"A reappraisal of Iberian Copper Age goldwork: Craftmanship, symbolism and art in a non-funerary gold sheet from Valencina de la Concepción." (original) (raw)
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Heritage, 2024
This article presents the results of a topographical and analytical study using hh-XRF of 22 gold and gilded objects from the Archaeological and Historical Museum of A Coruña (Galicia, Spain). They are highly representative of the northwestern Iberian goldwork from the Chalcolithic (third millennium BC) to the early Roman period (first century AD). This study contributes to our knowledge of the production techniques used in those periods, as well as their evolution over time. The collection includes some of the most representative types in this area, such as Early Bronze Age “sheet collars” and torcs from the Second Iron Age. In the case of torcs, new data are provided on one of the formally best-documented types (the Artabrian type) and on those known as “Baroque torcs” that are characteristic of the final moments of this goldsmith tradition. While pieces from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age were made with alluvial gold, the torcs from the Late Iron Age contain variable amounts of silver and copper. Also detected is the frequent use of cores made of less precious metals, which were subsequently given a golden appearance using gilding techniques. The new data are discussed in light of our current knowledge of NW Iberian goldwork, one of the most representative of this craft tradition in Western Europe for those periods.
Metal and the Symbols of ancestors in Northern Iberia
Conceptualising Space and Place, 2010
Our research on Megalithic Art in the Iberian Peninsula covers questions related to the role of human figures in domestic and funerary contexts of megalithism. In this paper we intend to analyse the graphic and ideological course manifested by the representation of armed figures in northern Iberia. The emergence of metal weapons does not imply a drastic ideological change but rather the transformation and use of already known mythologies to justify the prominent position of leaders who reiterate the graphic and funerary gestures of their ancestors. They set up as heirs of the tradition. At present, graphic representations assists in the analysis of significant aspects related with metallurgy in this area, supporting more complex perspectives than those traditionally admitted and disqualifying categorical statements about a degree of marginalization, which has never been documented by archaeological evidence. The study of the armed stela of Soalar, Navarra, provide elements for discussing the role of armed figures in Northern Iberia as well as issues on the presence or absence of specific weapons typologies, especially halberds. Statues, stelae, menhirs and decorated stones allow us to reconstruct an aggregated population model that, perhaps from the Mesolithic onwards, associates domestic areas and funerary monuments presided by anthropomorphic images. The respect for the memory of the ancestors enjoys a wide validity. Also, the confluence of later structures, like the stone settings of Sejos, Peña Oviedo or Soalar, allied to the use of natural caves in the 1st millennium BC, confirm that this memory still endorses the settlement of groups in the same territories. Naming these territories as ‘traditional’ is consistent with their constant use and, above all, relates with the ideological justification used by their inhabitants that rests upon long-standing consuetudinary recognition up to the Iron Age. Keywords: Neolithic, Copper Age; metalwork; ancestors; graphic expressions
The Social Value of Things. Amber and Copper in the Iberian Chalcolithic
If the social meaning of objects is culturally attri- buted, and thus depends on a given specific con- text; if it has a dynamic and contingent nature and it is not a property inherent to materiality in itself; if the value of objects is ultimately the materialised reflection of an interpersonal relationship, how and through what processes do objects acquire value? How and through which processes do they change over time and space? And finally, how and through what indicators can we deduce the social value that prehistoric objects held in their day? In this article, we will carry out a comparative review of the role of amber and metal on the Iberi- an Peninsula. Drawing from the resource availability, working processes, and the use, exchange, and amortisation of objects, we will address the social meaning of both resources during Late Prehistory and how it changed over time.
European Journal of Archaeology 16 (4), 610-635. , 2013
Because of its great potential to provide data on contacts and overseas trade, ivory has aroused a great deal of interest since the very start of research into Iberian late prehistory. Research recently undertaken by the German Archaeological Institute in Madrid in collaboration with a number of other institutions has provided valuable contributions to the study of ivory in the Iberian Copper Age and Early Bronze Age. One of the archaeological sites that is contributing the most data for analysing ivory from the Copper Age in southern Iberia is Valencina de la Concepcion (Seville), which is currently the focus of several debates on the development of social complexity. This article contributes to this line of research by providing new, unpublished evidence and by examining the significance of ivory craftsmanship in commercial, social and ideological terms. It also assesses in greater detail the prominent part played by luxury ivory items as an expression of social status and power."
Quaternary International 424, 232-249., 2016
Rock crystal appears relatively frequently in Late Prehistoric Iberian sites, especially in the form of micro-blades and knapping debris. With some exceptions, however, these finds have seldom been looked into in any detail, and therefore little is known about the technology involved in the use of this material, its social and economic relevance or its symbolic significance. In this paper we examine a collection of rock crystal artefacts recently found at Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain), one of the largest 3rd millennium BC sites in Western Europe. Among the objects included in this study are a long dagger blade, twenty-five arrowheads and a core, all of which form the most technically sophisticated and esthetically impressive collection of rock crystal material culture ever found in Prehistoric Iberia. Through the analysis of the procedures and techniques applied in the production of these objects , the chemical characterisation of the raw materials through Raman spectroscopy and RTI image processing and the careful assessment of the archaeological contexts in which they were found, this paper makes a robust contribution towards the study of the role of rock crystal in Copper Age technology and society. Recent research suggest that Valencina was a major node in the circulation of exotic materials such as ivory, amber, cinnabar or flint in Copper Age Iberia, which provides a very good background to assess the relevance of rock crystal as a traded commodity. In addition we discuss the role of rock crystal as a marker of status in large megalithic monuments, as well as its possible symbolic connotations.
THE MYTH OF EL DORADO. MAKING AND APPLYING GOLD IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA (15 TH -16 TH CENTURIES
abstract This work aims at analysing the techniques involved in the manufacture of gold leaf and gold inks and also in their application to different surfaces. First, we examine the techniques put into practice for refining the gold, so it can be reduced to thin leafs or dust; afterwards, we focus on the description of the process of goldbeating for the manufacture of gold leaf and also on the recipes used for concocting gold inks; finally, we describe the process of application of these leafs and inks to the most commonly used surfaces (parchment, leather, metal, wood, bone and textile fabrics). This analysis is based on information contained in Spanish archive documents, recipe books and technical manuals from the 15 th and 16 th centuries 1 .
"Crafting idiosyncrasies. Early social complexity, ivory and identity-making in Copper Age Iberia"
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2021
As a raw material, ivory has been used to manufacture a wide range of objects, normally associated with sumptuous material culture. In this article we explore the role played by ivory and ivory artefacts among early complex societies, and particularly its importance in the definition of identities among emergent elites. To this end, we make a thorough examination of the evidence from Copper Age Iberia, focusing on the mega-site of Valencina, in southern Spain. This site has provided what to date is the largest assemblage of prehistoric ivory in western Europe, with an estimated total of 8.8 kg, including finely crafted artefacts of unrivalled beauty and sophistication. Our study looks carefully at the technological, morphological and contextual dimensions of Copper Age ivory. As a result, we contend that the broad morphological variability together with the technological uniformity of this assemblage suggest that, while belonging to a common technological tradition, objects were deliberately crafted as unique and unrepeatable so that they could be used to create and maintain socio-cultural idiosyncrasies and ideological legitimation.
Hauptmann, A. & Modarressi-Tehrani, D. (ed) Archaeometallurgy in Europe III. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, June 29 – July 1, 2011. Der ANSCHNITT Beiheft 26, pp. 55-62, 2015
Abstract. The earliest gold and copper objects from Northeastern Iberian Peninsula are dated to the Late Neolithic (c. 3300 cal BC). Until now it was assumed that these communities were carrying out mine, smelting and melting metal activities. However, according to our research, first unequivocal confirmation of metal production is not dated until later, related to Bell Beaker (c. 2800 cal BC). It was carried out a study of these early metal objects by compositional, metallographic and typological analysis. Our findings suggest, first, the existence of close links with metallurgical centres from Western Switzerland and mainly southern France (Cabrières-Péret district, Hérault). From there final metal products would have distributed but not the knowledge or the techniques for their production. These would have been "captive", being North Eastern Iberia communities simple consumers with little or no understanding of the metallurgical process. Secondly, within the socio-economic field, these objects would have a very relative impact. Functional analysis indicate that both tools and ornaments were used repeatedly and continuously in daily life activities. However in no case came to be used exclusively in any sphere of social production. Finally, the funerary practices of this moment show that arrival of the metal did not involve substantial changes in existing community social relations. First signs of social asymmetries will not appear until the beginning of Bell Beaker. Keywords: First Metallurgy, Copper, Gold, Late Neolithic, Northeastern Iberian Peninsula