J. M. Álvarez T. Nogales I. Rodà (Eds.)
ACTAS XVIII Congreso Internacional Arqueología Clásica PROCEEDINGS XVIIITH International Congress of Classical Archaeology
VOL. I
CENTRO Y PERIFERIA EN EL MUNDO CLÁSICO CENTRE AND PERIPHERY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
XVIII CIAC: Centro y periferia en el mundo clásico / Centre and periphery in the ancient world S. 3. Mundo indígena. Sustratos culturales y los impactos coloniales The indigenous world. Cultural substrata and colonial impacts Mérida. 2014: 459-462
COLONIAL PROCESS IN SOUTHWESTERN IBERIAN EARLY IRON AGE: NEW BURIAL EVIDENCE FROM “EL MOLINO DE ABAJO” (VILLAFRANCA DE LOS BARROS - EXTREMADURA - SPAIN) Javier Jiménez Ávila1, Miriam García Cabezas2 Junta de Extremadura1, Ayuntamiento de Villafranca de los Barros2
ABSTRACT We present a set of archaeological finds coming from the site named Molino de Abajo (Villafranca de los Barros, Spain). They were located in accidental way many years ago and now they are conserved in the local Museum. The set is composed by two cinerary urns, a bowl, a little vessel and more than 50 bronze bracelets. It seems to correspond with a cremation grave group which can be dated over Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. From these evidences, similarities with peninsular Southwestern and Southeastern Late Bronze cultural groups can be established for the first time in the region of Extremadura.
First Millennium BC in the region of Extremadura. They reveal latest connections between this area and others Iberian cultural circles during the transition to the Late Bronze - Early Iron Age. Its interest is also increased by the traditional lack that we have got on all that being up concern of the Iberian Late Bronze funerary uses. That also evidence the early contact processes that the ancient local communities from Extremadura underwent during the times of the Phoenician colonization. The first set is composed by metallic and ceramic remains. A big handmade urn, containing inside ashes, cremated bones, and a little handmade vase was find practically in situ (Fig. 1.1 and 1.2). In this same area have been located a set of more than 50 bronze bracelets, all together, and very fragmented. All of them are making from a narrow bronze wire with square section, and they have a simple oval shape (Fig. 2). Remains of a third vase allow complete the form of a carenated bowl, a typical reference for the South Iberian Late Bronze (Fig. 1.3). Although not in a closed context, these objects can be related with Iberian Late Bronze - Early Iron Age burials both in the SE and SW areas like Les Moreres (Alicante) 1 , Alpiarça (Portugal)2, and the so called Qurenima Culture3. This
In 2012, during the works of mounting and installation for the Historic and Etnographic Museum of Villafranca de los Barros (Extremadura, Spain) we have received news about a set of archaeological findings. The detail matches with a new cremation cemetery located near this town, which can be dated in the Early Iron Age. Pieces have been donated for the new Museum by Mr. F. José González Rodríguez, who has found it during many archaeological promenades many years ago. They had been removed by ploughs and rippers. Currently, after its restoration, the kit is exposed into the historical discourse of this new public exhibition. The site of finding is located a few kilometers to the north of the town of Villafranca de los Barros, at a place now named as “El Molino de Abajo”. The landscape is mainly a plain one, corresponding to the typical geomorphology in the Tierra de Barros region: little hillocks and small river valleys of a high agricultural quality. The current dedication is the vineyard. Important references in this environment are the Arroyo Bonhabal and the ancient Roman way, the renowned “Via de la Plata”, which runs a few meters long from the site and which is presently fossilized in the highway A-66, that transits very close. These new tombs can be considered as the oldest evidence for the cremation rite confirmed until now for
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González Prats, 2002. Kalb, Hoch, 1980. 3 Lorrio, 2008. 2
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Colonial process in Southwestern Iberian Early Iron Age: New burial evidence from “El Molino de Abajo” (Villafranca de los Barros - Extremadura - Spain)
is the first time that archaeological elements which can be linked with such cultural circles are located in the Spanish region of Extremadura. A second set was located ca. 400 meters from the previously presented one, and both must be related and considered as corresponding to the same funerary
group. This burial is mainly composed by a wheelmade urn corresponding to the so called “Cruz del Negro” type. It is decorated with three horizontal red painted bands along the body and other fine lines on the mouth (Fig. 1.4). Remains of a second wheelmade big painted vase were recovered too.
Fig. 1. Pottery vases coming from Molino de Abajo (Villafranca de los Barros).
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J. Jiménez Ávila, M. García Cabezas
Fig. 2. Bronze bracelets from Molino de Abajo (Villafranca de los Barros).
The “Cruz del Negro” urn is one of the most typical orientalizing productions in the Iron Age Iberian Peninsula. They were already documented in Extremadura, mainly in the Orientalizing necropolis of Medellin, but also in other archaeological sites4, dated along the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. The shape of this vase, according with the most recent typological studies, talks for a chronology around the 6th century BC5. Examples from the Andalusian Coast are some earlier and they can be connected with the Phoenician colonisation and with the acculturation and the interaction processes which take place in Iberian Peninsula during the first centuries of the first millennium BC6. The chronology for these tombs (mainly for the handmade vessels) seems to be a little earlier that the orientalizing necropolis of Medellín, the most important reference for the Early Iron Age in the region7. That suggests an earlier date (maybe a ‘preorientalizing’ date) for the introduction of many ritual and cultural behaviours in this area, such 1) the
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cremation funerary rite; 2) the typical little rural cemeteries (type that can be hypothetically proposed for this new site); 3) the plain occupations, that become generalized during the Orientalizing and Postorientalizing periods. The handmade urn seems have no correspondence with the regional Late Bronze typologies, but it approaches cultural elements coming from the Urnfields Culture, which until now were not documented in this area. For all of these reasons, the new site can be a relevant place for the study of the contact processes during the Early Iron Age in the Extremenian area. BIBLIOGRAPHY ALMAGRO-GORBEA, M. (dir.) 2008: La necrópolis de Medellín. III. Estudios analíticos; IV. Interpretación de la necrópolis; V. El marco histórico de MedellínConisturgis, Bibliotheca Archaeologica Hispana 26 (III). Madrid.
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Jiménez et al., 2013: fig. 9. Torres, 2008.
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Ruiz Mata, Pérez, 1989. Almagro-Gorbea, 2008.
Colonial process in Southwestern Iberian Early Iron Age: New burial evidence from “El Molino de Abajo” (Villafranca de los Barros - Extremadura - Spain)
G ONZÁLEZ P RATS , A. 2002: La necrópolis de cremación de Les Moreres (Crevillente, Alicante, España): (siglos IX-VII AC). Alicante. JIMÉNEZ ÁVILA, J., HERAS, F.J., SÁNCHEZ CAPOTE, N., B EJARANO , A.M. 2013: “Producción de cerámica orientalizante en Extremadura. Estudio preliminar de los hornos de la Escuela de Hostelería de Mérida (Badajoz)”, D. Bernal, L.C. Juan, M. Bustamante, J.J. Díaz, A.M. Sáez (eds.): Hornos, talleres y focos de producción alfarera en Hispania. Monografías ex officina hispana I, vol. I. Cádiz: 199-213. K ALB , P H ., H ÖCK , M. 1980: “Cabeço da Bruxa, Alpiarça (distrikt Santarém) vorbericht über die
grabung im januar und februar 1979”, Madrider Mitteilungen, 21: 91-104. L ORRIO , A. 2008: Qurenima. El Bronce Final del Sureste de la Península Ibérica. Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana, 27. Madrid. RUIZ MATA, D., PÉREZ, C. 1989: “El túmulo 1 de la necrópolis de ‘Las Cumbres’ (Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz)”, M.E. Aubet (coord.), Tartessos, Arqueología Protohistórica del Bajo Guadalquivir. Barcelona: 287295. TORRES, M. 2008: “Urnas tipo Cruz del Negro”, M. Almagro-Gorbea (dir.), La necrópolis de Medellín. II Estudio de los Hallazgos. Bibliotheca Archaeologica Hispana, 26 (II), Madrid: 631-654.
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