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Summary: Since the beginning of Iron Age archaeology, urban agglomerations have dominated the debate on urbanism. The rural settlements – their types, functions and socio‐political dynamics – have been practically absent from the general discussion. The territorial backdrop of the Late Iron Age communities can provide both a new comparative framework in which to approach urban studies and essential keys to understanding how these societies worked. Developed from recent research into the oppida territories of the Eastern Meseta in central Spain, this paper presents a territorial overview that includes a characterization of the rural settlement, population figures and the role of urban centres as a proxy for territorial identities. This work also explores the network of relationships between oppida and between urban‐rural areas. In conclusion, this article argues that examining the rural‐urban settlement as a whole will lead us to a better understanding of the urban dynamics of the first millennium BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of Hispania in the Atlantic route in Roman times. We analyse the different Atlantic Iberian territories along this route, based on recent archaeological advances and discoveries related to trade as well as the shipping infrastructure. The aim is to explain the origin and evolution of a new maritime area that was completely integrated with the political and commercial structure of the Empire, with trade routes that followed the coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula all the way to the Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological settlement of Los Millares (Santa Fe de Mondújar, Almería) is located in the Mediterranean coastal area of southern Spain. This archaeological site constitutes one of the most important settlements belonging to the Copper Age in the Iberian Peninsula and has given its name to the ‘millariense’ culture. The settlement has been completely excavated, yielding major archaeological faunal remains, with 27,426 bone fragments classified by researchers from Munich University (Germany). In this paper, we apply different statistical methods (mainly χ2 analysis) to study the spatial distribution of bones from domestic and wild animals, reconstructing the patterns of appearance within specific functional spaces. These functions can be associated with meat consumption (sites to cut the animals into small pieces, areas where the meat was eaten, garbage sites, etc.) and the production of handmade objects (bone tools, stone tools, etc.). The results show different spatial distributions of faunal remains within the areas of the settlement, according to the animal species and particular parts of the animal skeleton, as well as the age and the sex of individuals. The findings reflect social behaviour that relates the consumption of certain species to a specific sector of population, and such behaviour can be discerned in the animal remains. Moreover, there is evidence regarding economic matters, such as meat production and the exchange of animals, which require further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the organization of societies in north-eastern Iberia (present-day Catalonia) during the Iron Age, using data provided by domestic architecture and settlement organization. I offer an analysis of the social differences detected in the dwellings based on a sample of houses excavated at different types of settlement. Although many Iberian houses had simple layouts and small surface areas, some larger dwellings at the main sites are distinguished by the shape of their ground plans, their surface areas, architectural features, and central locations; these houses are believed to be the residences of the Iberian elite. Such dwellings are not found at all sites and the data suggest that there was a relationship between the category of the settlement (or its function) and the types of dwelling in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the analysis of stylistic variation between the different rock-art traditions that coexisted in the central Mediterranean coastal area of Spain in the Neolithic period – the Macro Schematic tradition, the Schematic tradition and the Levantine tradition. The stylistic variation is analyzed in different scales from the panel with its compositions and superimpositions, to the shelter – shared or exclusive – and the landscape, focussing on patterns of distribution and relationships with settlement sites. This stylistic analysis enables us to study the chronological aspects of the process of Neolithization; while the symbolic character of these marks on the landscape offers an insight into the perception and use of space by the communities who made them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This study is concerned with the relationships between text and image in central Spain during the period second century BC–second century AD. Three discrete relationships are isolated, each one representative of a unique strategy for communicating with both written and figured language. The paper argues that the Celtiberian populi adopted Roman epigraphic practice into a pre-existing visual vocabulary, reconfiguring written communication into an indigenous framework that met local predilections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. This paper examines and discusses a 'dolmenic' structure recently discovered on the Spanish Balearic Island of Mallorca. This form of megalithic tomb architecture is the least studied of the many different types of local prehistoric monuments. Only seven dolmens are known in the Balearics (Mallorca and Menorca) and the Pityoussa Group (Ibiza and Formenterra) and only two of these have radiocarbon dating, circa 1750 cal BC to 1550 cal BC. The new structure, the Dolmen of Son Oleza, according to recent findings is the oldest example so far dated. A recent series of nine radiocarbon dates and two earlier analyses cover a period of circa 2200 cal BC to circa 1800 cal BC. The Olezian Dolmen is also the first to have yielded abundant Bell Beaker pottery and associated artefacts. It also reveals geological and architectural characteristics that are unlike other local dolmens, characteristics that by dating and artefact evidence identify it as a possible Balearic prototype. Furthermore, the Olezian Dolmen's location close to the Chalcolithic Old Settlement of Son Oleza, where identical dates and artefacts have been found, strongly suggests this settlement's contemporaneity and direct association with the Dolmen. This aspect, along with the other emerging evidence, is completely new to the question of Balearic dolmens, giving us fresh insight as to their chronology, function and socio-religious importance and significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vettonia was one of the most important Celtic regions in Iberia which emerged in the Iron Age. It corresponds largely to western Spain, between the Duero and Tagus valleys. The archaeological evidence indicates that the formation of this ethnic group lay in an historical process whose roots went back to the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age, when we begin to find a regular association between the first fortified sites and stable populations. These groups did not consolidate before the second half of the first millennium BC, in parallel with the development of other peoples of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula. This period can be recognized in particular through the spread of the ritual of cremation, ironworking, the adoption of the potter's wheel and the expansion of some settlements oppida which were ultimately to disappear with the Roman conquest. This paper sets out to examine the evolution of the area from an indigenous perspective, examining the process of change before and after the evidence referred to by Greek and Roman writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper focuses on the domestic realm in Late Prehistory in inland Iberia. A diachronic study of living quarters reveals two organizational approaches based on very different principles. The Bronze Age societies consisted of ephemeral family units: their huts are scattered, being relocated completely and regularly about every decade. From 800 BC onward, nucleated and permanent villages are formed: they are centred around 'the house'. This is an institution that shelters generations of a family; it is the basic cell of the social order introduced in the Iron Age when everyday domestic practices were differently organized. Dwelling places become larger and are rebuilt over earlier ones. This change in practice is due to a new emphasis on links with the ancestral past and the genealogical transmission of land rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first detailed analysis of the lithic industry from El Sidrón Cave. Previously we have published other works concerning Anthropology and Palaeogenetics. The lithic assemblage contains 415 artefacts coming from both unofficial and official excavations and is largely flake-based. The raw material derives from the immediate cave environment, and is mostly chert, with quartzite in a lesser proportion. To date, 67 artefacts have been refitted, including some tools and cores. The spatial distribution of the refitted lithic artefacts confirms, on the one hand, the unity of the assemblage and, on the other, its secondary context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Numerical chronology is one of the main sources of information by which one may contextualize prehistoric human activity more precisely. It is able to discriminate between different times of visits to caves and determine the period with which each form of evidence should be associated and the relationships between them. The application of conventional 14C and 14C‐AMS has dated visits to the Palaeolithic cave art site of Las Monedas during historical times. The results underscore the caution that is needed when dating a cave art ensemble based on an undated archaeological context or attributing all the graphic activity to a single time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Remains of perishable materials only survive at archaeological sites in extraordinary preservation conditions. This means that some technologies, such as woodworking, are clearly under‐represented in the archaeological record. Twelve wooden objects were found in the Aspio Cave (Ruesga, Cantabria). The application of an appropriate analytical methodology has allowed us to identify the processes of their selection, acquisition, fabrication and main morphological characteristics. In the case of the combs, morphological parallels have been established with artefacts at Iron Age sites in the British Isles. This singular archaeological assemblage, from a deposit dated in the second or first centuries cal BC, enables an exploration of the role of wood technology in Iron Age societies in Cantabrian Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special buildings used as saunas have been found in certain large hillforts in the north of Portugal and in the Cantabrian coastal area of Asturias and Galicia in Spain. The principal aim of this study is to highlight the importance of these buildings in the archaeology and art of the European Iron Age, where they are very rarely mentioned. Two approaches are developed: in Parts 1 and 2, we explain the structure of the buildings, their function, and the current debate surrounding their dating. In Parts 3 and 4, further analyses are developed on their position in the landscape, associating the saunas with the public life of the hillforts, and on the decorative structure of the pedras formosas ('beautiful stones') found in some of them, and their relation to certain artistic trends in so-called Celtic art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the rock art carvings of La Hinojosa in central Spain are examined. Their connection to a major transit route recorded at least from the medieval period is explored, as well as their location in a valley located at the confluence of two primary river basins in the Iberian Peninsula separated by less than five kilometres. It is argued that this singularity of the landscape seems to have been perceived by the people who marked the stones. From the 17 decorated rocks recorded in La Hinojosa valley, three were exceptionally elaborately decorated. They were situated at regular intervals in the valley. The site with the greatest number of motifs, the large rock of San Bernardino, occupies a central location. This site is also exceptional because of the transformations which the rock shows throughout the day, pointing to a narrative in which cups and anthropomorphs seem to have a primary role. It is suggested that gender may have constituted one of the main guidelines of the narrative, given the apparent replacement of feminine by masculine human representations throughout the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred and fifty two granite columns were examined in eight towns and archaeological sites in Andalucía and Extremadura, Spain, in order to determine the geological provenance of the columns. Three non-destructive methods of characterization were used: mineralogical features, magnetic susceptibility, and concentrations of radioelements (K, U, Th) determined by portable gamma ray spectrometry. Columns were compared with potential sources within Spain and in the Mediterranean area using analogous data previously published and also new data obtained for this work. The majority of the columns are made of Spanish granites, some of which were probably quarried near Mérida. Different chemical types of Spanish granites were used in the northern part of the area studied (Extremadura) and in the southern part (Andalucía). Twenty five columns are not of Spanish granites, but were imported from other sources, namely the Troad and Kozak Dağ areas of western Turkey, the Italian islands of Elba and/or Giglio, and Sardinia (confirming a column previously identified in the literature). The imported columns are found in Itálica, Hispalis (Seville) and Astigi (Écija), and were probably carried along the River Guadalquivir and its tributaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is concerned with hospitality in central Spain during the Late Iron Age. First the main characteristics of this Indo-European institution are presented, paying especial attention to the background of indigenous tesserae hospitalis (small epigraphic plaques referring to social links among different communities). An attempt is then made to juxtapose hospitality with the economic basis of Celtic Hispania and with other possible systems of regional interaction, such as transhumance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using new provenance studies on stone implements from the Valencia region of Spain between 5500-2000 BC, we show not only the large scale of some exchange systems, but also consider how, and why, tastes and fashions are co-ordinated over much of the Western Mediterranean. The study considers the processes of raw material substitution underlying the observed patterns. These processes operate for a wide range of lithic materials, including rare minerals like variscite and fossil shells for ornaments. Simple gravity models of distribution and exchange predominate at all periods. Our study extends from Portugal to Italy, and indicates that a system of shared symbolic values, of axeheads, beads and bracelets, was in operation. The discussion concludes that consumption patterns were centred on these values rather than functional categories of tools or prestige items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]