A Round Iron Age: The Circular House in the Hillforts of the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula
Xurxo M. Ayán Vila
Abstract
This article provides a diachronic synthesis of domestic space in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula from recent prehistory through the High Middles Ages. Within the theoretical and methodological frameworks of landscape archaeology and the archaeology of architecture we propose an updated social reading of the archaeological record based on new data collected in the course of recent archaeological investigations at different sites in Galicia. We propose several hypotheses from this perspective concerning different issues linked to northwestern domestic architecture, including the origins of the round house in recent prehistory, the development of an Iron Age architectural style, the symbolic background of these houses, and the impact of Romanization on what eventually becomes the architecture of the High Middle Ages in this part of the Iberian Peninsula.
Keywords
Galician Iron Age, hillforts, circular house, domestic space, archaeology of architecture, landscape archaeology
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Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Before the hillforts: domestic space in recent prehistory
- 2.1. The relative invisibility of domestic space in recent prehistory
- 2.2. Hamlets and dwellings during the Bronze Age: the weak imprint of a primitive rural society
- 2.3. Progressing toward fortification
- 3. House, family and community in the Early Iron Age
- 4. Domestic space during the late Iron Age: the consolidation of the castros house pattern
- 5. Oppida and courtyard houses in the late Iron Age
- 6. The casa nostra: Romanization and domestic space in the northwestern hillforts
- 7. Squaring the circle: High Medieval architecture
- Acknowledgments
- Bibliography
