Castro culture

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.

[5] 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,[6] 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.

[8] 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.

This space was mostly left void, non urbanised, and used for communal activities, comprising a few circular, oblong, or rounded squared huts, of 5 to 15 meters (16–49 ft) in the largest dimension,[9] built with wood, vegetable materials and mud, sometimes reinforced with stony low walls.

[11] These new settlements were founded near valleys, in the vicinity of the richest farmlands, and these are generally protected by several defence lines, composed of ramparts, ditches, and sound stony walls, probably built not only as a defensive apparatus but also as a feature which could confer prestige to the community.

Carthaginian merchants brought imports of wine, glass, pottery and other goods through a series of emporia, commercial posts which sometimes included temples and other installations.

At the same time, the archaeological register shows, through the finding of large quantities of fibulae, pins, pincers for hair extraction, pendants, earrings, torcs, bracelets, and other personal objects, the ongoing importance of the individual and his or her physical appearance.

While the archaeological record of the Castro Iron Age suggests a very egalitarian society, these findings imply the development of a privileged class with better access to prestige items.

The oppida's dwelling areas are frequently externally walled, and kitchens, sheds, granaries, workshops and living rooms are ordered around an inner paved yard, sometimes equipped with fountains, drains and reservoirs.

In the southern coastal areas the presence of Mediterranean merchants from the 6th century BC onward, would have occasioned an increase in social inequality, bringing many importations (fine pottery, fibulae, wine, glass and other products) and technological innovations, such as round granite millstones, which would have merged with the Atlantic local traditions.

Ancient Roman military presence in the south and east of the Iberian Peninsula since the 2nd century BC would have reinforced the role of the autochthonous warrior elites, with better access to local prestige items and importations.

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.

Gallaecians bred cattle for meat, milk and butter production; they also used oxen for dragging carts and ploughs,[21] while horses were used mainly for human transportation.

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.

The main products include tools (sickles, hoes, ploughs, axes), domestic items (knives and cauldrons), and weapons (antenna swords, spearheads).

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 name of some of the castles and oppida are known through the declaration of origin of persons mentioned in epitaphs and votive Latin inscriptions[36] (Berisamo, Letiobri, Ercoriobri, Louciocelo, Olca, Serante, Talabriga, Aviliobris, Meidunio, Durbede..), through the epithets of local Gods in votive altars (Alaniobrica, Berubrico, Aetiobrigo, Viriocelense...), and the testimony of classic authors and geographers (Adrobrica, Ebora, Abobrica, Nemetobriga, Brigantium, Olina, Caladunum, Tyde, Glandomirum, Ocelum...).

[43] Other similar anthroponymical patterns are known referring mostly to persons born in the regions in-between the rivers Navia in Asturias and Douro in Portugal, the ancient Gallaecia, among them: The religious pantheon was extensive, and included local and pan-Celtic gods.

The supreme Nabia is related to Jupiter and another incarnation of the deity, identified with Diana, Juno or Victoria or others from the Roman pantheon, linked to the protection and defence of the community or health, wealth and fertility.

Bandua, Reue, Arentius-Arentia, Quangeius, Munidis, Trebaruna, Laneana, and Nabia worshipped in the heart of Lusitania vanishes almost completely outside the boundary with the Vettones.

Important Castros in the Albion Territory, near the Nicer stele and Navia and Eo Rivers are: Coaña, Chao de Samartín, Pendía and Taramundi.