- Chapter Ten -
but generally they are associated with cult sites, for instance the settlement at Nuits
St Georges in Burgundy (Pommeret 1992). Generally small industrial or market
settlements are features of the Roman countryside, rather than the pre-Roman.
THE IBERIAN PENINSULA
In many ways the Iberian peninsula mirrors Gaul and Britain. The pattern of urban
settlement shows a general trend from south to north, starting with a zone of small
nucleated urban settlements along the Mediterranean coast, occupied by speakers
of Iberian languages. The central area was controlled by tribes collectively referred
to as Celtiberians, who were certainly speakers of Celtic languages. Their area is
dominated by large defended sites, some of the same massive dimension as Gallic
oppida. To the north and west, though some large sites do exist, the majority are
small hill-forts generally termed 'castros'.
The southern coast of Spain came under early east Mediterranean influence with
the arrival of the Phoenicians early in the first millennium Be, followed after 600 Be
by Greek colonists moving into the north via southern France, and founding the
colonies of Emporion (Ampurias) and Rhode (Rosas). Subsequently Carthaginian
control was replaced by Roman conquest, which started in the north-east from 218
Be, and spread southwards along the coast, and then inland to the north and west.
In fact it took nearly 200 years for the conquest to be completed in the early years
of Augustus's reign, Galicia finally being conquered by Agrippa in 19 Be.
The chronology of the Celtiberian sites is far from clear, but many were certainly
in existence by the time of the Roman conquest in the second century Be. Most sites
are known only from their bronze coinage - individual towns are named on the
inscribed bronze coins. The most famous site, both historically and archaeologically,
is Numantia, site of the siege by Scipio in 133 Be, but the extensive finds still await
modern analysis. In places the size and concentration of these oppida are impressive.
For instance, around the plain of Avila (Alvarez Sanchfs 1990; Fernandez Gomez
1990) there are five or six sites: CilLin, Las Cogatas, Chamartfn de la Sierra,
Sanchorreja, and probably Avila itself. Each was certainly occupied, and had its
own cremation cemeteries adjacent to the main gateways, with typically small
stone cairns. The major site in the group, however, is Ulaca, on a dominating and
inaccessible hill. At the centre of the site is a cult boulder and an associated cult
building or sauna. Part of the enclosed site was laid out with rectangular buildings
fronting on to one of the main thoroughfares, but there was also occupation outside
the site at the bottom of the hill. Rectangular houses are typical of the Celtiberian
area, often grouped together either as a continuous terrace of houses along a street,
or backing on to the defences.
In the north and west circular houses are the norm in the castros of Galicia and
northern Portugal. Cult boulders and saunas are regularly recurring features on the
major sites, but the layout of even the larger sites tends to be irregular. At many sites
such as the Citaiiia de Sanfins or the Citaiiia de Briteiros there are also rectilinear
structures, but in part the explanation for this is chronological as often occupation
continued into the Roman period; indeed many sites were substantially reconstructed