The Castro culture emerged during the first two centuries of the first millennium BC, in the region extending from the
Douro river up to the
Minho, but soon expanding north along the coast, and east following the river valleys, reaching the mountain ranges which separate the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula from the central plateau or
meseta. It was the result of the autonomous evolution of Atlantic
Bronze Age communities, after the local collapse of the long range
Atlantic network of interchange of prestige items.
The end of the Atlantic Bronze Age (Galicia) From the
Mondego river up to the
Minho river, along the coastal areas of northern Portugal, during the last two centuries of the second millennium BC a series of settlements were established in high, well communicated places, radiating from a core area north of the Mondego, and usually specializing in the production of
Atlantic Bronze Age metallurgy:
cauldrons, knives, bronze vases, roasting spits,
flesh-hooks, swords, axes and jewelry relating to a noble elite who celebrated ritual banquets and who participated in an extensive network of interchange of prestige items, from the
Mediterranean and up to the
British Isles. These villages were closely related to the open settlements which characterized the first Bronze Age, frequently established near the valleys and the richer agricultural lands. From the beginning of the first millennium, the
network appears to collapse, possibly because the
Iron Age had outdated the Atlantic tin and bronze products in the Mediterranean region, and the large-scale production of metallic items was reduced to the elaboration of axes and tools, which are still found buried in very large quantities all along the European Atlantic coast.
Formative period During the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age, from the
Douro in modern northern Portugal and up along the coasts of Galicia until the central regions of Asturias, the settlement in artificially fortified places substituted the old open settlement model. These early
hill-forts were small (1 ha at most), being situated on hills, peninsulas or other naturally defended places, usually endowed with long range visibility. The artificial defences were initially composed of earthen walls, battlements and ditches, which enclosed an inner habitable space. This space was mostly left void, non-urbanised, and used for communal activities, comprising a few circular, oblong, or rounded squared huts, of in the largest dimension, built with wood, vegetable materials and mud, sometimes reinforced with stony low walls. The major inner feature of these multi-functional undivided cabins were the
hearth, circular or quadrangular, and which conditioned the uses of the other spaces of the room. In essence, the main characteristic of this formative period is the assumption by the community of a larger authority at the expense of the elites, reflected in the minor importance of prestige items production, while the collective invested important resources and labour in the communal spaces and defences. n Warrior, Castro Culture, 1st Century AD, north-western Iberian Peninsula (
National Archaeology Museum of Portugal)
Second Iron Age Since the beginning of the 6th century BC the Castro culture experienced an inner expansion: hundreds of new hill-forts were founded, while some older small ones were abandoned for new emplacements. These new settlements were founded near valleys, in the vicinity of the richest farmlands, and these are generally protected by several defence lines, composed of ramparts, ditches, and sound stony walls, probably built not only as a defensive apparatus but also as a feature which could confer prestige to the community. Sometimes, human remains have been found in
cists or under the walls, implying some kind of foundational protective ritual. Not only did the number of settlements grow during this period, but also their size and density. First, the old familiar huts were frequently substituted by groups of family housing, composed generally of one or more huts with a hearth, plus round granaries, and elongated or square sheds and workshops. At the same time, these houses and groups tended to occupy most of the internal area of the hill-forts, reducing the communitarian open spaces, which in turn would have been substituted by other facilities such as
saunas, communitarian halls, and shared forges. Although most of the communities of this period had self-sufficient isolated economies, one important change was the return of trade with the Mediterranean by the now independent
Carthage, a thriving Western Mediterranean power. Carthaginian merchants brought imports of wine, glass, pottery and other goods through a series of
emporia, commercial posts which sometimes included temples and other installations. At the same time, the archaeological register shows, through the finding of large quantities of
fibulae,
pins,
pincers for hair extraction,
pendants,
earrings,
torcs,
bracelets, and other personal objects, the ongoing importance of the individual and his or her physical appearance. While the archaeological record of the Castro Iron Age suggests a very egalitarian society, these findings imply the development of a privileged class with better access to prestige items.
The oppida From the 2nd century BC, specially in the south, some of the hill-forts turned into semi-urban fortified towns,
oppida; their remains are locally known as or
cidades, cities, with populations of some few thousand inhabitants, such as Cividade de Bagunte (50 ha), Briteiros (24 ha), Sanfins (15 ha), San Cibrao de Lás (20 ha), or Santa Tegra (15 ha); some of them were even larger than the cities, Bracara Augusti and Lucus Augusti, that Rome established a century later. These native cities or citadels were characterised by their size and by urban features such as paved streets equipped with channels for
stormwater runoff, reservoirs of potable water, and evidence of urban planning. Many of them also presented an inner and upper walled space, relatively large and scarcely urbanised, called
acrópole by local scholars. These oppida were generally surrounded by concentric ditches and stone walls, up to five in Briteiros, sometimes reinforced with towers. Gates to these oppida become monumental and frequently have sculptures of warriors. The oppida's dwelling areas are frequently externally walled, and kitchens, sheds, granaries, workshops and living rooms are ordered around an inner paved yard, sometimes equipped with fountains, drains and reservoirs. Cividade de Bagunte (
Norte Region) was one of the largest cities with 50 hectares. The cities are surrounded by a number of smaller castros, some of which may have been defensive outposts of cities, such as Castro de Laundos, that was probably an outpost of Cividade de Terroso. There is a
cividade toponym in
Braga, a citadel established by Augustus, although there are no archaeological findings apart from an ancient parish name and pre-Roman baths.
Bracara Augusta later became the capital of the Roman province of
Gallaecia, which encompassed all the lands once part of the Castro culture.
Roman era The first meeting of Rome with the inhabitants of the
castros and was during the Punic wars, when Carthaginians hired local mercenaries for fighting Rome in the Mediterranean and into Italy. Later on,
Gallaecians backed
Lusitanians fighting Romans, and as a result the Roman general
Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus led a successful punishment expedition into the North in 137 BC; the victory he celebrated in Rome granted him the title Callaicus (“Galician”). During the next century
Gallaecia was still theatre of operation for
Perpenna (73 BC),
Julius Caesar (61 BC) and the generals of
Augustus (29-19 BC). But only after the Romans defeated the Asturians and Cantabrians in 19 BC is evident—through inscriptions, numismatic and other archaeological findings—the submission of the local powers to Rome. While the 1st century BC represents an era of expansion and maturity for the Castro Culture, under Roman influence and with the local economy apparently powered more than hindered by Roman commerce and wars, during the next century the control of Roma became political and military, and for the first time in more than a millennium new unfortified settlements were established in the plains and valleys, at the same time that numerous hill-forts and cities were abandoned. Strabo wrote, probably describing this process: "
until they were stopped by the Romans, who humiliated them and reduced most of their cities to mere villages" (Strabo, III.3.5). The culture went through somewhat of a transformation, as a result of the Roman conquest and formation of the Roman province of
Gallaecia in the heart of the Castro cultural area; by the 2nd century AD most hill-forts and oppida had been abandoned or reused as sanctuaries or worshipping places, but some others kept being occupied up to the 5th century, when the Germanic
Suevi established themselves in Gallaecia. ==Economy and arts==