Castro de Romariz

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Castro de Romariz (Portugal)
Castro de Romariz
Castro de Romariz
Lisbon
Lisbon
postage
postage
Faro
Faro
Location of the Castro de Romariz in Portugal.

The Castro de Romariz 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 in the municipality of the same name ( Portuguese Freguesia ) Romariz about 7.5 km northeast of the district town ( Portuguese concelho ) Cidade Santa Maria da Feira about 10 km south of the Douro in the district ( Portuguese Distrito ) Aveiro . These and some other settlements mark the southern border of the Castro culture, whose main distribution area extends north of the Douro ( Spanish Duero ) to southern Galicia .

Like most of the Castro culture settlements, the Castro de Romariz is strategically located at an altitude. The settlement area itself is on the plateau of Monte de Castro , also called Monte de Crasto , at an altitude of around 370 m, which slopes steeply to the north, east and south. The shallower slope of the western slope was deepened by an artificially created ditch. The important Roman roads from Bracara Augusta ( Braga ) to Asturica Augusta ( Astorga ) and from Porto to Viseu run within sight of the Castro .

history

The Castro 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.

Pits and lines engraved in the granite , in connection with a few finds, suggest that settlement on the plateau began in the Late Bronze Age (900–700 BC). Due to the numerous finds from the 5th century BC BC, including imported ceramics, a settlement from the early Iron Age can be assumed to be certain, even if no building findings could be assigned to this period.

The construction of the wall between the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC And the transition from wooden buildings to stone buildings in the 2nd century BC. Chr. Mark a further settlement phase of the Castro. The changes in the Roman Empire are of a more qualitative nature ; the buildings will be covered with bricks ( Tegula and Imbrex ), walls and floors will be plastered, and the streets will be paved significantly better. The settlement was abandoned for unknown reasons as early as the end of the 1st century or the beginning of the 2nd century.

research

Castro de Romariz

As early as 1843 to 1846, the municipality of Santa Maria da Feira, under the direction of Mayor José Correia, carried out the first excavations in the settlement, which led to the discovery of 16 building floor plans. About a century later (1940-1946), the investigations were resumed by the pastor of Romariz, Father Manuel Fernandes dos Santos , and the results were published in a monograph. As a result of the new excavations, which made the importance of the site clear, the settlement was placed under protection in 1945 as IIP - Imóvel de Interest Público .

Since 1980, Armando Coelho and Rui Centeno from the University of Porto have carried out further excavation campaigns, the aim of which was primarily to investigate the stratigraphic references of the finds and findings that had largely not been taken into account in the previous excavations.

In research, the site is also known under the names Castro do monte do Castro , Castro do monte do Crasto , Povoado fortificado de Romariz and Povoado fortificado no monte do Crasto .

Findings

The settlement lies on an oval plateau (approx. 160 × 80 m), of which the northern area has so far been examined over an area of ​​approx. 5000 m². Presumably the settlement also extended to the southern area of ​​the plateau, but further archaeological investigations remain to be awaited here. With an area of ​​about 5 or 10 ares - if the settlement encompassed the entire plateau - the Castro de Romariz is one of the smaller structures of the Castro culture, whose largest settlements such as B. Briteiros , Sanfins or Bagunte reach a size of 20 hectares and more.

Walls

The very little expansion of fortifications in the Castro de Romariz is striking. Only the west side of the settlement is secured by a granite wall and a ditch in front. The other sides are marked by steep slopes, but do not offer any further protection. In contrast, the three above-mentioned settlements are surrounded by several mighty walls, e.g. T. with upstream trenches, protected, and also smaller settlements of the Castro culture, such as. B. the Castro da Curalha , have two very wide walls.

Streets

Streets and paths with granite paving open up the settlement. Your z. The partly angular course depends on the existing buildings and the boundary walls of the building groups.

building

Castro de Romariz

In the course of the two older excavation campaigns in particular, the floor plans of a good 50 pre-Roman and Roman buildings with the round and long-rectangular floor plans typical of the Castro culture were uncovered. Occasionally the round buildings had a semicircular or pincer-shaped vestibule. Several of these buildings are combined into areas (Quarteirão / Bairro) of up to 385 m² and separated from one another by walls and streets. Outside the buildings, paving of the courtyards was observed.

The round buildings reach a diameter of up to 5 m. The rectangular buildings can reach a size of approximately 13.5 × 5 m. Occasionally, neighboring rectangular buildings use a common partition. The walls that demarcate the residential areas are often also incorporated into the rear and side walls of the building.

In the course of the older excavations, stratigraphic relationships were hardly taken into account and direct overlapping of floor plans can only be observed in isolated cases in Castro de Romariz , so that no relative chronological construction sequence can be derived. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that the dense settlement of the area is spread over several phases.

The general change from round to rectangular floor plans observed at other sites can also be assumed here, but cannot be proven in individual cases, since round floor plans were also used in Roman times.

Finds

Among the finds, the “Treasure of Romariz”, which was recovered in 1843, stands out, a silver vase that contained 103 denarii of the Roman Republic from the years 157–156 BC. BC, a gold ring and another unspecified object made of silver. Two pieces of a gold necklace were found during the first excavation campaign.

Punic amphorae of the 5th century BC As well as Greek and Campanian imported ceramics of the 4th century BC Chr. And blue glass beads attest to the far-reaching trade relations of the community in the pre-Roman Iron Age.

Roman bricks (Tegula and Imbrex) and domestic pottery make up the majority of the finds that are now in the museums of the Instituto de Arqueologia da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto , the Museu da Arte Sacra do Porto and the Museu Convento dos Lóios in Santa Maria da Feira are distributed.

literature

  • RMS Centeno: O Castro de Romariz . Aveiro 2011 (Portuguese).
  • 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.
  • 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 .
  • Manuel Fernandes dos Santos: A Minha Terra: Breves apontamentos sobre Romariz . Postage 1940 (Portuguese).
  • Pedro da Silva: A Modelação 3D do Castro de Romariz: Resultados da Aplicação do Modelo de Estudo Floveal . In: Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras (ed.): Atas do IX Encontro Nacional de Estudantes de História . Porto 2014, p. 31-46 . (Portuguese).
  • Gil Filipe Pepolim Vilarinho: Prospeção geofísica no Castro de Romariz . Ed .: Faculdade de Letras, Universade do Porto. Porto 2014, p. 55-62 . (Portuguese).
  • further reading under Portal do Arqueólogo sv Bibliografia.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Castro de Romariz. Direção-Geral do Património Cultural - Portal do Arqueólogo, accessed May 17, 2018 (Portuguese).
  2. ^ A b c A. Martins: Castro, situado no monte chamado do Castro ou do Crasto . Direção-Geral do Património Cultural, accessed May 17, 2018 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g 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).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Gil Filipe Pepolim Vilarinho: Prospeção geofísica no Castro de Romariz . Ed .: Faculdade de Letras - Universade do Porto. Porto 2016, p. 55-62 (Portuguese).
  5. ↑ 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. 91 f .
  6. ^ A b Emil Huebner : Callaici . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Sp. 1356-1359.
  7. ^ Pedro Barceló : Callaici . in: Der Neue Pauly, edited by: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, Manfred Landfester
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ↑ Str. III 152ff.
  10. ^ Appian. Hisp. 70ff.
  11. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 1 , no. 3 . Berlin 1925, chap. 7 , p. 676 ff .
  12. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 2 , no. 4 . Berlin 1925, chap. 1 , p. 10 ff .
  13. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 3 , no. 5 . Berlin 1922, chap. 7 , p. 222 ff .
  14. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history . tape 5 , no. 8 . Berlin 1927, chap. 7 , p. 57 ff .
  15. ↑ Manuel Fernandes dos Santos: A Minha Terra: Breves apontamentos sobre Romariz . Postage 1940 (Portuguese).
  16. ↑ Decreto n.º 34 452, DG, I Série, n.º 59, de 20-03-1945. (pdf) Ministério da Educação Nacional - Direcção Geral do Ensino Superior e das Belas Artes, March 20, 1945, p. 2164 , accessed on May 17, 2018 (Portuguese).
  17. ↑ a b c Pedro da Silva: A Modelação 3D do Castro de Romariz: Resultados da Aplicação do Modelo de Estudo Floveal . In: Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras (ed.): Atas do IX Encontro Nacional de Estudantes de História . Porto 2014, p. 31-46 . (Portuguese).
  18. ^ Carlos Alberto Ferreira de Almeida: O Templo do Mozinho eo seu conjunto. In: Portugália . Nova série, No. 1 . Porto 1980, p. 51 ff .
  19. ↑ 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

Commons : Castro de Romariz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 40 ° 56 '45.3 "  N , 8 ° 27' 37.5"  W.