Forging Identity: The social and symbolic significance of torques in the Iron Age Castro Culture

Summary

The Iron Age Castro Culture of northwestern Iberia was steeped in the crosscurrents of disparate cultural influences. Linked to areas of temperate Europe by Atlantic trade routes, the Castro Culture was also subject to the encroachments of Mediterranean powers moving through the Iberian Peninsula. These diverse influences manifested in the Castro Culture in a variety of ways, including in methods of personal adornment. The gold and silver torques left by the Castro people are the best example of this blending of forces, used as symbols of power and prestige across much of Europe, made with techniques learned from Mediterranean cultures. In this paper I will explore the social and symbolic work enacted by these torques, including their potential roles in social negotiations, ritual performances, and the formation, maintenance, and negotiation of personal and corporate identity. Often crafted with virtuosic skill, these objects represent the interaction of individuals and groups with the forces that shaped the world of Iron Age Europe, and their attempts to navigate those forces while asserting meaning and identity on their own terms.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Adornment, Personal Ornamentation, and the Construction of Identity: A Global Archaeological Perspective   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14414