Changing Times, Changing Ways? Evidence for Metallurgy at the Cividade de Bagunte

Summary

The Iberian Peninsula has been a rich source of metallic ores for millennia, and the quest for control of those resources has profoundly impacted the history of the Peninsula. Iberia has followed a unique trajectory in the development of metallurgy, with a case for the independent invention of copper smelting in the southwest, and small-scale production of bronze and other metals across the Peninsula until Roman occupation. The advent of Roman imperial control of labour and mines constituted a sea change in the scale and intensity of metal exploitation in Iberia with the introduction of large-scale mining, smelting, and production operations. What did this change look like within communities? How did local people adopt, adapt, or reject these new technologies and practices? Among the last to be conquered, the people of the Castro Culture of northwest Iberia produced some of the most technologically complex and visually stunning examples of Iberian metalwork. However little is known about the nature of metallurgy practiced at Castro sites. The Cividade de Bagunte, at the height of its occupation during the Roman period, can provide valuable insight into the social and technological strategies used by Castro people to cope with this transition.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20101