Культура кастро: археология северо-западной Иберии

Archaeological culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian peninsula

Castro culture (, cultura castreja, , lang es, meaning "culture of the hillforts") is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Peninsula (present day northern and central Portugal together with the Spanish regions of Galicia, Asturias, and western León) from the end of the Bronze Age (c. 9th century BC) until it was subsumed by Roman culture (c. 1st century BC). It is the culture associated with the Gallaecians and Astures. The most notable characteristics of this culture are its walled oppida and hillforts, known locally as castros, from Latin castrum 'castle', and the scarcity of visible burial practices, in spite of the frequent depositions of prestige items and goods, swords and other metallic riches in rocky outcrops, rivers and other aquatic contexts since the Atlantic Bronze Age. This cultural area extended east to the Cares river and south into the lower Douro river valley. The area of Ave Valley in Portugal was the core region of this culture, with many small Castro settlements, but also including larger oppida, the cividades (from Latin civitas 'city'), some known as citânias by archaeologists, due to their city like structure: Cividade de Bagunte (Civitas Bogonti), Cividade de Terroso (Civitas Terroso), Citânia de Briteiros, and Citânia de Sanfins.

The Castro culture emerged during the first two centuries of the first millennium BC, in the region extending from the Douro river up to the Minho, but soon expanding north along the coast, and east following the river valleys, reaching the mountain ranges which separate the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula from the central plateau or meseta. It was the result of the autonomous evolution of Atlantic Bronze Age communities, after the local collapse of the long range Atlantic network of interchange of prestige items.

From the Mondego river up to the Minho river, along the coastal areas of northern Portugal, during the last two centuries of the second millennium BC a series of settlements were established in high, well communicated places, radiating from a core area north of the Mondego, and usually specializing themselves in the production of Atlantic Bronze Age metallurgy: cauldrons, knives, bronze vases, roasting spits, flesh hooks, swords, axes and jewelry relating to a noble elite who celebrated ritual banquets and who participated in an extensive network of interchange of prestige items, from the Mediterranean and up to the British Isles. These villages were closely related to the open settlements which characterized the first Bronze Age, frequently established near the valleys and the richer agricultural lands. From the beginning of the first millennium, the network appears to collapse, possibly because the Iron Age had outdated the Atlantic tin and bronze products in the Mediterranean region, and the large scale production of metallic items was reduced to the elaboration of axes and tools, which are still found buried in very large quantities all along the European Atlantic coast.

During the transition of the Bronze to the Iron Age, from the Douro in modern northern Portugal and up along the coasts of Galicia until the central regions of Asturias, the settlement in artificially fortified places substituted the old open settlement model. These early hill forts were small (1 ha at most), being situated in hills, peninsulas or another naturally defended places, usually endowed with long range visibility. The artificial defences were initially composed of earthen walls, battlements and ditches, which enclosed an inner habitable space. This space was mostly left void, non urbanised, and used for communal activities, comprising a few circular, oblong, or rounded squared huts, of in the largest dimension, built with wood, vegetable materials and mud, sometimes reinforced with stony low walls. The major inner feature of these multi functional undivided cabins were the hearth, circular or quadrangular, and which conditioned the uses of the other spaces of the room. In essence, the main characteristic of this formative period is the assumption by the community of a larger authority at the expense of the elites, reflected in the minor importance of prestige items production, while the collective invested important resources and labour in the communal spaces and defences.

The first meeting of Rome with the inhabitants of the castros and cividades was during the Punic wars, when Carthaginians hired local mercenaries for fighting Rome in the Mediterranean and into Italy. Later on, Gallaecians backed Lusitanians fighting Romans, and as a result the Roman general Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus led a successful punishment expedition into the North in 137 BC; the victory he celebrated in Rome granted him the title Callaicus (“Galician”). During the next century Gallaecia was still theatre of operation for Perpenna (73 BC), Julius Caesar (61 BC) and the generals of Augustus (29 19 BC). But only after the Romans defeated the Asturians and Cantabrians in 19 BC is evident—through inscriptions, numismatic and other archaeological findings—the submission of the local powers to Rome. While the 1st century BC represents an era of expansion and maturity for the Castro Culture, under Roman influence and with the local economy apparently powered more than hindered by Roman commerce and wars, during the next century the control of Roma became political and military, and for the first time in more than a millennium new unfortified settlements were established in the plains and valleys, at the same time that numerous hill forts and cities were abandoned. Strabo wrote, probably describing this process: "until they were stopped by the Romans, who humiliated them and reduced most of their cities to mere villages" (Strabo, III.3.5). The culture went through somewhat of a transformation, as a result of the Roman conquest and formation of the Roman province of Gallaecia in the heart of the Castro cultural area; by the 2nd century AD most hill forts and oppida had been abandoned or reused as sanctuaries or worshipping places, but some others kept being occupied up to the 5th century, when the Germanic Suevi established themselves in Gallaecia.

Pollen analysis confirms the Iron Age as a period of intense deforestation in Galicia and Northern Portugal, with meadows and fields expanding at the expense of woodland. Using three main type of tools, ploughs, sickles and hoes, together with axes for woodcutting, the Castro inhabitants grew a number of cereals: (wheat, millet, possibly also rye) for baking bread, as well as oats and barley which they also used for beer production. They also grew beans, peas and cabbage, and flax for fabric and clothes production; other vegetables were collected: nettle, watercress. Large quantities of acorns have been found hoarded in most hill forts, as they were used for bread production once toasted and crushed in granite stone mills. The second pillar of local economy was animal husbandry. Gallaecians bred cattle for meat, milk and butter production; they also used oxen for dragging carts and ploughs, while horses were used mainly for human transportation. They also bred sheep and goats, for meat and wool, and pigs for meat. Wild animals like deer or boars were frequently chased. In coastal areas, fishing and collecting shellfish were important activities: Strabo wrote that the people of northern Iberia used boats made of leather, probably similar to Irish currachs and Welsh coracles, for local navigation. Archaeologists have found hooks and weights for nets, as well as open seas fish remains, confirming inhabitants of the coastal areas as fishermen.

Pottery was produced locally in a variety of styles, although wealthier people also possessed imported Mediterranean products. The richest pottery was produced in the south, from the Rias Baixas region in Galicia to the Douro, where decoration was frequently stamped and incised into pots and vases. The patterns used often revealed the town where these were produced.

In the 1st century AD, more than 700,000 people were living in the main area of the Castro culture, in hill forts and oppida. Northern Gallaeci (Lucenses) were divided into 16 populi or tribes: Lemavi, Albiones, Cibarci, Egivarri Namarini, Adovi, Arroni, Arrotrebae, Celtici Neri, Celtici Supertamarci, Copori, Celtici Praestamarci, Cileni, Seurri, Baedui. Astures were divided in Augustani and Transmontani, comprising 22 populi: Gigurri, Tiburi, Susarri, Paesici, Lancienses, Zoelae, among others. Southern Gallaecians (Bracareses), comprising the area of the oppida, were composed of 24 civitates: Helleni, Grovi, Leuni, Surbi, Bracari, Interamnici, Limici, Querquerni, Coelerni, Tamagani, Bibali, Callaeci, Equasei, Caladuni

Each populi or civitas was composed of a number of castella, each one comprehending one or more hill forts or oppida, by themselves an autonomous political chiefdom, probably under the direction of a chief and a senate. Under Roman influence the tribes or populi apparently ascended to a major role, at the expense of the minor entities. From the beginning of our era a few Latin inscriptions are known where some individuals declare themselves princeps or ambimogidus of a certain populi or civitas.