Castros in Spain - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Castro is a fortified settlement, usually pre-Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, some from late Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

and Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

, the oldest research associated with the Celtic culture. These are frequently found in the Northern Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, particularly in Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria, Basque Country and the province of Ávila, with the Castro culture

Castro culture

Castro culture is the archaeological term for naming the Celtic archaeological culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Peninsula from the end of the Bronze Age until it was subsumed in local Roman culture...

and on the plateau with Las Cogotas

Las Cogotas

Las Cogotas, is an archaeological site in Spain in Cardenosa municipality, province of Avila. The site was researched by the Galician archaeologist Juan Cabré in 1920s. It is namesake for two different archaeological cultures known from this site: Cogotas I of the Late Bronze Age and Cogotas II ...

culture.

The word castro comes from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

castrum
Castra
The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...

, which means "hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

Castros of the Castro culture

The castro is a fortified village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

that began to inhabit from the 6th century B.C., lacking streets of right angles and full of construction almost always circular. The oldest house

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

s were mostly of straw

Straw

Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...

-mud

Mud

Mud is a mixture of water and some combination of soil, silt, and clay. Ancient mud deposits harden over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone . When geological deposits of mud are formed in estuaries the resultant layers are termed bay muds...

and the latest masonry. The roof

Roof

A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....

was made of branches and mud and after long poles. Basically, they were unique rooms. These are located in naturally protected areas (heights, riots river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

s, small peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

s), close of sources and arable land and on the border between these and higher areas of grazing.

The castros were protected by one or more pit

Pit

Pit or PIT may refer to:* Armpit, a body part* Ball pit, a recreation structure* Casino pit, that part of a casino which holds gaming tables* Trapping pit, pits used for hunting* Pit, one of many indentations used to store data on a Compact Disc...

s, parapets and walls that bordered the inhabited recint, may have in its acceses a torreón

Torreon (disambiguation)

Torreon or Torreón may refer to: Mexico:*Torreón, Coahuila, a city and municipality in the state of Coahuila...

that controlled the entry ways to itself or another strategic location.

In times of conflict, the people who lived in open field moved to these buildings, located at strategic locations to ensure their safety. Could also have other purposes such as control of territory, vigilance of crops, etc.

Its situation on the territory compared to other castros suggests that there was a definite strategy when choosing its location, allowing the communication by signals between them as a defensive network.

The maximum flowering time is between 4th-2nd century B.C. and show greater business contact with the outside of the south than the north, and the coastal than the inland. Some historians argues that in the first mid-1st century B.C. seems to have a multiplication of castros (either for population growth or for other reasons). At the end of the century, coinciding with the final phase of the Roman conquest, some with signs of destruction of the walls and in some cases immediate reoccupation.

Inland castros

These are the most common and characteristic. These are located on hills or prominent elevations, but rarely in high summits. They are circular or oval and have one or more walls. An example is the castro of Coaña

Coaña

Coaña is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It lies along the Cantabrian Sea to the north, and is bordered on the south by Boal, on the east by Navia and Villayón across the Navia River, and on the west by El Franco.-History:As the municipality of...

(Asturias

Asturias

The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...

Mountain castros

Located in high mountainous areas, are located on the slopes and are oval, with artificial pits on the upper side and walls or embankments into the valley. Dating back to Roman times and are linked to mining. Two examples include the of the Vilar in the Sierra de Caurel and Xegunde in Fonsagrada (Lugo).

Coastal castros

Are of varied plant, but usually round or oval, adapting to the terrain. The natural defenses of the sea are complemented by walls and moats into the inland. These are very abundant and an example are the Baroña in the Sierra of Barbanza.

Urbanism of the castros

The Castro villages tend to be constructed in cleared hills, rocky headlands or peninsulas that stretch into the sea, which provides visibility, defense and the contour domain. The place of settlement is given also in terms of natural resources exploited by the residents. The castros have an upper enclosure, the "croa" and a series of terraces laid down where are the buildings. Each of these sections may be limited by walls, parapets or pits. Sometimes there is a kind of additions, the antecastros, which is also surrounded by walls but do not harbor houses, so it is assumed that these were intended for animals or orchards.

The castros tend to have a single entrance, which also serves to prevent passage. In some cases is a simple thickening of the tops of the walls, in others, a panel of the wall surpasses the other, forming a narrow corridor. Is assumed to be closed with wooden doors.

The defenses of the castros not seem to meet war needs, but of prestige and symbolic boundaries of the inhabited space. In fact, few weapons were found. In addition to natural defenses, there are structures of three types:

Ramparts. Terrain variations formed by earth and stone, which can be natural. These are the basis of the defenses and usually comes from the rubble of the foundational works in the interior.
Parapets. Artificial elevation of the terrain in the most vulnerable points (entrances and flat areas).
Trenches. Gabias long and deep, usually associated with the parapets, which can be dug into soil or rock.
Walls. Masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...

defenses of varied types, such as two parallel walls of stone with stone fill. From the inside up to them by wooden stairs, recessed slabs, ramps or rocks. There may be defensive towers at the accesses to the doors. Are later elements.

The most common is the absence of urban organization. In the 1st century appear clusters of buildings ("neighborhoods"), consisting of several buildings surrounded by a wall with one opening facing the street. This arrangement is common in large towns, and in more modest towns like Castro do Vieito. These may be households in which a building would be housing and the other, silos and warehouses. The houses do not share dividing walls, but are separated from the others, is not known whether a reflection of the idiosyncratic to this culture or because of the difficulty to do in the circular building. Nor have windows.
The floor of the houses was of mud trod. Prior to 2nd-3rd century B.C., the walls are usually built of adobe

Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...

, with a central pole. Subsequently it used masonry more or less in horizontal rows (or polygonal, in some cases). The covers were made of branches covered with mud and reinforced by weights or subsequent of tiles. From the 1st century and due to Roman influence, become more abundant the square or rectangular. The essential element of a house is the home, that in the change of era was located at the center and was made of slate or clay and late of 1st century it shifts to one side and is, in some cases, with shingles.

It is suspected that some large buildings, where a stone bench runs along the wall and in which are not remains of room, could have been room enclosures. It has also located ceramic kilns and pottery kilns, preferably next to the exits or abroad.

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