Castro Culture Research Articles

Las Estatuas Galaico Lusitanas en posición de parada I. Distribución espacial, emplazamientos y epigrafia asociada

The statues of warriors are one of the most prominent examples of the Castro culture in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Notable in this category is a series of sculptures depicting the same iconographic motif: standing male, looking straight ahead, carrying a shield on the front. This paper, which is the first part of an integral research about this sculptures, studies their distribution and location as well as the inscriptions that are carved in some of them. Our analysis shows that these sculptural pieces are not found everywhere but in some specific sites within the old conventus bracarensis territory. Most of those locations are associated to heterogeneous settlements, but some others cannot be associated to inhabited areas. In this latter case, the sculptures could have been linked to key points in the territory (crossroads, hills, relevant piks, etc). Finally, engraved inscriptions seem concurrent with their corresponding sculptures, so this is a significant clue for the chronology of this unique statues of warriors.

Orfebrería castreña en el Museo Arqueológico de Asturias (Oviedo): aproximación a su caracterización arqueométrica y problemas de estudio

Se presentan los resultados de la revisión de un grupo de piezas de orfebrería castreña de la II Edad del Hierro conservadas en el Museo Arqueológico de Asturias, que en su mayor parte permanecían insuficientemente estudiadas desde el punto de vista documental y arqueométrico. Este trabajo, centrado principalmente en el análisis no destructivo y la revisión topográfica de los objetos, aporta nuevos datos sobre su tecnología de elaboración. Destaca la identificación de nuevos ejemplos de aplicación de dorado por amalgama de mercurio. La labor realizada supone también un buen ejemplo de las dificultades existentes para el estudio de este tipo de materiales.

Protection and Purity: Symbolic Functions of the Iron Age Saunas of the Iberian Northwest

Iron Age saunas, unique to the Castro Culture of northwestern Iberia, have puzzled archaeologists since the nineteenth century. Initially interpreted as kilns, crematoriums, or ovens, their function has since been established as bathing structures; however, the social significance of these saunas has yet to be firmly established. This study provides a new approach to understanding the ways in which Castro communities utilized specialized buildings to serve specific needs related to ritual cleansing and protection. Through an analysis of their placement, structure and decoration, I argue that these buildings functioned to purify and protect people of Castro communities from spiritual and physical danger. Members of Castro society inhabited a world buffeted by the shifting political and economic powers of the Iron Age. The bath structures under study, covered in apotropaic symbols, functioned in liminal spaces to cleanse and prepare Castro people for the dangers that awaited them beyond the walls of their communities and neutralized any potential spiritual contamination they may have acquired upon their return.

The Golden Code of the Bird‐Men: Iconographic and Social Interpretation of the Moñes I Diadem‐Belt (Asturias, North‐west Iberian Peninsula, First Century BC)

SummaryIf there is one piece of the Castro culture goldwork that stands out above the rest, it is the set of figurative gold diadem‐belt fragments from Moñes (Piloña, Asturias, Spain). Its uniqueness lies in its combination of local technological tradition with exogenous practices, like figurative representation. The figures that appear are armed characters, occasionally on horseback, and sometimes zoomorphic in appearance (especially as bird‐men), together with different kinds of animals, especially those from an aquatic environment. This iconography has been interpreted as emphasizing the warlike character of Celtic symbolism as expressed through an aquatic funerary ritual. My argument here, however, provides an alternative interpretation based on a context of dramatic social change, which warranted the reformulation of creation mythology such as that depicted on the diadem‐belt. This context must be viewed in relation to different social responses which developed during the first century BC, both before and immediately after the Roman conquest.

La religión en la cultura castreña: estado de la cuestión

The Castro Culture is a culture of Northwestern area of the Iberian Peninsula that develops in the Iron Age and is partially maintained in Roman times. The religion of this culture has been studied through the archaeological and epigraphical data and the classical texts of Greek and roman historians. There are not texts and inscriptions in the languages of this culture and there are not mythical iconographical traditions in ceramics and sculpture of these peoples, therefore the historical reconstructions of rites and myths of these religions can be only partial and have been biased by the historical and methodological presuppositions of historians and archaeologists. This paper offers a systematic survey of these studies that can be a guide for the following researchers.

Dating Iron Age goldwork: First direct AMS <sup>14</sup>C results from Northwestern Iberia

This article presents the first direct radiocarbon dates for NW Iberian “Castro culture” goldwork. Three samples were taken from a melting mass and a plano-convex ingot from the so-called Recouso (Oroso, A Coru.a) and Calvos de Randin (Ourense) “hoards”. The study includes pXRF analysis of the pieces from both assemblages. Identification of charcoal samples allowed us to better evaluate the results. The dates point to a period late in the Second Iron Age for both assemblages. They are the first direct chronological references for this rich goldworking tradition after more than a hundred years of investigation and they open up a line of research that offers interesting future prospects.

Gradiometry survey and magnetic anomaly testing of Castros de Neixón, Galicia, Spain

During the summer of 2011, a geophysical survey with subsequent magnetic anomaly testing was conducted in Northwest Iberia, in the province of Galicia, Spain, the most extensive evaluation of its kind to be performed on a Castro Culture hill fort with distinct Bronze and Iron Age occupations. The investigation focused on determining the spatial extent, occupation, and use of the multicomponent Bronze and Iron Age hill fort site(s) of Castros de Neixón.A Geoscan Research FM36 Fluxgate Gradiometer was used successfully to measure and identify magnetic anomalies interpreted as potential archaeological features within the occupation areas.Over 400 monopole and dipole magnetic anomalies were detected, many of which have been interpreted as representing pits, ditches, palisades, hearths and a possible corral. A parallel defensive ditch with zig-zag entrance was located north of the occupation at Castro de Neixón Grande. Subsurface testing of a promising monopole anomaly revealed a large storage pit with artifacts dating to the Castro period. New research since the 1990s has opened up traditional discussions linking the characteristic architecture of defensive walls and round structures (after which the Castro Culture was named) to a warrior-elite society, to more complex interpretations related to the intensification of agriculture and corresponding increase in sedentism. These new interpretations integrate domestic and agricultural features into Castro subsistence practices, including storage pits. Our results support these interpretations, revealing the extent to which storage pits are a dominant feature type at Castros de Neixón. Future research and subsurface excavations directed at understanding under-investigated features located via geophysical survey techniques at sites like Castros de Neixón may clarify questions surrounding Castro Culture social organization.

The Empowerment of Imagery: Stone Warriors in the Borders

This article explores the potential contribution of a biographical, phenomenological and performative approach to the study of material images in the past through a particular study case: the warrior statues from the so-called ‘Castro culture’ in northwestern Iberia. The aim is to provide a different way of thinking, as opposed to the traditional conceptions that have prevailed in archaeological research, taking into account what material forms enable the construction of the social at a micro-scale level. To this end, the author analyses how these statues actively build their own meaning and sense in the socio-material contexts where they belong; and how, in this process, their materiality partakes in the creation and maintenance of indigenous identity and sociality.

Las imágenes como un modo de acción: las estatuas de guerreros castreños

Social identity is always experienced and enacted in specific contexts. Due to its evolving character, specific concrete material points of reference in the form of landscapes, places, artifacts and people are always required. Focusing on warrior statues of the Castro culture, this article reflects on the role of these images and examines the relevance of these material shapes as an important medium through which issues of identity and sociability are created, contested, and resolved.

Looking Forward in Anger: Social and Political Transformations in the Iron Age of the North-Western Iberian Peninsula

The article reviews the usefulness of the historical–anthropological models of peasantry and Germanic Mode of Production applied to the analysis of the Castro culture (Cultura Castrexa, the Iron Age of the north-western Iberian Peninsula). A historical reconstruction of the period is developed, in which the strain between local community and familial units constitutes one of the most important agents in the process of change, according to a discourse largely based on the proposals of P. Clastres on ‘societies against the state’. A relevant role is given to different forms of violence and conflict; initially they are understood as active mechanisms in inter-community relations although later they would rather become virtual and latent elements that allow the development of a model of social relations that can be defined as a non-class ‘heroic society’.

Forms of Social Inequality in the Castro Culture of North-West Iberia

A new theoretical model is proposed for the definition of social structure and processes of change of the Castro Culture societies. It is based on current anthropological approaches to ‘agrarian segmentary societies’ and implies the revision of the aristocratic models that now dominate research on the European Iron Age.

Forms of social inequality in the Castro Culture of north-west Iberia

A new theoretical model is proposed for the definition of social structure and processes of change of the Castro Culture societies. It is based on current anthropological approaches to ‘agrarian segmentary societies’ and implies the revision of the aristocratic models that now dominate research on the European Iron Age.

Las diademas-cinturón castreñas: el conjunto con decoración figurada de Moñes (Villamayor, Piloña, Asturias)

The present paper tries to determine the main characteristics and coherence of a group of goldpieces from the Castro culture (II Iron Age), traditionally known as belt-diadems. An historiographic research of the ancient publication of these pieces, and an accurate analysis of the old finds, gives some light on different aspects around this objects, such as provenance, context and eventual associations that are relevant to interpret these intriguing archeological artifacts. The study is completed by a technological analysis of the dispersed fragments of Mones, analysis based on the metal surface topographical examination with the help of binoculars and scanning electron microscopy.

Las fechas C-14 del castro de O Achadizo (Boiro, A Coruña): problemática de la calibración de conchas marinas

The excavation of the hillfort of O Achadizo has brought to light several domestic structures intermingled with rubish heaps, belonging to the Iron Age Castro culture of NW Iberia. The abundant organic remains have constituted the basis for a systematic programme of radiocarbon dating of the different stratigraphic levels, which shows that the main occupation of the site took place between the VI and the II centuries cal. BC. Moreover, we have checked the 14C dates obtained from terrestrial samples (bones and charcoal) against those made on marine shells coming from the same strata. As a result, we have found that the latter have an apparent age of 316±I9 years, caused by the reservoir effect. Therefore, we stress the need for taking into account -and correcting whenever possible- such a deviation before using samples of marine origin for chronological purposes.

Elementos para el estudio de los paisajes castreños del Noroeste peninsular

We try to offer a view of the Northwestern Iberian Iron Age from a Landscape Archaeology perspective, as a basis for further studies of the landscape of the Castro Culture. In that sense we adopt approaches 10 the landscape as a cultural construction and reconsider the usefulness of spatial analysis. We develop an operational distinction between three dimensions of the landscape: the subsistence studied through the analysis of the use of the soil; the social-political dimension studied through the occupation of space; and the symbolic dimension reflected in the conception of that space. We apply this scheme to the Northwestern Iberian Iron Age (Castro Culture), demonstrating, as their most important social and cultural features, their peasant and warrior character.

Kultura castro oraz procesy celtyzacji i romanizacji na terenie Galicii w Hiszpanii

The Castro Culture occupies the area of northern-western part of Pyrenees (Galicia, the northern part of Portugal). Chronological limits according to the contemporary investigations are said to be from the 6th century В. C. till the end of the 1st century A. D., however some researchers claim that some significant elements of this culture lasted till the end of the 6th century A. D. The name of this culture as the archaeological notions was adopted in the 19th century and was specified by P. Bosch-Gimpera in 1932. Due to the existence of defensive settlements (castra) it was supposed that this culture was of Celtic origin. The eastern Trans-Pyrenees province of Galicians was also mentioned. Whereas, the notions Celtos and Castros were treated as synonyms (Jose Vera у Aguiar). The function of castra was differently interpreted either as tombs, sanctuaries or fortifications built in protection of tracks. Castra were also treated as areas with organized settlement (Murguia). Due to significant archaeological discoveries made in the end of the 19th century some very explicit cultural features of the regions occupied by defensive settlements of castro types are more clearly seen. Two main architectonic forms appearing in castra - i. e. buildings of ovate and orographic projection constructed of cast wall are distinguished. Specific style of decoration of pottery by means of die ornament was also notified. As compared to the rest of Iberian territory the specific jewelery, especially fibulas, torkwes, bracelets and earings were distinguished.

Archeologia osadnicza w zastosowaniu do badań mikroregionu Graña (Galicja, Hiszpania)

In 1986 the team of Workers of the Archaeological Institute of Łódź University together with the Archaeological Institute of University of Santiago de Compostela began the common research studies. The subject of investigations of both Universities is devoted to microregional studies on the development of the settlement. The Castro culture limited to Halstatt, Latenian and Roman periods was chosen as a basis for such studies. The research group is interested in the genesis of this culture as well as its further transformations the Middle Ages. Defensive settlements of different size situated on natural hills are characteristic for this culture. The specific feature of Castro culture, at least in its present state investigations, is its long duration (from the VII century B.C. to the II century A.D. and even as others daim to the VI century A.D.). One of topics of many years programme are excavations of Graña Castro situated in the centre of Galicia, 7 km north of Melide town. The subjekt of studies is the use of methods which will allow the reserchers to learn the stratigraphy and the structure of cultural foliation and natural sediments in order to establish the exact chronology and function of the objekt. Excavations were arranged in one row to obtain initial information about all main ponts of the settlement. During the first research season of Graña the fragments of outer defensive stone wall constructed without mortar were discovered. The fragments coming from its inner structure and probably used as dwelling and subsidiary places were discovered as well. Initially two phases of the existence of the settlement with buildings both of oval and rectangular shape were distinguished. The hearth originally a Stove with stone walls and clay mud floor was very interesting. Fragments of pattery both hand-made and made on the grinding stone, clay whorls, glaze beads, gold ear-rings and stone axe most likely used secondarily constitute the antique material. All material allows us to date the exavated layers from the II century B.C. to the II century A.D. Besides excavations; archival and historiographical studies confirming or excluding relations among settlement structures functioning in the period of Roman occupation, in the Middle Ages and in contemporary times in the area of the discussed microregion were conducted as well. Palinologic investigations were begun in order to reconstruct natural environment and its changes in the time course. The number of castro settlements near Melide town is very high. Their mutual time relation is a problem to be explained. If they were existing at the same time then it is possible to reconstruct the territory of economic exploitation of this region assuming that the economy of this region was of farming character. However, these are so far very little documented assumptions which require to be confirmed by detailed studies on few neighbouring settlement morphologically constructing one microregion.

Los castros de la cuenca media del río Ulla y sus relaciones con el medio físico

In this paper, some methods of spatial analysis are applied to the study of a particular area of the North-west of the Iberian Peninsula during the lron Age. Some positive factors in the location of the hill-forts are discovered, and the evolutionary dynamics of the settlement patterns are studied. As a result, old ideas about certain aspects of the so-called «Castro culture» have to be revised.