Javier Rodríguez-Corral

The warrior stelae, also called southwestern stelae or western stelae, emerge as one of the most characteristic manifestations of the Bronze Age in Iberia. Since the earliest findings more than a century ago, these monoliths have received great attention from scholars, becoming the subject of an intense debate, without a consensus having been reached on their meaning and sense. A slow but steady trickle of new findings, as well as the implementation of new approaches to their study, has only enriched these discussions in recent years. One of the most successful lines has been the spatial analysis focused on the relationship of these monuments with routes, transit areas, and resources of great value. It is within this line that this article explores the potential relationship that the stelae may have had with a critical mineral resource: the tin ores distributed in western Iberia, which is the highest concentration of this mineral in Europe. To do this, a detailed spatial analysis has been conducted in order to explore if the uneven density of these monuments across western Iberia may be linked with the presence of tin ores or, alternatively, with the control of the routes that allowed the circulation of this mineral by land.

The Punic trade with the communities of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula is a phenomenon that only in recent years became visible to the academics. Since the last decades of the 20th century, several excavations have brought to light imported products from the Mediterranean or South Iberian Peninsula, especially from the area of the Strait of Gibraltar: glass beads, metal artifacts and ceramic vessels, in particular. With few exceptions, these materials hardly raised the interest of researchers or, at best, the most representative ones were studied separately, considered as luxury products in the framework of a prestige economy, always from a local perspective. It was not until the last decade that the first summary papers were published providing pioneering proposals for the interpretation of their presence in this region as part of the commercial expansion of Gadir at the end of the Iron Age, without forgetting the role they played in the socio-economic relations and cultural practices of the northwestern communities.
Among the ceramics identified, the amphorae have an important place due to their quantity, geographical distribution and chronological significance, spanning throughout almost the entire Late Iron Age and the early years of Roman presence in the northwest. Likewise, they are very significant given their informative potential on the food imported (and consumed) by these populations during each of those periods. For a first analysis of these amphorae, a series of sites have been selected in which these artefacts are found in significant quantities, in an attempt to examine different areas of the region. In this initial stage of the study, the work has focused on the Rías Bajas (Vigo and Pontevedra) and the Rías Altas (A Coruña), systematically studying Castro de A Lanzada (Pontevedra), Castros de Toralla and Punta do Muiño-Alcabre (Vigo), as well as materials from Castro Elviña and the bay of A Coruña. The material mainly includes Cadiz (Gadir) productions, that can be dated from the end of the 4th century BC to the end of the 1st century BC. In this later stage the first Italic imports, their South-Peninsular imitations and the first Betic provincial productions are also attested. The aim of our work is to analyze this diachronic process, identifying the products, their provenance and distribution, as well as the different phases, taking into account not only the commercial dynamics of Gadir but also the political and social events that took place in the region in this advanced stage of the Castro culture.

This paper deals with the so-called modular kilns, ceramic structures characteristic of the Bronze and Iron Age periods in various regions of Europe. Despite the interest shown in these material forms in recent years, their exact function is still unclear. However, the dominant interpretation within archaeological research has tended to associate them with pottery production. While this hypothesis has been based mainly on macro-observations derived from settlement surveys and excavations, our aim is to go further by exploring through a materialanalytical approach. A set of samples from the sites of A Fontela and Castromao, in northwestern Iberia, have been analysed using a set of methods (mineralogical, geochemical, archaeobotanical and organic chemical) to evaluate the hypotheses on production and use. Although the samples share a similar morphology and technology, the analytical results reveal differences in the manufacturing processes between the two sites studied. Local clays, crop by-products and wild plants from the surrounding areas were used in the modelling, but with different purposes. In some cases, cereal chaff was added as a temper. Organic-chemical analysis revealed traces of oils of vegetal origin, with high levels of C 18:1 fatty acid (probably mostly oleic acid) and its degradation products, together with phytosterols, such as β-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, and δ-5-avenasterol. The organic compounds are compatible with the processing or culinary transformation of acorns, that appeared persistently in hearths, pots, and storage structures during Late Prehistory in the region.

The aim of our contribution is to analyse the available archaeological record on a singular phenomenon recently detected in some castros in the Galician area: the presence of ´betyllic sanctuaries located in estuaries, in sites probably linked to the drainage of the metalliferous resources that made this region famous in Antiquity. We briefly reflect on the characteristics of the sites and their role in the dynamics of commercial and cultural contact between the galaic communities and the Punic population of southern Iberia, especially Gadir, during the Second Iron Age, as possible free points with a similar functionality to the southern sanctuaries, although devoid of their monumentality.

This paper presents a synthesis of the results of the Proyecto Estrímnides, which includes the historiographical analysis of the Graeco-Latin and modern European literature on the Cassiterides and the study of the archaeological record of several Galician castros. With regard to the first of these subjects, the location of the archipelago has been the focus of research until the middle of the 20th century and is based on an artificial diatribe originated by W. Camden in the 16th century when he identified the Tin Islands with the Scilly Islands (United Kingdom). On the contrary, the study of ancient texts reveals beyond any doubt that they were located off the coast of Iberia, and that the first news could have been gathered in the Phoenician emporium of Onoba (Huelva), where there was a Greek Ionian community. Such news would have been summarized by Hecataeus of Miletus (c. 500 BC) in his work Periegesis in the form of a “geography of the resources”. On the other hand, the study of the archaeological evidence from the Galician castros has allowed us to identify three phases in the distribution of products from the «Circle of the Strait», starting at the end of the 5th century B.C. and continuing until the Roman Imperial period. Moreover, this project has also examined the ways in which the intercommunity relations were articulated, and how the so-called “betyllic sanctuaries” played a major role for this purpose.

La evidencia arqueológica, así como las características geográficas y geológicas, permiten pensar que el noroeste de Iberia se corresponde con el lugar, mencionado por las fuentes clásicas, al que los fenicios navegaron para comerciar con las comunidades locales y obtener estaño. Las rías y sus espacios insulares y peninsulares les dieron el acceso a los recursos de la extensa región estannífera occidental de Iberia cuyas fuentes, sin embargo, ya eran explotadas y el estaño intercambiado mucho antes a nivel suprarregional. Durante el Bronce Final, la obtención se habría realizado desde el sur de Iberia a través de rutas terrestres, en un marco de relaciones y movilidad controlado por élites y bajo economías de reciprocidad. Detrás de la navegación fenicia a las rías gallegas no estaría, por tanto, el descubrimiento de una tierra rica en estaño, sino la inauguración de una nueva ruta, directa y con las ventajas que supone el trasporte marítimo, de acceso al sector más septentrional de estas fuentes. Esta nueva forma de acceso se debió, en primer lugar, al colapso de las rutas de intercambio terrestres y, en segundo lugar, a la desconexión, a partir del siglo V a.C., entre los asentamientos en los estuarios de la costa central portuguesa y el círculo del Estrecho.

En este capítulo hacemos un balance de los conocimientos acumulados en las últimas décadas sobre el comercio de productos mediterráneos en los castros gallegos, exponemos los objetivos del Proyecto Estrímnides y la metodología empleada, y, a partir de los resultados de la revisión de los materiales procedentes de los yacimientos ana- lizados (Alcabre, Toralla, Vigo, Torres de Padín, Fozara, Chandebrito, Montealegre, A Lanzada, O Achadizo, Castro Grande de Neixón, Elviña, ría de Arosa, Bahía de la Coruña), proponemos una periodización de los ritmos de circulación de estos productos en tres fases: 1) fines del siglo V-mediados del siglo II a.C.; 2) mediados del siglo II a.C.-mediados del siglo I a.C.; 3) mediados del siglo I a.C.-inicios de época altoimperial. Así mismo, se hace referencia al origen de los productos transportados (vino, aceite, salazones, vidrio, cerámicas de calidad) y a la intermediación de Gadir/Gades en la redistribución de éstos. Por último, se analiza el impacto del comercio y la recepción de las importaciones entre las comunidades vernáculas.

Mediterranean trade with the communities of Northwest Iberia is a historical phenomenon that has received some attention from academics only in the past two decades, despite the relatively frequent findings of products of Mediterranean origin or from the area of the Strait of Gibraltar in contexts of the Late Iron Age. Recently, the “La Ruta de las Estrimnides. Mediterranean trade and interculturality in the northwest of Iberia” (HAR2015-68310-P) project aimed to systematically study these southern materials in order to include them in a spatial and temporal context, as well as in an economic and commercial structure: navigation routes, scales, rhythms and frequency of travel, products that circulated in both directions and, above all, control mechanisms and power groups, direct or indirect, involved in this movement of people, products and ideas.

La arqueología de la muerte y la identidad es clave para comprender las sociedades pretéritas. A través de los restos de rituales funerarios, los arqueólogos estudian no solo las actitudes y sentimientos que los individuos en el pasado desarrollaron en relación a la muerte y el Más Allá, sino también su cultura, sistema social y visión del mundo. Este artículo proporciona una visión y síntesis de uno de los campos de estudio más relevantes en la investigación, centrándose especialmente en las cuestiones teóricas que han alentado las diferentes aproximaciones al tema a lo largo del tiempo.

The remains of baked clay structures with perforated bases have been found on several Iron Age sites in NW Iberia, with various interpretations as to their function. Following a new typological attribution of examples from the hillfort of Castrovite, a study is presented of one of the most complete combustion chambers from the site of Castromao, marking a first step to rethinking aspects of its production and functionality. The different perspectives provided by a combination of archaeometric analysis, experimental reconstruction, and the revision of archaeological and ethnographic data, as well as the participation of a traditional potter from Gundivós (Sober, Lugo), has made it possible to pose questions and formulate answers in a reflection on this phenomenon.

En esta comunicación presentamos los resultados del Proyecto de Investigación La ruta de la Estrímnides. Comercio mediterráneo e interculturalidad en el noroeste de Iberia (HAR2015-68310-P). La principal aportación es la revisión de los contextos arqueológicos de varios castros (Toralla, A Lanzada, Boiro, Chandebrito, etc.) y de los materiales de importación registrados, especialmente los cerámicos, y entre ellos las ánforas, que nos han permitido establecer las fases y los ritmos del comercio, el origen de estos materiales, los productos demandados, los principales agentes implicados en las transacciones y los fenómenos de interculturalidad entre los agentes mediterráneos y las comunidades locales.