Materiality and Memory in Northwest Iberia: Water, Metal, and Stone

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Iron Age of Northwest Portugal: Leftovers of Behavior" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this paper, I explore the attractant qualities of water, metal, and stone as they have intertwined with human memory-making over three millennia in northwest Iberia. During the Bronze and Iron Ages, the confluence of the Rios Sar and Ulla may have been an important liminal space, as people consigned weapons and other metal implements to their depths. The rivers attracted sea traders, connecting them with inland sources of tin and gold. Romans brought the watery cult of Neptune when they established the stopover of Iria Flavia along the Via XIX. Centuries later, Christians transformed an altar to Neptune into El Pedrón—the stone believed to be the anchor for the boat that brought the body of Santiago up the Rio Sar. Today, this ancient, repurposed stone and the church that houses it is an important part of Catholic and tourist pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Working from published archaeological and historical investigations, I trace the role of materials in the construction of memory over time in and around Padrón, Galicia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Iron Age of Northwest Portugal: Leftovers of Behavior   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32353