When archaeological context is lacking. Lithology and spatial analysis, new interpretations of the “verracos” Iron Age sculptures in Western Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

The most distinctive productions from Iron Age archaeology in the western part of the Central Iberian Peninsula are large ramparts, and big animal sculptures, both of which were usually made in granite. The latter, known as ‘verracos’, are representations of male boars and bulls. A characteristic of these ‘verracos’ is their lack of original context, thus leading to mere speculation regarding their dates and functions. The aim of this paper is to find an answer to this dilemma using archaeometric methods. This document proposes an approach through geochemical and petrological analyses, as well as statistical analyses using variables. Our target tries to recognize any differences in the making of these sculptures that might help explain functional and symbolic changes to help in understanding their unknown original contexts. For this purpose we arranged 84 sculptures by sizes, technical features and anatomical detail using a Correspondence multivariate analysis and, with the results by series, observed their spatial relationship with 34 quarries too, through kernel density applications. In order to know the origins of the stones of each sculpture, we have made geochemical characterization by mineral and chemical analyses of mayor and minor elements. Therefore, we looked for quarries around the finding place of the verracos. When the possible places were found by lithological affinities, we took samples from those, mostly granite rocks. These geochemical and petrological analyses of the sculptures have contributed towards identifying the potential locations of the quarries of origin, which coincide with the analyses of ‘verracos’ found far away from those quarries and that are completely decontextualized. Therefore, we could obtain least-cost paths distances between quarries and matched sculptures by GIS software (over a digital elevation map) and, then, calculate averages distances per series and quarries. Sizes, shapes and spatial relationships with quarries and nearby oppida, big fortified settlements of Iron Age, allow us to identify oldest verracos as symbols of the emergence of ethnical and communal values, as a result of the impact of the first Mediterranean people arriving to the Spanish plateau, such as the Punic and Roman armies. In this way, big verracos were transported 'till 20 and 30km away from the quarries. However, with the Roman rule over this region, verracos became smaller and simpler, and displacements were outstandingly smaller. This is related with a change of functions, from protection symbols of the communities to funerary stelae of individual graves.