The dawn of Iron Age societies: hillfort morphodynamics in the NW Mediterranean

Summary

Hillforts are a typical feature of the Iron Age settlement patterns of the north-west Mediterranean (Southern France and North-East of Spain). Their morphology appears as relatively homogeneous, and gives a prominent importance to the domestic sphere, the stone ramparts being often the only clearly communitarian building. The development of these agglomerations –quite small according to central European standards- is broadly contemporary with the beginnings of Greek colonization and with the subsequent rise in the seaborne trade it provoked (6th century BC). This supposed synchronism has led to the development of models privileging trade as a stimulus leading to the development of a new kind of settlement often qualified as "proto-urban" or "urban".

But reality seems to be more complex, from a chronological as well as from a "phenomenological" point of view. Relying on case studies, we will show that the emergence of such new settlement patterns is multicausal and that variability is very important from one region to another. We will emphasize the fact that the enclosure of a given settlement is part of a complex dynamic involving economic, sociological and symbolic factors, and is much more progressive than was previously thought.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Biographies of Enclosure in Global Context

Keywords

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