User:Pguerin/Castellet de Bernabé

The Iberian settlement of Castellet de Bernabé is an archaeological site located near Liria, in the province of Valencia (Spain), and belongs to the Iberian culture.

With an area of around 1000 m², Castellet de Bernabé was occupied from the 5^th to the 3rd century BC. Its end, attested by a destruction layer of ashes, coincided with the early consolidation of the Roman Republic's dominion over the territory.

First noted in 1945 by Enrique Pla Ballester, the Iberian settlement of Castellet de Bernabé occupies a rocky mound in the north-western foothills of the Sierra Calderona, in the area known as La Concordia, near the junction of the roads from Liria and Casinos to Alcublas (CV-339, km 15).

History of the research

An initial survey carried out by Helena Bonet Rosado in 1978 ^[1] revealed a chronology of the site corresponding to the Middle Iberian period and a Edetani cultural environment. The plan for the systematic excavation of the remains was developed annually from 1984 onwards under the sponsorship of the Prehistoric Research Service of the Provincial Council of Valencia, with the aim of completing the excavation of the walled enclosure, the dating of which had motivated the first surveys.

Consolidation and fencing plans were carried out in 1988 by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Regional government, and in 1997 the land, which was privately owned, was acquired together with the surrounding terraces by the Town Council of Liria. The work plan at the Castellet de Bernabé culminated in 2004 with a comprehensive interdisciplinary publication.^[2]

An axial street settlement

Iron handle of a *caetra* found near to the main gate.

Systematic excavations have uncovered a pseudo-rectangular axial street settlement, with a surface area of about 1000 m² (about 70 m by 15 m), surrounded by walls. A paved path runs along the western slope of the hill up to a main gate with two gates where there is evidence of carts circulation (guard stones, wheel marks) ^[3].

Inside, a triangular-shaped plaza surrounded by service areas (oil press (plan, no. 6), forge (12), granary (7), cellar (8)) distributes the circulation towards the other sectors of the habitat: dwellings and pantries arranged on both sides of the street as well as an aristocratic residence with 5 rooms in the north-east quadrant of the enclosure (1, 2, 5, 9 and 22), which communicates directly with the exterior through a second double door. The stratigraphic sequence shows a continuous occupation of the settlement from the time of its construction in the 5th century BC until its final abandonment at the end of the 3rd century BC, undoubtedly as an indirect consequence of the new political order resulting of the Second Punic War and the Roman conquest.^[4]

Mud architecture

The excellent state of preservation of the structures and ethnographic comparisons have made it possible to write the first pages of Iberian building techniques from this settlement, highlighting the massive use of adobe on masonry plinths for the walls and rammed earth terraces for the roofs, like the examples that persist in the Alpujarra (Granada) or more extensively in North Africa and the Middle East.^[5]

Careful study of the rubble, which includes adobe bricks, burnt beams and pieces of the roof, has made it possible to restore three different architectural models in the village: the single-storey house with direct access from the street; and the two-storey house, often with a semi-basement, which is accessed from the street and covered by a mezzanine. The presence of stone staircases attached to the façades of some of the ground floors confirms the use of first floors.

Material culture

The materials collection abandoned by the inhabitants at the time of the last destruction of the settlement in the 3rd century BC reveal a cultural horizon corresponding to the Middle Iberian of Edetanian region, like that of the settlements of Sant Miquel de Liria^[6] or Puntal dels Llops in Olocau^[7]. The extremely abundant ceramics include the whole collection of shapes, decorations and functionalities of Iberian painted series with geometric, vegetal and narrative motifs, cooking pots with traces of use and storage vessels including jars and amphorae.

The excavations also yielded metal objects, mainly made of iron, including tools, undoubtedly intended for the development of the dry land surrounding the site. A handful of Attic and Italic imports, some of them truly venerable, given their already ancient chronology at the time, fulfilled liturgical functions in connection with domestic cults.

Finally, the collection of finds includes interesting evidence of Iberian writing on pottery, with an alphabet painted on the rim of a jar and a lead tablet^[8] found on the floor of one of the granaries (plan, no. 32). This is not the first time that a place where the grain was milled has been associated with an epigraphic find; the written lead tablet from la Bastida de Les Alcuses (Mogente), considered as an archive of accounts, was hidden under a millstone, which leads us to suspect that its author was the one who grinded the grain there.^[9]

A complex society

Castellet de Bernabé also reveals an Iberian society marked by deep socio-economic inequalities based on clientele^[10] and gender relations^[11]. An aristocratic extended family that owned the structures (A) stands out from the nuclear families made up of a dozen or so clients (B2) dedicated to the agricultural and livestock development of the surrounding area, probably under the orders of a foreman (B1).

The findings testify to a massive female protagonism within the settlement. Among the activities, weaving appears systematically in the rooms of the aristocratic house, confirming that it was an emblematic occupation for women, symmetrical to the handling of weapons for men^[12]. This is evident in the famous sculpture of the spinner and the lancer,^[13] from the Albufereta in Alicante. Conversely, the male community has left no explicit traces within the settlement, and even assuming that a large part of their days was spent in the fields, it can be suspected that the men of the gentile class were engaged in the range of leisure, hunting or war activities that we know from the figures on the painted ceramics from Llíria^[14].

Other peasant communities that supplied the gentile class lived in small villages nearby located in less sloppy locations that favoured agricultural activities, such as La Torre Seca (Casinos).

This distribution of roles seems to leave the management of the estate not to the aristocratic landowner, but to his wife. Literature in general and mythology confirm this script of the weaver-wife and manager of the property owned by an absentee husband devoted to the glory of arms.

The removal of the village floor during the consolidation campaign revealed more than 20 infant graves^[15] arranged in the corners of some of the rooms. The age of the children suggests the existence of rites of passage in the first stage of life. Given no finds are older than 6 months, we assume that from that age they were already sharing the same funerary space as the adults, reflecting full integration into society; the treatment given to the newborns suggests that they were not even considered as human beings.

Spatial archaeology research in the 1980s identified the Castellet de Bernabé as a "hamlet" based on its location, structures and size, integrating it into the geopolitical context of the territory of Edeta (Tosal de Sant Miquel), whose fate it shared until the end of the Middle Iberian period around 200 BC.

The basis for livelihoods

Bread, wine and olive oil were the basis of agricultural production. These details are known thanks to the fire that put an end to the human occupation burning numerous plant remains whose forms have been preserved in charred form. Barley seeds, olive pits, grape seeds, fig seeds, apple seeds and acorns were the main species cultivated and harvested.

The accumulations of seeds in certain places reveal areas of activity related to winemaking or flour milling. room no. 21, for example, with no other finds than a floor covered with grape seeds, could have been a wine cellar. Faunal remains recovered from the street and rubbish dumps testify to a herd of goats, sheep, pigs and some cattle, possibly supplemented by deer from hunting activities. It is significant that the horse and the dog, exalted in the figurative scenes of the Iberian painted pottery as riding or companion animals, have hardly provided any remains, as they were probably not objects of consumption.

The collection of pottery found in the excavations includes large cylindrical artefacts^[16], which ethnographic comparisons identify as beehives and which allow us to consider beekeeping as one of the main gathering activities of the community.

A dramatic end

The final fire at the settlement, attested by the presence of thick layers of debris and ashes filled with archaeological materials, depicts the full extent of violent destruction, systematic looting and a defense barricaded behind the walled main gate, where remains of weaponry were found. It seems that the two gates considerably weakened the village's defense possibilities. The inhabitants expected an attack (the second in a short period of time) and built a stone wall on the access ramp in front of the main gate. In fact, archaeological finds in the entrance area reveal evidence of defense: a caetra (Iberian round shield) hilt.

On the opposite side, the burning of the porch of the second entrance is attested by the imprint of fire on the floor and walls. It is easy to imagine that while some were fighting at the main gate, others started a fire at the second gate, which spread throughout the village. The finds of broken amphorae and jars in the central square, outside the pantries, reveal very realistically a full-scale looting. We cannot be very optimistic about the fate of the inhabitants of Castellet de Bernabé, since no one rebuilt the village; the defensive wall that prevented the circulation of carts into the place was not dismantled. It has even been noted that the rubble was visited in search of recoverable materials, such as some of the valuable pine beams, in whose place the large, twisted iron nails that fixed the framework were found piled up.

Enhancing project

After the exhaustive publication of the findings in 2004, an interdisciplinary team of research and dissemination professionals coordinated by the Valencia Regional Ministry of Culture has set itself the goal of making the most important results of the 15 years of scientific research in the Iberian settlement available to the public. This work is undertaken on different fronts of the transmission of knowledge, whether by means of virtual reconstructions (pedagogical guide), recreational-educational proposals (active visits), or even mere visiting equipment (conditioned path from Bodegas del Campo to the Castellet de Bernabé).

Notes and references

^ BONET, 1978, 147-162
^ (GUÉRIN, 2003, 388 pgs.)
^ GUÉRIN, BONET, 1993, 425-462
^ GUÉRIN, BONET, MATA, 1989, 193-204
^ BONET, GUÉRIN, 1995, 85-104
^ BONET, 1995, 547 pgs
^ BONET, MATA,
^ (SILGO, 1996, 199-206)
^ FLETCHER, 1982, 75 6
^ RUIZ, MOLINOS, 1993, 342 PGS
^ GUÉRIN. 1999, 85-100
^ GUÉRIN, 2005, 259-266
^ FIGUERAS PACHECO, 1952-LAM. III
^ BONET, 1995, 547 pgs
^ (CALVO y otros, 1989, pgs.63-94)
^ (MATA y BONET, 1995, 277-285)

BONET ROSADO, Helena; GUÉRIN, Pierre; MATA PARREÑO, Consuelo (1994). "Urbanisme i Habitatge Ibèrics al País Valencià". Cota Zero - Hábitat y habitació en la Protohistoria de la mediterrànea nord-occidental (10). ISSN 0213-4640, pgs. 115-130. {{cite journal}}: External link in |title= (help)
CALVO Matías, GUILLÉN Pere, GRAU Elena, GUERIN Pierre (1989). "Tumbas infantiles en el Castellet de Bernabé (Liria, Valencia)". Cuadernos de Prehistoria y Arqueología Castellonenses - Inhumaciones infantiles en el ámbito mediterráneo español (siglos VII a.E. al II d.E.) (14). ISSN 0212-1824, pgs. 63-94.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
GUÉRIN, Pierre (1999). "Hogares, molinos, telares… El Castellet de Bernabé y sus ocupantes". Arqueología Espacial (21). ISSN 1136-8195, pgs. 85-99.
GUÉRIN, Pierre (dir.) (2003). El poblado del Castellet de Bernabé y el Horizonte Ibérico Pleno Edetano; Serie de Trabajos Varios del S.I.P., 101 . Diputación Provincial de Valencia. ISBN 84-7795-349-X. {{cite book}}: External link in |title= (help)
MATA PARREÑO Consuelo y BONET ROSADO Helena (1995). "Testimonios de apicultura en época ibérica". Verdolay: Revista del Museo Arqueológico de Murcia (7). ISSN 1130-9776, pgs. 277-285.
PLA BALLESTER Enrique (1945). "Las Actividades del S.I.P ". Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina (II). ISSN 1989-508. {{cite journal}}: External link in |title= (help)
SILGO GAUCHE Luis, GUERIN Pierre (1996). "Inscripción ibérica sobre plomo de Castellet de Bernabé (Llíria, Valencia)". Revista d'Arqueología de Ponent (6). ISSN 1131-883X, pgs. 199-206.

[[Category:Archaeology]] [[Category:Iberians]] [[Category:Iron Age Spain]] [[Category:Archaeological sites by period]]

[1] BONET, 1978, 147-162

[2] (GUÉRIN, 2003, 388 pgs.)

[3] GUÉRIN, BONET, 1993, 425-462

[4] GUÉRIN, BONET, MATA, 1989, 193-204

[5] BONET, GUÉRIN, 1995, 85-104

[6] BONET, 1995, 547 pgs

[7] BONET, MATA,

[8] (SILGO, 1996, 199-206)

[9] FLETCHER, 1982, 75 6

[10] RUIZ, MOLINOS, 1993, 342 PGS

[11] GUÉRIN. 1999, 85-100

[12] GUÉRIN, 2005, 259-266

[13] FIGUERAS PACHECO, 1952-LAM. III

[14] BONET, 1995, 547 pgs

[15] (CALVO y otros, 1989, pgs.63-94)

[16] (MATA y BONET, 1995, 277-285)

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