Ornaments and dress accessories as cultural markers in the early Iron Age between the Iberian Peninsula and Europe

The study of material culture is currently experiencing a period of renewed interest, with numerous publications that have completely changed our knowledge of the different societies that occupied the Iberian Peninsula during the Iron Age. Clothing is a sensitive issue that can identify local and foreign behaviour. In the past, people were particularly concerned with selecting and adapting foreign models. However, from the end of the 6th century BC, trends for both the Iberian and Celtiberian worlds were consolidated. The analysis presented here characterises the fashions that defined the repertoire of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula during the Early Iron Age and contrasts them with the patterns shared by various Central European cultures. In particular, a comparison of the sets attributed to female individuals shows that the Iberian Peninsula is particularly austere compared to Central European extravagance. What is surprising about this behaviour, however, is not the lack of knowledge of what happens north of the Pyrenees, but rather the fact that it transforms and adapts Central European models to the peninsular scheme, as an expression of an identity of its own and an unusual resistance to change that is not documented, for example, in relation to military panoply.

L’étude de la culture matérielle connaît actuellement un regain d’intérêt, avec de nombreuses publications qui ont complètement modifié notre compréhension des différentes sociétés qui ont vécu dans la péninsule Ibérique à l’âge du fer. Le costume est un sujet complexe qui permet d’identifier les comportements locaux et étrangers. Dans le passé, les populations étaient particulièrement soucieuses de sélectionner et d’adapter des modèles étrangers. Cependant, à partir de la fin du VI^e siècle a.C., les tendances des mondes ibérique et celtibère se sont consolidées. L’analyse présentée ici qualifie les modes qui définissent le répertoire du nord-est de la péninsule ibérique au cours du premier âge du fer et les met en perspective avec les modèles partagés par diverses cultures d’Europe centrale. En particulier, la comparaison des ensembles attribués aux individus féminins montre que la péninsule ibérique est particulièrement austère par rapport à l’extravagance de l’Europe centrale. Ce qui surprend dans ce comportement, ce n’est pas la méconnaissance de ce qui se passe au nord des Pyrénées, mais plutôt le fait que les modèles centro-européens se transforment et s’adaptent au schéma péninsulaire, traduisant une identité propre et une résistance inhabituelle au changement qui n’est pas documentée, par exemple, en ce qui concerne la panoplie militaire.

âge du Fer ; péninsule Ibérique ; vêtements ; identité

Introduction

It is now widely accepted that in order to gain an understanding of repertoire and to understand how it functioned and evolved, it is not enough to study it, but that it must be compared with that of other territories; we know that the study of a category has related types with which it shares problems and solutions; and we know that the in-depth study of one cultural sphere is particularly useful for the knowledge of others. For all these reasons, the enormous repertoire of clothing ornaments of the central period of the first millennium BC serves as a privileged interlocutor for understanding the changes that took place in the costume of many of the protohistoric cultures of the peninsula.

The study of material culture is experiencing a new renaissance, with several publications that have completely changed our knowledge of the different societies that occupied the Iberian Peninsula during the Iron Age¹. After formulating classifications and typologies to date and understand the peculiarities of each material culture, a process of diachronic and spatial analysis was carried out to assess the permeability, interaction, and conservatism of each series. This led to the achievement of a paradigm shift². Today, however, the level of knowledge allows us to go one step further and evaluate new keys to interpretation, focusing on association, usability and the cultural and political messages that these objects carry. The case of clothing is particularly sensitive and allows us to identify local and foreign behaviour, which was particularly concerned with the selection and adaptation of foreign models, until the consolidation of static patterns, both for the Iberian world and for the other peninsular cultures, from the end of the 6th century BC. Ongoing research projects are taking into account the gender and age of the wearers, in addition to the technological and typological study. The sensory aspects and the perceptions provoked or experienced by both the wearer and the observer are now also considered³, as well as the ergonomic or functional concerns, in order to clarify their position on the body and on the supports, and understand how the ancient societies that occupied the Iberian peninsula or the corresponding neighbouring regions made use of the brightness, colouring and sonority of their movements, or the visibility they have, both in terms of dimensions and chromatic contrast; and it carefully studies the transcultural circulation of models, influences and objects, overcoming the traditional cultural boundaries that have limited the understanding of material culture⁴.

In this context of methodological renewal, the rich repertoire documented in the north-eastern area is an exceptional laboratory. In this paper I am going to focus on the evaluation of the anomalies towards this culture in north-eastern Iberia as a result of their relationship with Central European fashions during the first half of the first millennium BC.

Local austerity vs foreign Sets

The systematic study of the main ornamental categories (see above), which is still subject to constant revision of terminology and updating of typology, now allows us to precisely characterise a series of associations that seem to recur over time and are characterised by moderation (cf. fewer items). In other words, the scarce number of associations of clothing and jewellery ornaments show how exceptional are the assemblages that present metallic ornamental items; moreover, when they do, they are organised in repetitions that are contained in terms of the number of elements and the weight of metal.

Sets with more than one fibula, one or more series of arm-rings or more than one set for belt decoration are completely exceptional. In fact, the only trend that can be identified is the progressive articulation of the repertoire over the course of the 6th century BC, which manages to transform the appearance of the wearers in the space of a century. In fact, this acceleration of appearance merely reflects the transformation of the material repertoire that took place during the 6th century BC, which saw an explosion of new elements and a constant experimentation and mixing of influences⁵.

It is, however, an apparent change, since the wearers of these ornaments still show a pattern of behaviour that tends towards austerity⁶, even more so when compared with the funerary assemblages documented in other parts of the central Mediterranean and even in the south of France. Tombs with rich ornaments are rare in the south of France compared to the number of excavated tombs, similar to the situation in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. The proportion of ‘austere’ tombs compared to ‘rich’ tombs is similar on both sides of the Pyrenees. However, the amount of data available provides richer information.

Lest the reader jump to an interpretation based on the greater poverty of the communities that occupied the north-eastern Iberian area during the 7th and 6th centuries BC compared to other contemporary cultures, we can say that other indicators do not allow such a reading.

For example, there are no major differences in the number and complexity of the military weapons of the time between the area of interest and the south of France⁷, and we can even point out that in the area of interest, the weapons are much more complex and frequent than in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula at the same time⁸.

The austerity in the use of ornaments is therefore not the result of an economic choice, but rather of a cultural one. The north-eastern record does not document many funerary offerings of metal ornaments, with metal concentrations of more than ten items of clothing or personal ornaments being exceptional, with the case of a grave containing more than 300 grams being unique (necropolis of Roques de Sant Formatge, Seròs, province of Lleida). During the 7th and early 6th centuries BC, local artisans produced arm-rings, fibula and belt brooches. In the following century, chains, pendants, and buttons were added to the repertoire, with their typology suggesting local production. Although rare, some elements from other cultures, such as the Celtiberians⁹ and Launacians (see below), have also been documented.

In order to illustrate this behaviour, I am going to consider two singular case studies, completely unrelated to each other and yet complementary to the following considerations. On the one hand, the example of the Bellver de Cerdanya bronze hoard and, on the other, the repertoire of Launacian-type assemblages documented on the coasts of Tarragona and Castellón (fig. 1).

As we shall see, the first case represents the arrival on the peninsula of a complete and complex ensemble, consistent with the fashions adopted by some ladies from Central Europe, the Balkans, Italy and beyond to mark their privileged status. The second case, on the other hand, presents two sets of Launacian ornaments and jewellery, grouped together in a silo and under a collapsed house.

Both are exceptional for the Iberian Peninsula in that, unlike in southern France, the Launacian-type objects are not concentrated in the hands or on the clothing of their wearers, but rather the objects are separated and distributed among a larger number of wearers. In both cases, the focus is on the anomalous, on that which happens to appear on the peninsula and which, due to circumstances we do not understand, has come down to us in groups, whereas it would have been normal for each of these sets to have been broken up and distributed in fragments, and thus used according to the peninsular model and not according to foreign fashions.

The Colomina hoard

The bronze hoard was found in August 2016 in Colomina de Bor (Bellver de Cerdanya, province of Lleida), near the source of the river Segre¹⁰. It was a deposit contained in the lower half of a spherical ceramic vessel with a concave base, buried at a depth of 30 cm. In addition, several other metal fragments, mostly sheet metal, were recovered outside the vessel and scattered in the immediate surrounding. The objects deposited inside and outside the vase represent different types and functions, which is also reflected in their different states of preservation.

The deposit is made up of 91 individuals from 39 different objects: 54 fragments of sheet metal; 17 applique buttons with rings, a fragment of a needle with a coiled head, a needle with a disc-shaped head with central and peripheral decoration of inserted rings, a possible pectoral with hanging chains, two chain pendants, a broken chain, two fragments of a rod, a bracelet (or ring) and fragments of other unidentified objects. All objects are made of copper alloy, with the exception of two iron applique buttons.

Functionally, the deposit is divided into two blocks: on the one hand, the elements linked to personal adornment and costume, which is the group we are going to deal with; on the other hand, the sheet metal elements, which can correspond both to elements of tableware and, much more provocatively, to elements of defensive panoply.

The first thing that strikes us is the complexity, lavishness and exaggeration of the associated elements.

This concentration is surprising, despite the fact that the region is located in the Catalan Pyrenees, which is perhaps the most culturally permeable to the behaviour and fashions of the south of France¹¹. In this context, the Catalan-Pyrenean region presents, in addition to the “traditional” categories of dress ornaments such as fibulae, belt buckles and needles, a series of grave goods and hoards characterised by complex metallic items, in which chains, pendants and buttons complicate the repertoire and enrich the problem of dress ornaments. Nevertheless, the quantity of metal, the technical complexity of each piece, the unusual articulation of many of the pins and chains present in the Colomina hoard, and the size of the body area potentially covered by the ornaments in question are unparalleled in the peninsula, either grouped or individually. Only a few echoes of these structures, forms or articulations have been found in single examples. This is clearly linked to a taste that is alien to the Iberian Peninsula.

Given such an unusual situation, the question arises as to whether the hoard represents a series of independent elements that for some unknown reason ended up in the same metal deposit, or whether it represents a coherent whole designed to function in a structured manner. If this is the case, each object would have to be assigned to a precise position where its properties could be used to best advantage. I am referring, of course, to the ornamental features, but also to the effects that they produce by their very nature:

• on the one hand, the effects of chromatic contrast, either with the fabric with which they functioned or with the other ornaments that accompanied them;
• on the other hand, the luminous effect produced by the reflection of light on their shiny metallic surface, which would allow a different intensity depending on its curvature or size;
• there is yet another effect, the sound, produced by the beating of the various mobile elements that complete the perimeter or hang between the structural elements.

If this connection were true, as we believe it is, all the ornamental elements of the deposit would serve the same purpose of exaggerating the clothing, following a behaviour demonstrated in many examples of European women’s tombs. The reconstruction that accompanies these pages is only a first attempt to position the metallic elements on the same carrier, which will undoubtedly be revised and corrected as the study progresses (fig. 2).

The curious thing is that there is nothing in the Iberian Peninsula that points to this type of complex, lavish and exaggerated ensemble; on the contrary, it is usual to find burial objects in which exaggeration is avoided and, in the most extreme cases, the metal is concentrated on personal ornaments such as arm-rings and torques rather than on clothing ornaments. This strict and radical exclusion of extravagance in the ornamentation of clothing is paradoxical and has the main and diect effect of conditioning the interpretation of the identity of the wearer or owner of the ornaments of La Colomina, who would be from outside the peninsula.

The Launacian ensembles

The second case study is no less problematic. It concerns the adoption of Launacian-type elements in the Iberian Peninsula, which essentially correspond to pendants and bracelets made of copper-based alloys¹². I say that this is a problematic case because their repertoire is relatively scattered and numerically small. The various known launacian elements in northeastern Iberia are documented individually in funerary or domestic contexts and in a fragmentary state of preservation. We leave aside the repertoire of axes¹³, fragments¹⁴ and ingots¹⁵, which pose a different problem.

The surprise lies in the discovery of a set of several pendants and bracelets in a silo at the Turó de la Font de la Canya site¹⁶, and another set of bracelets and pendants in the Puig de la Misericòrdia site (fig. 3)¹⁷. In both sets, the Launacian elements were not only numerous, but they were intact and formed functionally coherent assemblages that far exceeded the quantity of metal and number of objects usual for contexts in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. The interpretation of both contexts is not easy, since regardless of whether they are assemblages grouped together for cultic or commercial purposes, what is certain is that they are anomalous associations on the peninsula. I do not think it is worth describing and detailing each of the pieces that make up each of these groups, but it is worth remembering how these types of objects are usually documented on the peninsula: in isolation and integrated into groups of elements of peninsular production.

The material circulating in the Launacian area of southern France is largely made up of objects that are chronologically coeval with each other and that help to establish the chronology of the Launacian phenomenon between the end of the 7th and the middle of the 6th century BC. Moreover, they tend to function together in the form of coherent or complementary sets: central-core wheel pendants and cage-like or crotal pendants are documented in groups of a few individuals and are sometimes associated with arm-rings with nodules and other elements. On the Iberian Peninsula, on the other hand, such groupings are not usually recognised, with isolated finds being the norm.

On the basis of the two case studies we are dealing with, i.e. the habitat hoard at Puig de la Misericòrdia (Vinaròs, Castelló province) and the deposit at the bottom of the silo at Avinyonet del Penedès (Barcelona province), we must consider the arrival strategy of this type of object from southern France on the Iberian Peninsula: a system based on the circulation of functionally coherent sets, as if they were a “personal kit”. It is very likely that these were sets of female ornaments designed to function together, and that once they arrived on the Iberian Peninsula they were dismantled to be distributed and decorated by a larger number of individuals. If we look at the way in which female individuals from the northeast of the peninsula or from the Castellón area dressed and decorated themselves during the 7th and 6th centuries BC, we can see that the female ornaments were distributed among a larger number of individuals. During the first half of the 6th BC, we can suggest that this was a less demanding society than that of southern France, since they were less familiar with displaying a large number of metal parures.

Conclusions

It may seems trivial, but both the La Colomina complex and the two sets of Launacian elements should be taken with extreme attention, as they force us to think about why they were located on the peripheries, why their complex styles, although common in large European territories and civilisations, did not spread as such to the peninsula, or why the communities of the peninsula preferred to preserve their identity in a conservative manner, despite time’s progression and the access to new styles. Observing this situation reveals a determined and deliberate cultural behaviour, since the use of some ornaments and not others has clear identity implications. The question of why these choices were made, while in other areas there was great receptivity, is a problem that remains open in the study of the materiality of the societies of the northeast of the peninsula and its neighbouring regions.

Acknowledgements

This study has been carried out in the framework of the Ramón y Cajal project RYC2018-024523-I, and the AICO/2021/189 project of the Generalitat Valenciana. “Construyendo territorios entre el Bronce Final y el Ibérico Antiguo en los extremos de la Comunidad Valenciana”. I would like to express my gratitude to the collaboration and help offered by: G. Aguilella, F. Falomir, J. Gallart, A. Oliver, J. Quesada.

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Notes

1. See Graells i Fabregat et al. 2022a, as a synthesis.
3. See e.g. Gallart & Graells i Fabregat 2022; Graells i Fabregat 2022b.
4. See e.g. Graells i Fabregat & Lorrio 2017; Graells i Fabregat 2022c.
5. Mansel 1998; Graells i Fabregat 2015; Graells i Fabregat & Lorrio 2017; Graells i Fabregat 2017.
6. Ruiz Zapatero 2004.
7. See e.g. Beylier 2013; Graells i Fabregat 2014.
8. See e.g. Farnié & Quesada 2005; Graells i Fabregat 2014.
9. Manyanós & Olària 1999.
10. Gallart et al. 2020; Gallart & Graells i Fabregat 2022.
11. Graells i Fabregat 2013a.
12. On this topic see Graells i Fabregat 2015; Graells i Fabregat 2018; Graells i Fabregat 2022b; Graells i Fabregat 2023.
13. Guilaine et al. 2017; Guilaine et al. 2022.
14. Graells i Fabregat 2022d.
15. Rafel et al. 2021; Aragón 2023.
16. Graells i Fabregat 2013b; López 2015.
17. Oliver et al. 2021.