Celtic World - Castro of A Garda

Back in September 2011, I visited Galicia for a weekend trip, mostly focusing on the castro culture of the Gallaic Celts (as well as a lovely day trip to the Cíes Islands). The former post featured pics from my visit to the Castro of Vigo, and in this one I'll be posting those from my visit to the breathtaking Castro de Santa Tecla in A Garda (La Guardia). Enjoy!

-Some info about this castro (source): "The Castro de Santa Trega is a Galician fort and archaeological site located on the hillsides of Mount Santa Trega. At 341 meters (1118 feet) above sea level, the fort can be found in the southwestern Galician municipality of A Guarda (Pontevedra). The site is strategically located overlooking the mouth of the river Miño. Belonging to the Castro culture, it is the most emblematic and visited Galician fort."

"Santa Trega is a ‘Castro-Roman’ settlement. which was inhabited between 100 BC and 100 AD, in a period when the process of Romanisation of the northwest of the Iberian peninsula had already begun. Despite this, the construction system reflects techniques that respect the Castro tradition and has seen very little Roman influence. This style is dominated by the use of circular structures. Only a small percentage of the estimated size of the settlement has been excavated so far. At present only the northern part, excavated in the 80s, and some structures at the top of the mountain are open to visitors. It is bordered by a wall which surrounds a stretch of land more than 700 metres (2300 feet) north-south by 300 metres (984 feet) east-west."

 "Barring a few exceptions, almost all of the stone structures are free-standing dwellings with circular or oval foundations. The vast majority of these houses are of small dimensions and sit directly on the bedrock with their walls being covered with a lime and sand mortar. Traces of pigmentation found indicate that the plaster on the walls would have been tinted different colours. Many of the dwellings have a foyer which is considered by experts to be a sign of Mediterranean influence adapted to maintain the characteristics of indigenous construction. Many monolithic door jambs and lintels have been found decorated with intertwined geometric shapes and rope-like moulding. In addition, embedded in the walls, cylindrical monolithic blocks of small dimensions have been found decorated with geometric shapes such as spirals, triskelions, Celtic roses, or pinwheel designs. Other elements such as plinths present similar decorations in addition to representations of animals."

 "Not all of the stone structures discovered at Castro de Santa Trega served a residential purpose. In particular, one type of building appears to be storehouses which possess a less elaborate and less careful construction than the neighbouring houses. Inside these buildings, remains of amphoras, a mill, carving stones, etc. were found. The urban distribution of the settlement is characterized by groups of buildings forming individualized clusters. These clusters are known as “family or household units” and are formed by dwellings and storehouses set around a small, often paved, communal courtyard. The site's urban planning includes a complex network of rainwater drainage channels located under the pathways, as well as sometimes on the surface, sculpted on the base rock and covered with slabs."

 

-Note and clarification: I tag this post as 'Celtic Spain' and 'Gallaic Celts', but it's to be noted that according to Classical authors, the "southwest corner of modern-day Galicia was populated by the Grovii or Grovios community" and that "Pomponius Mela stated that all the populi [of this area] were Celtic, excepting for the Grovii. Pliny also rejected that the Grovii were Celtic, he considered them to have a Greek origin. They cooperated with the local Gallaeci tribes as seen in the aftermatch of Viriatus death" (Source). So if this is true, this castro would not have been populated by a 'Celtic' people. Still, it's a people very much related to Castro culture and influenced by nearby Celtic peoples (the Celtic-style decorations in the houses is a sign of this). This, in addition to the fact that Castro culture is mostly associated with Gallaic Celts and other Celtiberian peoples,  is why I have decided to still tag the post about this specific castro as 'Celtic world' and the like.

And the rest of the pics (for larger sie, click or open in new tab):

 

Celtic world - Castro of Vigo

Back in September 2011, I visited Galicia for a weekend trip, mostly focusing on the castro culture of the Gallaic Celts (as well as a lovely day trip to the Cíes Islands). This post will feature my pics from my visit to the Castro of Vigo, and in a future post I'll be talking about the breathtaking Castro de Santa Tecla in A Garda (La Guardia).

-Castro culture: "Castro culture (cultura castrexa in Galician, cultura castreña in Spanish) is the archaeological term for the material culture of the north-western regions of the Iberian Peninsula (present-day northern Portugal together with Galicia, Asturias, Castilla y León, Cantabria and Basque Country) 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 Celtiberians, closely associated to the western Hallstatt horizon of Central Europe.  The most notable characteristics of this culture are its walled oppida and hill forts, fortified settlements known locally as castros (from Latin castrum "hillfort"), 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" (Castro culture; Castros)

 

Dolmen statue in the Monte del Castro  at the start of my visit of the Castro of Vigo

Walking down to the castro

Info on the castro of Vigo in Galician

 -The Castro of Vigo (Iron Age): "El castro de Vigo es un poblado castreño situado en una pendiente del Monte del Castro de Vigo, en Galicia. Los restos excavados pertenecen a una pequeña parte del poblado que se extendería por las caras del monte, habitado entre el siglo II a.C. y el siglo III d.C. Fue abandonado pacificamente, probablemente por el traslado de sus habitantes a la zona del Areal, más próxima al mar. Basándose en la información proporcionada por el yacimiento y por otros castros similares, se reconstruyeron tres de las viviendas del poblado, que ilustran un momento inicial de ocupación romana. Estas son una vivienda circular con vestíbulo anexo, un almacén y una vivienda cuadrangular posterior a la conquista romana"  (Wikipedia).

"The castro of Vigo is a castro village situated on a slope of the Monte del Castro in Vigo, Galicia. The excavated remains belong to a small part of the settlement, covering all sides of the mountain, inhabited between the 2nd Century BC and the 3rd Century AD. It was peacefully abandoned after its inhabitants moved to the Areal area, closer to the sea.  Based on the information provided by the site and other similar castros, three of the village houses were reconstructed, depicting their probable appearance at the beginning of the Roman occupation period. These reconstructions include a circular house with an adjoining doorway, a warehouse, and a square dwelling from after the Roman conquest."  (Wikipedia, my translation).

 You can find more info on this castro here.

So without further ado, here are the rest of the pics (click or open in new tab for larger size). I enjoyed this visit very much. The road to the castro in the Monte del Castro park was beautiful; the remains of the castro were very well kept; there were helpful informative panels at hand; and the  reconstructed houses were very well made as well:

2011 Celtic enthusiast me is enjoying herself :D

The info panels at the site (also in Galician):

Next stop, the castro de Santa Tecla in A Garda!

Madrid National Archaeological Museum - Celts, Celtiberians and Iberians

I have quite a lot of belated museum pics, so let's get started! Today's pic overload involve pieces of the Celtic, Celtiberians and Iberians in the Spanish Peninsula from the Madrid National Archaeological Museum . The first part is mainly about weapons and jewels and the like, because I'm enthusiastic about Celtic and Celtiberian culture here :D. Then, because this is a feminist blog after all, a rant about archaeological gender bias will make an appearance.

Detailed info about the pieces in the catalogues linked above. Click on pics or open in new tab for a bigger size.

• Intermission - Impromptu discussion about archaeological sexist bias regarding human iconography:

The following rant about gender bias is a result of thinking about the topic while looking at Celtiberian human figures in pots. Bear with me  xD

(Disclaimer: In this archaeological context we are talking about what's most probably depictions of  cis(sex/gender) people, and thus identifying the figures as male or female according to their portrayed genitalia, sexual secondary attributes or similar, according to the gender binary. Everything stated here is of course talking about this specific context and obviously doesn't seek to extrapolate to other contexts and invalidate the fact that the relation between biological sex (which is not binary), sexual attributes, assigned gender and gender identity can be very different matters for trans, NB and/or other queer people. Just wanting to clarify this. Intersectionality for the win always.)

It happens all too often that (usually male, probably also female) archaeologists tend to assume that any figure that is depicted in a warlike or active manner is automatically and without any shadow of a doubt a male figure. This of course is a result of sexist bias and gender stereotypes: Men are active, warlike and strong, while women are passive, beautiful and always depicted in 'traditionally feminine' activities. But even though most cultures are regrettably patriarchal and male-dominated, full of these gender roles, depictions of women in warlike, hunting and more active poses do exist, from warrior goddesses and more than one female depictions of Victory to Prehistoric huntresses in cave paintings. And if some cultures (like the Celts or Scandinavians) do have evidence of at least some warrior women, why shouldn't they be depicted in iconography as well? Why is that so difficult to imagine?

Also, it's not always obvious that the figure is male, so bias and stereotypes have more to do in the final decision that 'empirical evidence' - In more than one case, the gender of the figure can seem ambiguous, being depicted in a very schematic way and/or with no genitalia or sexual attributes present, for example (we are talking in the context of binary sex here, of course, which does fit most cases in these contexts, but it's worth mentioning that it's also an added bias that can be considered). Most people will still assume that the figure is male if shown in a warlike attitude or alongside objects such as weapons (and even in the case of being shown with both weapons and more 'traditionally feminine' objects such as mirrors, the figure will still be proclaimed as male).  

 

Estela de Solana de Cabañas (Bronze age). In this case, the figure is probably male because males are often portrayed with a straight, rectangular-shaped torso, but you get what I meant. Gender bias usually has no trouble seeing a mirror - a 'traditionally feminine' object - in a male tomb because there's weapons as well and weapons=male. But there are also female tombs with both weapons and mirrors and other personal grooming related objects!

 

In other cases, though, the gender of the figure seems to be less ambiguous: There's a tendency in quite a few cultures and artistic choices - the Paleolithic cave paintings, for example- to depict female figures with wide thighs and/or very thin waists with torsos in an inverted triangle shape, for example (males are also depicted with triangle shaped torsos in some cases, though, this is not a 'definitive sign' of the figure's 'femaleness'), while males have straight torsos in a rectangular shape and thinner legs. Even if no sexual attributes or genitalia are shown it can sometimes be reasonable to assume that a certain figure is male or female judging on these body shapes. 

And then there's the case where sexual secondary attributes (such as female breasts), for example, are actually shown, which should make it pretty obvious to assume to gender of the figure depicted, right? Wrong!  In too many cases, figures in warlike, hunting or active poses that are very clearly female (breasts, for example) are still labelled and described as being male simply because they have weapons or are in a  warlike or hunting or active attitude - A very clear and graphic example of the power of gender bias.

Some examples: This Celtic female rider is called a 'horseman' in a catalogue:

Many people also seem to find it difficult to identify these Paleolithic huntresses as being female despite the very obvious breasts in some cases, and the very obvious inverted triangle torsos and wide thighs:

 OK, back to the chase. I was reminded of the topic while looking at these two human figures in Celtiberian pots (below, click for bigger pics). Both are labelled as male, and both are probably males, even though the second one's shape is less straight and rectangular than many males figures are usually portrayed as. The clothing might be a useful sign as well - Iberian women's clothing, for example, involved veiling and head and body coverings as part of a patriarchal modesty mindset. They wouldn't be depicted with bare torsos or exposed legs (But Celtiberian women seemed to be less oppressed regarding clothing, so it could be a possibility).

But disregardless of this, this got me thinking about the priorities of the people deciding the gender of the figures. Did they automatically assume that they're males because they're warriors? Or they did study the way Celtiberians drew their figures as well?  Because the way their bodies are drawn are pretty different - While the second figure has a very straight, rectangular-shaped torso, the first warrior has an inverted triangle-shaped torso and pretty wide-ish thighs compared to the second figure, which in quite a lot of cases and cultures is a way of portraying female figures. Of course, this is not a scientific rule- Males are sometimes also portrayed with triangle-shaped torsos (the geometric archaic Greek period, for example, where both men and women are depicted with triangle-shaped torsos -women are usually wearing dresses and longer hair).

So while I'm not saying that this proves the figure is female (it doesn't, like it was mentioned before the shapes are not definite signs), still, there have been quite a handful of cases where gender bias has ruled over aspects like those.   Warrior women -and definitely warrior goddesses- were not unknown among the Celts and, it is to be supposed, also among the Celtiberians, so I wouldn't automatically rule femaleness out as a consequence of gender bias just because a figure was holding a spear or wearing a helmet, like so many people have done and still do (the example of the old labels of the Athena chariot in the museum shop). 

And to finish, some pics of the book I got at the museum shop: A book about the Druids with a whole chapter for druidesses and prophetesses :D! It also has general info on Celtic women and some images of warrior women such as Scáthach and Medb as well :)

Chapter of druidesses and prophetesses

Irish prophetess and druidess Fidelma

Drawing of Warrior queen Medb on the upper right

Drawing on warrior trainer Scáthach on the bottom left