. 2005)
 * Other themes
 * 1958. Bibliografía de Villena y su Partido Judicial
 * 1976. I Congreso Nacional de Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos
 * 1984. Soldadescas, Comparsas y Toros

Awards
In addition, Villena's City Hall gave his name to one street in the old part of the city in 1979.
 * Musicology Award of CSIC, on the Cancionero popular de Villena (1949)
 * Golden Medal of Villena (1973)
 * Bronze Medal in Fine Arts (1980)
 * Montaigne Award of Hamburg's FvS Foundation (1981)
 * Doctor honoris causa by Universidad de Alicante (1985)
 * Gold Medal of the Province of Alicante (1991)