Copyright by Nadya Helena Prociuk 2016
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Copyright by Nadya Helena Prociuk 2016 The Dissertation Committee for Nadya Helena Prociuk Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Inscribing Identity: A case study of symbolic communication from the Iron Age Castro Culture of northwestern Iberia Committee: Samuel Wilson Supervisor Mariah Wade Maria Franklin Paulo Costa Pinto Inscribing Identity: A case study of symbolic communication from the Iron Age Castro Culture of northwestern Iberia by Nadya Helena Prociuk, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2016 Dedication I would like to dedicate this work to my grandparents. Despite very little formal education they were able to provide my parents and myself with opportunities they could never have dreamed of for themselves. In particular I would like to dedicate this work to my grandfather Tymish Melnyk, who passed on to me his deep love of history and culture, and showed me that you don’t need a degree to be a true scholar. Acknowledgements I would like to gratefully acknowledge all of the help and guidance I have received during the course of this work. In particular my advisor Sam Wilson has been enormously helpful in guiding me through the often-bewildering process of completing a project of this scale with good humour and good advice. Without the generosity and support of Mariah Wade I would never have been able to even begin this work, and I am immensely grateful to her for extending the invitation to join her project. Maria Franklin and Paulo Costa-Pinto have been essential sources of inspiration and guidance, and I am very grateful to them for agreeing to serve on my committee, and for providing such helpful feedback. In addition, I could never have carried out this work without the generous support of the wonderful archaeologists and conservators at the Gabinete de Arqueologia of Vila do Conde, who have made it a pleasure to return to Portugal year after year to complete this project. Likewise I could never have completed this project without the kind permission to analyze collections at the Museu Municipal de Póvoa de Varzim, at the Museu D. Diogo de Sousa, and at the research facility of Monte Padrão. Finally thank you to my friends and family, who have kept me sane and reminded me to live life beyond grad school. Particularly my parents, who had faith in me even when I had no faith in myself, and who didn’t laugh when I told them I wanted to dig in the dirt for a living. And thanks to George, for coming into my life just when I needed him to, and for all the ways it’s been better with him in it. v Inscribing Identity: A case study of symbolic communication from the Iron Age Castro Culture of northwestern Iberia Nadya Helena Prociuk, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2016 Supervisor: Samuel Wilson The guiding question of my dissertation research is: how did the symbols saturating the material culture of the Castro people serve a social and political, as well as decorative, role during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages of northwestern Iberia? Throughout the material remains of the Castro Culture a suite of symbolic motifs was repeatedly inscribed. Such motifs have traditionally been seen as solely decorative, and their social function has never been explored. However the insistent appearance of particular designs on so many material mediums has led me to hypothesize that these symbols served the Castro people as non-vocal communicators of identity and belonging. In a broad sense I ask: who were the Castro people speaking to through these symbols and what were they talking about? To attempt to access these questions and better understand the role of symbolic motifs in Castro society I ask more specifically: in what contexts are these motifs found? To answer these questions this dissertation project will trace the presence of the Castro motifs across various mediums: ceramics, domestic and communal architecture, and items of personal adornment. In doing so, I will examine the context, frequency, and presence/absence of each motif and begin to build a picture of how the Castro people were employing these motifs not only as ornament but as representations of themselves and their communities. vi Table of Contents List of Tables ......................................................................................................... xi List of Charts ......................................................................................................... xii List of Images ...................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................... 2 Chapter 2: Background ........................................................................................... 6 Chronology: ................................................................................................... 7 Area Description: ........................................................................................... 8 Settlement Structure: .................................................................................... 11 Subsistence and Economy: .......................................................................... 15 Social Structure: ........................................................................................... 20 Religious Practice: ....................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3: Materials & Methods ........................................................................... 27 Excavation: .................................................................................................. 27 Museum Collections: ................................................................................... 33 Published Material: ...................................................................................... 34 Filemaker Database: ..................................................................................... 35 Typology: ..................................................................................................... 35 Lines: ................................................................................................... 36 Triangles: ............................................................................................ 38 Circles: ................................................................................................ 40 SSS: ................................................................................................... 42 Wheels: ............................................................................................... 44 Brackets: ............................................................................................. 45 Cruciforms: ......................................................................................... 46 Spirals: ................................................................................................ 46 Analyses: Context and Frequency ............................................................... 47 vii Artefact Categories: ..................................................................................... 49 Chapter 4: Ethnohistorical Analysis ..................................................................... 50 Background: ................................................................................................. 50 Ancient Authors: .......................................................................................... 50 Geography & Resources: ............................................................................. 53 Named Peoples of Iberia: ............................................................................. 57 Customs & Habits: ....................................................................................... 66 Material Culture: .......................................................................................... 72 Cautionary Notes: ........................................................................................ 76 A Classical Portrait: ..................................................................................... 78 Chapter 5: Ceramics .............................................................................................. 81 Bagunte: ....................................................................................................... 90 Frijão: ........................................................................................................... 92 Castro Maxímo: ........................................................................................... 96 Monte Padrão: ............................................................................................ 100 Sam Paio: ................................................................................................... 104 Terroso: ...................................................................................................... 107 Discussion: ................................................................................................. 111 Chapter 6: Architecture ....................................................................................... 115 Motif Breakdown ....................................................................................... 115 Briteiros: ..........................................................................................