Castro da Curalha

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Castro da Curalha (Portugal)
Castro da Curalha
Castro da Curalha
Lisbon
Lisbon
postage
postage
Faro
Faro
Location of the Castro da Curalha in Portugal.

The Castro da Curalha belongs to the group of Iron Age - Roman hill settlements in the tradition of the Castro culture in northern Portugal .

location

The settlement is located about 500 m southwest of the eponymous municipality ( Portuguese Freguesia ) Curalha and about 6 km southwest of the district town ( Portuguese Concelho ) Chaves in the sub-region ( Portuguese Sub-região ) Alto Trás-os-Montes .

Like most of the Castro culture settlements , the Castro da Curalha is strategically located at an altitude. The settlement area itself lies at a height of around 420 m, roughly in the middle of a range of hills running around 1.6 km northeast-southwest, which is bordered on its southwest side by the Tâmega .

history

That in the 1st century BC Castro, founded in the 4th century BC, is located in the south of the settlement area of ​​the Celtiberian Callaici (also Callaeci , Greek Καλλαικοί ), whose settlement area extended from the Douro in the south over the north of Portugal , Galicia and the west of Asturias and the west of León . The settlement area of ​​the Callaici , who presumably spoke a (proto-) Celtic language, largely coincides with the spread of the Castro culture; However, it and the Callaecia region only become historically tangible through Strabo and Appian .

Although the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula was nominally part of the Roman province of Hispania citerior (established in 197 BC) as a result of the Second Punic War , and despite the heavy defeat of the Callaici in 136 BC. It was only after the Cantabrian War (29 BC to 19 BC) under Augustus that Rome succeeded in asserting its claim to power and, with the establishment of the cities of Bracara Augusta ( Braga ) and Lucus Augusti (Lugo), the Romanization of the local residents Advancing the population.

A pre-Roman settlement of the place can only be made probable by comparatively few finds. The Roman settlement of the place is all the more clear from the finds and building findings of the previous excavations, even if the Roman name of the settlement has not been passed down. Only a few kilometers south of the Roman road from Bracara Augusta ( Braga ) to Asturica Augusta ( Astorga ) and about 6 km southwest of the Roman municipality of Aquae Flaviae ( Chaves ), the settlement is well integrated into the Roman infrastructure.

Numerous finds from the Middle Ages attest to the continued use or re-use of the Castro after the end of Roman rule.

research

The Castro is first mentioned in the 18th century and described as early as 1917 by the archaeologist and geologist José Leite de Vasconcellos . Despite this early news, a total of ten archaeological excavation campaigns were only carried out between 1974 and 1984 under the direction of JR dos Santos Júnior and Adérito M. Freitas , which opened up the site over a large area. Further excavations followed in 1988–2006.

Although the site is privately owned, the Castro is open to the public and is in very good condition. It has not yet been included in the monument protection list.

Findings

The oval settlement area (approx. 56 × 42 m), protected by two complete wall rings, extends over an area of ​​around 7.4 acres . This makes the Castro da Curalha one of the smaller Castro culture complexes , whose largest settlements such as B. Briteiros , Sanfins or Bagunte reach a size of 20 hectares and more.

Walls

The inner wall is comparatively strong with a width of up to 5 m. Three entrances to the north, west and east allow access in and out of the intermediate wall area. The second wall ring is closely connected to the inner wall ring, the distance between the two walls is a maximum of 10 m. The outer wall ring has only one entrance in the north. The staggered position of the entrances to both wall rings creates a kennel that provides additional protection for the inner gates.

The remainder of a third wall was observed in the northwest over a length of about 10 m. All the walls were made of granite stones in dry construction built.

Streets

Granite paved roads open up and subdivide the settlement. Remnants of these streets have mainly been preserved from the east gate. One street curves into the center of the settlement, while another street is laid out parallel to the course of the wall.

building

In the eastern part of the settlements, the space between the wall and the street is densely built up. The buildings with a consistently rectangular floor plan use the inner wall as a rear wall and share the partition walls with the neighboring buildings. The entrances to the houses are based on the course of the street.

In addition to other houses with a rectangular floor plan, a building with a round floor plan was excavated on the small rocky dome in the central area of ​​the settlement.Round houses can be seen mainly in pre-Roman times in the settlements of the Castro culture, but they also appear in Roman times, so that the time cannot be inferred from the floor plan alone.

To the west of the rocky knoll, there is another strip of buildings that runs straight towards the southwest side of the inner wall. Here, too, the rectangular buildings share the partition walls.

Compared to other settlements of the Castro culture, the very dense development is striking. The buildings within the other settlements are usually more loosely distributed and are combined and separated from each other by walls and streets to form areas (Quarteirão / Bairro).

Finds

Roman bricks ( Tegula and Imbrex ) and utility ceramics make up the majority of the finds. In addition, Roman tableware ( terra sigillata ), glass , glass paste, pearls and numerous coins from the 4th century AD were recovered. Few remnants of iron slag make metalworking on a small scale in or near the settlement likely.

Some of the finds are kept in the Museu da Região Flaviense in Chaves .

literature

  • Armando Coelho Ferreira da Silva: A Cultura Castreja no Norte de Portugal . In: Revista de Guimarães . Volume Especial, No. I . Guimarães 1999, p. 111-132 .
  • Thomas G. Schattner (Ed.): Archaeological guide through Portugal (= cultural history of the ancient world . Vol. 74). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2313-1 , p. 39f.
  • José de Leite de Vasconcellos: Por Trás-os-Montes . In: O Arqueólogo Português . tape XXII , 1st series. Lisbon 1917, p. 23 (Portuguese).
  • further reading under Portal do Arqueólogo sv Bibliografia.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Isabel Sereno e Paulo Amaral: Povoado fortificado da Curalha / Castelo. Direção-Geral do Património Cultural - Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico, 1994, accessed on February 17, 2018 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ a b c d e Castro da Curalha. Direção-Geral do Património Cultural - Portal do Arqueólogo, accessed February 17, 2018 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ a b c José de Leite de Vasconcellos: Por Trás-os-Montes . In: O Arqueólogo Português . tape XXII , 1st series. Lisbon 1917, p. 23 (Portuguese).
  4. ↑ a b Archaeological guide through Portugal . In: Thomas G. Schattner (Ed.): Cultural history of the ancient world . tape 74 . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2313-1 , p. 391 f .
  5. ^ A b Emil Huebner : Callaici . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Sp. 1356-1359.
  6. ^ Pedro Barceló : Callaici . in: Der Neue Pauly, edited by: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester
  7. ^ Eugenio R. Luján Martínez: The Language (s) of the Callaeci . In: Ekeltoi . 6: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula, May 3, 2006, pp. 689-714. Accessed December 17, 2017.
  8. ↑ Str. III 152ff.
  9. ^ Appian. Hisp. 70ff.
  10. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 1 , no. 3 . Berlin 1925, chap. 7 , p. 676 ff .
  11. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 2 , no. 4 . Berlin 1925, chap. 1 , p. 10 ff .
  12. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 3 , no. 5 . Berlin 1922, chap. 7 , p. 222 ff .
  13. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 5 , no. 8 . Berlin 1927, chap. 7 , p. 57 ff .
  14. ^ Carlos Alberto Ferreira de Almeida: O Templo do Mozinho eo seu conjunto. In: Portugália . Nova série, No. 1 . Porto 1980, p. 51 ff .
  15. ↑ Carlos A. Brochado de Almeida, Pedro Brochado de Almeida: Alguns apontamentos sobre a cividade de bagunte - Vila do conde. In: Portvgalia. Nova Série . tape 36 , 2015, p. 49-62 (Portuguese).

Web links


Coordinates: 41 ° 42 ′ 33.8 "  N , 7 ° 31 ′ 41.4"  W.