The article reviews the usefulness of the historical–anthropological models of peasantry and Germanic Mode of Production applied to the analysis of the Castro culture (Cultura Castrexa, the Iron Age of the north-western Iberian Peninsula). A historical reconstruction of the period is developed, in which the strain between local community and familial units constitutes one of the most important agents in the process of change, according to a discourse largely based on the proposals of P. Clastres on ‘societies against the state’. A relevant role is given to different forms of violence and conflict; initially they are understood as active mechanisms in inter-community relations although later they would rather become virtual and latent elements that allow the development of a model of social relations that can be defined as a non-class ‘heroic society’.
In recent decades, archaeological and historical research on the Iron Age in the north-western Iberian Peninsula, as in many other areas and archaeological contexts, has developed a ‘pacifist’ interpretation. This is based, among other aspects, upon the rejection of the functional nature of the weapons documented in the archaeological record and on the development of a hypothesis on the non-defensive nature of walls, interpreting these structures as a symbol of the community or as an indication of the cohesion of the group living in the settlement. Such an interpretation can be integrated with the idea of a pre- and proto-historic ‘pacified past’ developed after the Second World War, which considered that ‘before civilization, war was rare, ritualised, abnormal and foreign to human psychology’ and with the belief that there has been a evolutionary progression from a primitive to a civilized way of war.
Reicheiodes microphthalmus (Heyden, 1870) wird redescribiert. Untersuchungen an 7 Populationen aus Nordwestspanien zeigen, daß die Art in einer südlichen und einer nördlichen Subspecies vorkommt, die durch die Talsysteme des Rio Niño und Rio Sil getrennt sind. Die neue Subspecies Reicheiodes microphthalmus assmanni ssp. n. wird beschrieben, illustriert, und mit Reicheiodes microphthalmus microphthalmus (Heyden) verglichen.StichwörterColeoptera, Carabidae, Scaritinae, Reicheiodes, taxonomy, Spain.Nomenklatorische Handlungenassmanni Balkenohl, 1999 (Reicheiodes microphthalmus), sspec. n.
This paper deals with the preliminary results of the typological and analytical study of a collection of copper-based objects found at the site of Castelo Velho (Freixo de Numão). This collection is associated to different contexts from the 3rd millennium BC (Chalcolithic). The analyses, performed by non-destructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF), show that the metals were produced with almost pure copper and arsenical copper (> 2% As). Impurities, such as As (<2%), Fe, Bi, Ag, Sn, Sb and Ni, were also identified, likely due to their presence in the ores used for the production of the objects. The data suggest that the metals from Castelo Velho may be framed within the metallurgical production already known for the Chalcolithic of the North-Western Iberian Peninsula.
Transition to the Early Iron Age was marked by the appearance of innovations such as iron technology and changes in the lifestyle of local societies on the territory of the North-Western Pontic Sea region. One of the most interesting sites of this period is the Glinjeni II-La Șanț fortified settlement, located in the Middle Dniester basin (Republic of Moldova). Materials of different cultural traditions belonged to the Cozia-Saharna culture (10th–9th cc. BC) and the Basarabi-Șoldănești culture (8th–beginning of 7th cc. BC) were found on this site. The article presents the results of a multidisciplinary approach to the study of ceramic sherds from these archaeological complexes and cultural layers as well as raw clay sources from this area. The archaeometry analysis, such as the XRF-WD, the thin section analysis, SEM-EDX of ceramics, m-CT of pottery were carried out. The study of ancient pottery through a set of mineralogical and geochemical analytic methods allowed us to obtain new results about ceramic technology in different chronological periods, ceramic paste recipes and firing conditions. Correlation of archaeological and archaeometry data of ceramics from the Glinjeni II-La Șanț site gives us the possibility to differ earlier and later chronological markers in the paste recipes of pottery of 10th–beginning of 7th cc. BC in the region of the Middle Dniester basin.
The practice of child burials underneath house floors in the Late Prehistory has been considered a characteristic trait of the Iberian religion. However, this custom has also been documented in different archaeological sites both in the Mediterranean and Central Europe as well as Celtic areas of the Iberian Peninsula, so we can explain this funerary practice by an Indo-European origin. We report the archeotanatological and osteoarcheological study of 10 subadults found in the Iron Age site of Monte Bernorio oppidum, the first archeological site in the western and central Cantabrian region with this funerary rite documented. It is the confirmation of both, the survival of an ancient funerary ritual, widely extended in all Europe, and its presence in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. We also review all the archeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula with similar archeological contexts and analyse the rite from the bioarcheology of the care.
Recent studies have shown that the speciose Holarctic genera of Leiobunum C.L. Koch, 1839 and Nelima Roewer, 1910 are polyphyletic taxa, and therefore, the traditional diagnostic characters for these European genera of Leiobuninae Banks, 1893 (respectively, the presence or absence of tubercle rows on leg coxae) are unsuitable. We present the description of Leiolima iberica gen. et sp. nov., a new endemic harvestman from the north-western part of the Iberian Peninsula. The newly established genus shows intermediate characters between Leiobunum and Nelima. In addition, the new genus is characterized by shorter legs compared to Leiobunum and the presence of trichomes on all leg femora and pedipalpal patellae, a structure that is absent in all other western Palearctic genera of the subfamily Leiobuninae.
Reicheiodes microphthalmus (Heyden, 1870) from the north-western Iberian peninsula, with a description of the new subspecies Reicheiodes microphthalmus assmanni ssp. n. (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Scaritinae).