Citânia de Briteiros
Citânia de Briteiros | |
---|---|
General information | |
Type | Castro |
Architectural style | Iron Age |
Location | Briteiros São Salvador e Briteiros Santa Leocádia |
Town or city | Guimarães |
Country | Portugal |
Coordinates | 41°31′39″N 8°18′57″W / 41.52750°N 8.31583°W |
Opened | 1st Century |
Owner | Portuguese Republic |
Technical details | |
Material | Granite |
The Citânia de Briteiros is an archaeological site of the
History
The site was probably constructed between the first and second century BCE.[2] Notes by Martins Sarmento and from recent explorations show that the Monte de São Romão was a favoured location for rock art engravings of the Atlantic Bronze Age,[1] in the beginning of the first millennium BCE;[2][3] it is not known when or why this first group left. Numerous early engraved rock surfaces were destroyed when many boulders were cut to build the ramparts and family compounds as the Castro settlement grew. Little is known of the beginnings of the Castro occupation, as no structures from the late Bronze Age have been found. Pottery from the early Iron Age has been found, when the settlement would already have been fortified. The majority of the ruins visible today have been dated from the second Iron Age, especially the last two centuries BCE.[1]
The Castro inhabitants are believed to have been Celtic.[4][5] Approximately half the pre-Latin toponyms of Gallaecia were Celtic, while the rest were either non Celtic western Indo-European, or mixed toponyms containing Celtic and non-Celtic elements.[6]
Sometime in the first century AD the settlement was occupied by Roman settlers.
The site has been studied extensively since 1874, with the first excavations beginning in 1875, when the Portuguese archaeologist Francisco Martins Sarmento began annual excavation campaigns while helping to develop methods of archaeological research and preservation in Portugal.[2] Sarmento's campaigns led to the discovery of much of the ruins of the acropolis (the highest portion of the settlement), and he reconstructed a pair of dwellings on the site from his research. Continuing discoveries during the first decades of work led Martins Sarmento to purchase the land on which the settlement lay, which was regularly continued by the Sociedade Martins Sarmento.[2] The land and Martins Sarmento's research materials were bequeathed to the Society. From the 1930s through the 1960s, new excavations were carried out by the Society, supervised by Mário Cardozo, which led to the discovery of large parts of the settlement on the eastern slope and additional portions of the acropolis. Further surveys were made in the 1970s (in the north-eastern section), and in 2002, 2005 and 2006.[1]
The site was classified and protected by
As research methods developed over the 19th and 20th centuries, the successive excavations at the Briteiros site adapted to evolving concepts, and gaps remain in the scientific knowledge of the site. In 2004 a project was initiated under the responsibility of
Beginning in 1956, the excavations took on a new character, as archaeological objects began being collected from the site, a process that continued in digs in 1958 to 1961, 1964 and 1968.[2] In 1962, the archaeological work was carried out by the Serviços de Conservação (Conservation Services).[2]
In 1974 and 1977, there were works to conserve and clean the area, including various larger projects.[2] Between 1977 and 1978, archaeological interventions were handled by a team that included Armando Coelho Ferreira da Silva and Rui Centeno, from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto.[2]
Following excavations and surveys by archaeologist Francisco Sande Lemos, the Sociedade Martins Sarmento (UAM) proposed (in 2006) the creation of a proto-history biological estate, as a form of interpretative centre, alongside the site, to revitalize the location.[2] Strata were discovered during this time that indicated a human occupation before the reorganization of the urban space. Between October and November, a secondary baths near the national E.N.306 roadway.
Architecture
The site is situated on a small promontory called Monte de São Romão
The visible ruins of the walled village or
Briteiros is an unusual castros, having its streets arranged into a roughly grid pattern.[8] The "urbanized" area of the settlement includes an acropolis surrounded by the first rampart in an elevated area of about 7 hectares.
Around 100 residential compounds were found in this area, grouped into small blocks divided by several streets.[1] Each of the compounds, were delimited by masonry walls, and provided living and working space for a large family. These structures included one to three circular stone houses, some large with an atrium, where the nuclear family lived; other structures within the compound housed other family members, served as stables or stored agricultural tools, food, and rain or spring water. Daily tasks and crafts were performed in the stone-paved courtyard of the compound, which formed the center of family life in the citânia.[3] Assuming around 6 people per family unit, a population of the acropolis of around 625 people has been estimated,[3] but estimates may reach as many as 1500 for the entire settlement when excavations are made of the eastern and south-western extremities.
The ramparts and main roads are the most visible part of the site, although there are conduits that carried water from a spring on the hill, fountains, two public bath structures and a large meeting or council house.[1] The ruins of one bath (accidentally found during road work in the 1930s) is the best-preserved construction of its kind in northern Portugal and Galicia.[3] Including a decorative monolith of almost 3 square metres (32 sq ft), called the Pedra Formosa (the "handsome stone") thought to have once formed part of a burial chamber.[8]) Between the second and third line of defences, along the south, is a structure with kiln.[2]
See also
- Castro culture
- Hill fort (Portugal and Spain)
References
- Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Francisco Sande Lemos & Gonçalo Correida da Cruz (2007)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Sereno, Isabel; Dordio, Paulo (1995), SIPA (ed.), Citânia de Briteiros (IPA.00001891/PT010308410002) (in Portuguese), Lisbon, Portugal: SIPA – Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico, retrieved 15 May 2015
- ^ a b c d e Sande Lemos, Francisco: Citânia de Briteiros: Visitor's Guide. Sociedade Martins Sarmento (2007)
- ISBN 84-7800-818-7. pp. 374-380
- ISBN 1-85109-440-7.
- . Retrieved 22 December 2010.
- ^ Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico (IPPAR) classification of the site (in Portuguese) Archived 2012-03-17 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Paul MacKendrick (1969)
- Sources
- MacKendrick, Paul (1969), The Iberian Stones Speak: Archaeology in Spain and Portugal, New York, New York: Funk and Wagnalls
- Sande Lemos, Francisco; Correida da Cruz, Gonçalo (2007), Citânia de Briteiros: The Proto-Historic Settlement (in Portuguese), Sociedade Martins Sarmento, ISBN 978-972-8078-87-4
- Relatório da Actividade do Ministério no Ano de 1961 (in Portuguese), vol. 1, Lisbon, Portugal: Ministério das Obras Públicas, 1962
- Relatório da Actividade do Ministério no Ano de 1962 (in Portuguese), vol. 1, Lisbon, Portugal: Ministério das Obras Públicas, 1963
- Silva, A.C.F.; Centeno, R.M.S. (1977), "Sondagem arqueológica na Citânia de Briteiros (Guimarães). Notícia sumária", Revista de Guimarães (in Portuguese), pp. 277–280
- Centeno-Silva, A.C.F. (1978), "Corte estratigráfico na Citânia de Briteiros (Guimarães) 1977 - 1978", Revista de Guimarães (in Portuguese), pp. 63–69
- Cardozo, M. (1980), Citânia de Briteiros e Castro de Sabroso (in Portuguese), Guimarães, Portugal
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Silva, A.C.F. (1986), A Cultura Castreja no Noroeste Português (in Portuguese), Paços de Ferreira, Portugal, pp. 31–33
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - "Património Arquitectónico e Arqueológico Classificado", Inventário (in Portuguese), vol. II, Lisbon, Portugal, 1993, p. 48
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Forte, Joaquim (9 March 2006), "Lavoura à moda antiga na Citânia", Jornal de Notícias Minho (in Portuguese), p. 26
- Costa, Magalhães (27 March 2006), "Citânia de Briteiros escavada em Julho", Jornal de Notícias (in Portuguese), Minho, Portugal, p. 23
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Lemos, Rui (17 June 2006), "Citânia de Briteiros recebe novas escavações em Julho", Diário do Minho (in Portuguese), p. 12
- Lemos, Rui (23 November 2006), "Arqueólogos descobrem novo balneário na Citânia de Briteiros", Diário do Minho (in Portuguese), p. 12
External links
- Citânia de Briteiros: virtual visit (in English and Portuguese)