The Early Iron Age Upper and Middle Ebro Group. Cabezo Morrudo
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SALDVIE n.º 9 2009 pp. 97-118 The Early Iron Age upper and middle Ebro group. Cabezo Morrudo (Rodén, Zaragoza) within the frame of the “Eastern middle Ebro sub-group” El Grupo del Hierro del Alto y Medio Ebro. Cabezo Morrudo (Rodén, Zaragoza) dentro del marco del “Subgrupo del Ebro Medio Occidental” Víctor E. M. Maturén* Abstract The research of domestic assemblages constitutes nowadays one of the best tools in order to study the ethnicity of protohistoric peoples. Taking into account that it is very probable that Early Iron Age middle Ebro peasant com- munities made the largest part of its hand-built wares within the household and that a generalized exogamy took place within more or less established marital areas, this research tries to identify territories connected by a series of privileged ties, as for example the “Eastern middle Ebro sub-group” between the Huerva river and the Martín river. Cabezo Morrudo (Rodén, Zaragoza) Phase II would be completely inserted in this last area, showing an inter- esting destruction layer that should be contextualized within the frame of the 7th and 6th cal BC Ebro valley destruction horizon. Keywords: Ebro valley, Cabezo Morrudo (Rodén, Zaragoza), Early Iron Age, exogamy, domestic domain, hand- made pottery. Resumen El estudio de la cultura material producida dentro del ámbito doméstico constituye, en la actualidad, una de las mejores herramientas con las que cuentan los investigadores para estudiar a los pueblos protohistóricos. Teniendo en cuenta que es muy probable que las comunidades campesinas del Valle Medio del Ebro produjeran la mayor parte de su cerámica manufacturada dentro del ámbito doméstico y que existiera, así mismo, una exogamia gene- ralizada dentro de áreas matrimoniales más o menos establecidas, el presente estudio intenta identificar territo- rios unidos por vínculos privilegiados, como por ejemplo el denominado provisionalmente “Subgrupo del Ebro medio oriental”, entre el río Huerva y el río Martín. La Fase II de Cabezo Morrudo (Rodén, Zaragoza) se encon- traría plenamente integrada dentro de este ámbito geográfico, presentando un interesante nivel de destrucción que debería contextualizarse dentro del marco del horizonte de destrucción del Valle del Ebro en los siglos VII y VI cal A.C. Palabras clave: Valle del Ebro, Cabezo Morrudo (Rodén, Zaragoza), Primera edad del hierro, exogamia, ámbito doméstico, cerámica manufacturada. * DEA in Prehistory, University of Zaragoza. The author has been working in the company APC. SL. 98 VÍCTOR E. M. MATURÉN Introduction ence, allowing the undertaking of comparisons This paper aims to show, in the one hand, the main between groups and, therefore, allowing, to a certain conclusions obtained in a research work carried out in point, a measurement of the cultural affinity occurring 2008 in order to obtain a Diploma de Estudios during the Early Iron Age in the Ebro banks, between Avanzados (DEA) within the frame of the Prehistory Logroño and Bajo Aragón. area in the University of Zaragoza. The work, entitled Afterwards, the whole archeological phases dated El Grupo del Hierro del Alto y Medio Ebro, has been with a certain degree of certainty to the Early Iron Age directed and supervised by Dr. Elena Maestro Zaldívar. in the region of the upper and middle Ebro had been In the other hand, a specific example of the methodol- taken into account in order to determine the existing ogy undertaken within the research work is given by level of affinity amongst them in terms of material cul- means of showing some of the results obtained in the ture produced within the frame of the domestic domain. unpublished archaeological excavation carried out in Thereby, just the household products, especially the Cabezo Morrudo, (Rodén, Zaragoza). hand-built wares, had been studied. The artifacts sus- Since the 1980´s authors have remarked the exis- pected of having an exogenous origin, related to trade tence of a high affinity in regard to the Early Iron Age or exchange of goods, had been excluded from the material culture in the upper and middle Ebro banks research. Finally, a series of maps had been prepared and in the lower valleys of the south Ebro bank tributary showing different levels of domestic production know rivers. This fact led Dr. Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero to pro- how affinity in relation to the “Western middle Ebro sub- pose the existence of an Upper and middle Ebro group. group”. Taking this fact into account, the aforementioned Nevertheless, before raising those matters it is nec- research work intended to help towards a better knowl- essary to put forward a series of reflections about the edge of the geographic frame where the Ebro group previous cultural and socio-economic substratum prior evolved during the 8th to 6th centuries B.C. During the the Early Iron Age peasant communities were settled in research it seemed appropriate to make a difference the Ebro banks. between an upstream sub-group and a very similar but The Upper and middle Ebro group cultural substra- not identical sub-group located at the downstream tum. area. The cremation burial ritual, regardless of whether it The first sub-group has been named, in a complete- takes place within the frame of an urnfield or a tumulus ly provisory way, “Western middle Ebro sub-group” and the second one “Eastern middle Ebro sub-group”. This burial, had been traditionally considered as a basic ele- denomination has been chosen because it seems to be ment either to identify “invasions” of an Indo-European quite devoid of problematic connotations and because people that was able to prevail over the pre-existing 4 it continues with the geographical naming parameters substratum , or to propose the gradual and uninterrupt- established in 1985 by Ruiz Zapatero1. According to ed arrival of little communities that intermingled with the 5 this author the Upper and middle Ebro group would be pre-existing human groups on the same conditions . an assemblage of Iron Age peasant communities char- Nowadays, if the debate concentrates on the acterized by having a very affine material culture. Years archaeological evidence, it is not necessary to deny the later José Ignacio Royo propose the term “sub-group” arrival of little communities coming from beyond the as assemblages integrated inside the general Iron Age Pyrenees, as it could happen inversely. This fact Ebro group2. doesn´t represent anything new because the ways The so called “Western middle Ebro sub-group” is through the Pyrenees had been always opened and relatively well known thanks to the existence of well any kind of influences have circulated across them excavated and dated fire-destruction layers in Cortes either northwards or southwards. de Navarra and La Muela. Furthermore, this group pro- Hence, the arrival of different elements characteris- duces a highly representative hand-built pottery char- tic of the Urnfield culture should not be understood as acterized by globular-shaped vessels with cylindrical a rupture with the pre-existent period as the inter-rela- vertical necks and truncated-conical shaped plates, tionship between the human groups of both sides of the with smooth and burnished surfaces3. Those two rea- Pyrenees was probably pretty established and consoli- sons justify the choice of this “sub-group” as a refer- dated. 1 (RUIZ, G., 1985). 4 (BOSCH, P., 1944, MALUQUER, J., 1971, MARTÍNEZ, J.J., 2 (ROYO, J.I., 1991). 1946, ALMAGRO, M., 1952, BELTRÁN, A., 1974). 3 (MALUQUER, J, 1958, MALUQUER, J. et alii, 1990, PICA- 5 (RUIZ, G, 1985, 1995). ZO, J. V., RODANÉS, J. M., 2009). El Grupo del Hierro del Alto y Medio Ebro. Cabezo Morrudo (Rodén, Zaragoza)... 99 None the less, the ideological and socio-economic tence, in the one hand, of a generalized exogamy and, model developed during the Late Bronze Age in the in the other hand, of a powerful demographic increase Segre-Cinca interfluve is likely to have had a definitive focused in a new “satellite hillforts” building process7. impact on the Iberian Peninsula North-East. This model Taking up again, to a certain point, Maluquer´s is characterized by four clue parameters: statement, Julián Ortega defines, from a highly influ- enced by social archaeology point of view, the settle- - Furred decoration pottery (beyond the Pyrenees ment pattern that Sistema Ibérico´s peasant communi- provenance). ties could have undertaken during the Iron Age, pattern - Cremation burial ritual (beyond the Pyrenees that seems to be easily extrapolated to the Ebro valley. provenance). Therefore, hillforts would have been laid out in - Hillforts with a central-space layout (North- advance, taking into account surface and population Eastern Iberian Peninsula provenance). dimensions that they are not allowed to exceed. Again, - An expansive social reproduction system. the response to a demographic increase would not This last parameter seems to be especially interest- have been building an enclosed neighborhood but ing in order to understand the North-Eastern Iberian founding a new settlement, laid out by means of strict Peninsula´s Late Bronze Age. This fact could be criterions that would prevent the exceed of previously glimpsed in the mid-80´s Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero work decided demographic and space limits8 as it could be and it acquires a definite form in a paper published a seen, for instance, in Las Eretas (Berbinzana, decade later6. According to this author, the successful Navarra)9. expansion of the so called “North-eastern Iberian Even thought the middle Ebro peasant community Peninsula urnfields” is based in a new socio-economic socio-economic system seems to have its origin within organization founded on three narrowly interconnected the frame of the Final Bronze Age Segre-Cinca inter- spheres: a new subsistence base, represented by new fluves, it is pretty difficult to establish the same solution grain farming cultivation techniques and plants, a new of continuity between Final Bronze Age and Early Iron social organization, a new burial ritual and finally new Age hand-built wares typology.