Thread by @magago

Today we are going to talk about ancient relics in the hillforts: antennae daggers that appear, whole, many centuries after they were made, in Late Iron Age hillforts. What stories have we lost about them?

#hillfortswednesday

Our first treasure appeared in the foundations of a house in the hillfort of Os Castros (Taramundi, Asturias, near the border with Galicia). The house had been built in the Late Iron Age. The hillfort was inhabited from the Late Bronze Age.

#HillfortsWednesday

Look at it: gorgeous. Because it preserved the organic material of the sheath, radiocarbon dating was possible. Between the 14th and 10th centuries BC. These daggers have Central European influences on the handles and Mediterranean influences on the blades.

#Hillfortswednesday

This one was recently found under a pavement of an Iron Age fish factory in the promontory fort of A Lanzada (Sanxenxo, Galicia). It may be of Cyprus / eastern Mediterranean origin (8th-4th centuries BC). But it appeared in a 2nd century BC context!

#HillfortsWednesday

And I 😍 the last one. It is a kind of miniature of a dagger, only 15.4 ctms long, useless, like a toy, or a votive object. It was found in the Roman levels of the Viladonga hillfort. This dagger tells us how the shape was the memory centuries after.

#HillfortsWednesday

You can explore the Viladonga antennae dagger in 3D here.

sketchfab.com/3d-models/puna…

It is difficult to know how much ritual or just abandonment was involved in leaving the daggers, but such simple deposits are common in Galician hillforts. They tell us how Iron Age people managed their past.

Words were gone, but memory still leave traces.

#HillfortsWednesday

Thanks to archaeologists Ángel Villa and Rafael Rodriguez for their kind help. Pics of the daggers: Taramundi (Principado de Asturias), A Lanzada (Deputación de Pontevedra), Viladonga (Museo do Castro de Viladonga).

If you need more Iron Age stamina, there is an available charger here!

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