Abstract
Abstract This article seeks to contribute to recent scholarship on ritual performances in caves, sensory archaeology and ritual journeys, and to stimulate fresh questions and debate about society, ritual, and mobility in the Iberian Iron Age. It uses an updated methodology for recording and interpreting – more contextually, holistically, and systematically – the multisensory affordances of caves and their landscapes on embodied human movements, experiences, and perceptions. It applies this approach to two caves situated in the territory thought by archaeologists to have been controlled by the Iberian Iron Age oppidum of Edeta/Tossal de Sant Miquel in the Valencia province: both interpreted as the destination for “pilgrimages” and related ritual performances, especially during the fifth to third centuries BC. In particular, the study presents a thick and multifaceted interpretative scenario of ritual flows to, through, and from these underground places, divided analytically into successive experiential stages. It concludes by questioning the current model of Iberian Iron Age ritual as an elite-dominated process and instead emphasises variability in multisensory ritual decision-making, practices and experiences over space, time, and culture.
Highlights
This article is informed by, and seeks to contribute to, recent scholarship on ritual performances in caves, sensory archaeology, and mobilities
We compare in detail two different caves that were frequented during the same period (Iberian Iron Age, sixth to first centuries BC, with a focus on the fifth to third centuries) and situated within the same clearly defined territory
Interpretation of the deposit as a ritual one is suggested by its “liminal” placement in the innermost dark zone of this marginal cave and by the restricted composition of the ceramic assemblage (549 fragments; Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) 41 – a number that will increase if we consider inaccessible collections that have been already published) and faunal assemblage (1522 Number of Rests (NR); MNI 56)
Summary
This article is informed by, and seeks to contribute to, recent scholarship on ritual performances in caves, sensory archaeology, and mobilities. Seek to decentre and unbound their destinations by paying greater attention to the journeys and routes taken by people (e.g. Cummings & Johnston, 2007; Gibson, 2007; Machause López & Diez Castillo, in prep.), which lie at the heart of what pilgrimage is These ritual journeys might have provided opportunities to establish new practices, to transform the social order and even promote personal interests. Instead of assuming one single, generalised human body, we try to consider the physical and social diversities of Iberian Iron Age bodies (differentiated especially by age, gender, and class, and by health, etc.) From these perspectives, the ritual deposits in caves considered in this study must, be regarded as part of more holistic sets of embodied movements, interactions, decisions, and emotive experiences felt by group members.
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