25023454 warrior champions in late prehistoric iberia gonzalez garcia

8/8/2019 25023454 Warrior Champions in Late Prehistoric Iberia Gonzalez Garcia

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FRANCISCO JAVIER GONZLEZ GARCA

BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS: WARFARE ANDSOCIAL CHANGE IN THE LATER PREHISTORY OF THENORTH-WESTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA1

The sword is the samurais soul

Japanese proverb

For my father, in the yearof his 90th birthday

Summary. This article explores changes in the art of warfare amongsocieties in the north-western Iberian Peninsula in the Late Bronze and IronAges. These changes are interpreted as a manifestation of the transformationexperienced by societies living in the region first from warrior societiesto societies with warriors at the end of the Bronze Age and then back to

warrior societies in the Late Iron Age. Evidence of individual combat as amanifestation of societies with warriors is analysed in the broader context of Indo-European and ethnographical examples. It reflects societies in whichthere were groups specialized in warfare and represents the establishment, inthe region, of an Indo-European warrior ideology.

Using the archaeological and written record, this paper explores the evolution of the artof war in the region of Galicia (the north-western Iberian Peninsula), from the Bronze Age until

the beginning of the Roman conquest (II Iron Age), relating the process to the transformationsevident in the social structure of the communities in the study area.

the middle and late bronze age: the appearance of the champion in

the north-western iberian peninsula

Societies living in the north-western Iberian Peninsula (see Fig. 1) appear to have beencharacterized in the Bronze Age by their warlike nature, expressed in discoveries of weapons,

1 This study forms part of the research project PGIDIT05PXIA23602PR financed by the Consellera de Innovacin,Industria e Comercio of the Xunta de Galicia.

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Figure 1Map of the study area with the location of Bronze Age weapons found in Galicia (modified from Meijide 1988, 77).

BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS

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and, above all, of petroglyphs depicting weaponry, which reveal the highly symbolic nature ofweapons, signifying the strength of the warrior, the world of men and the art of war (Vzquez1994, 118). In some cases, these carvings may be considered as panoply rocks, since theydepict only weapons (De la Pea and Rey 2001, 174). Some of these petroglyphs have beenlinked to clearly warlike contexts, as is the case of the Pedra das Procesins (also known asAugada Laxe I: Santa Maria de Vincios, Gondomar, Pontevedra, Spain) (Fig. 2) and the Pedra dasFerraduras (Fentns, Sanxurxo de Sanxurxo de Sacos, Cotobade, Pontevedra, Spain) (Fig. 3).These two locations have been interpreted (Vzquez 1995, 434, 725) as sanctuaries places

intended for meetings of warriors or activities related to warfare, or possible community rituals(assemblies, rites of passage or initiation, etc.). These carvings express an ideology that waswarlike and that legitimized the community or the brotherhood of the warriors who celebratedtheir rituals in these places (Vzquez 1995, 59). In these petroglyphs, the weapons arerepresented in an active position, that is they appear to suggest that they are being held, sincethey are carved on a vertical or slightly inclined surface, with the blade facing upwards(SantosEstvez 2004, 180), possibly indicating collective forms of warfare.

The appearance of jewellery together with these metal weapons at the beginning of theBronze Age also indicates the presence of a social hierarchy that would have been expressedthrough the possession of both types of objects. Here we may be seeing a society in which the

warrior male, or whoever used metal weapons, occupied an important position in the socialhierarchy, perhaps as chieftains who demonstrated their power, legitimated either directly orindirectly by warlike coercion, through the ownership of weapons and jewellery (Vzquez 1995,293).

On the basis of these data, which seem to indicate the appearance of a warrioraristocracy, we may characterize Bronze Age society in Galicia (in line with Clastres 1988, 222)as a society with warriors, meaning a society where despite the fact that all of its men folk wereinvolved in warfare from time to time, [ . . . ] a certain number of them would be constantlyinvolved in fighting expeditions, even in cases when the tribe was provisionally at relative peacewith neighbouring groups; engaging in warfare on their own incentive, and not to respond to a

collective imperative. In the north-western Iberian Peninsula these Bronze Age groups ofaristocratic warriors comprised a warrior elite who carried the weapons and ornaments that

Figure 2Pedra das Procesins. 3D scanner image (LAr, IEGPS, CSIC-LPPP, IIT, USC).


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appear in the archaeological record. Apart from warfare, the functions of this warrior eliteincluded mobilizing groups of men to carry out raids. The presence and participation ofindividuals who did not belong to these warrior bands is suggested by the existence of bothmetallic and non-metallic weapons in the Late Bronze Age in northern Europe. The metalweapons would have been carried by the high-ranking warriors, while the foot soldiers would

have carried weapons made from organic materials (Osgood 1998, 37).Within this warlike context, a series of changes can be recognized, in the north-westernIberian Peninsula, which seem to indicate the appearance of a champion figure. This change maybe seen in the progressive replacement from the Middle Bronze Age (15001200 BC) of thedagger the characteristic weapon of the Early Bronze Age (18001500 BC) by the sword,a process which, according to the typology of the swords, became widespread during the LateBronze Age (1200700 BC), with large numbers of archaic pistiliform swords between 1200850 BC; classic pistiliform swords between 1000850 BC, and carp-tongue swords (Meijide1991, 241, 24651, 267). This change must have involved a transformation in the form ofcombat, as we will see below.

These swords were products of great technical quality, access to which was restrictedto a select few. They are similar to those found across the entire Atlantic region, suggesting the

Figure 3Pedra das Ferraduras. Tracing (LAr, IEGPS, CSIC-LPPP, IIT, USC).





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existence of contacts between elite groups, either in peaceful or warlike contexts, with groupsoutside the peninsula (Vzquez 1995, 87). The importance of the sword as a weapon of the elite,denoting the presence of an aristocracy, increased to the stage where these weapons were nolonger functional, but were instead symbolic and ritual items of prestige a matter discussed

by Worley (2005, 56) in the case of swords from Period I of the Scandinavian Bronze Age(18001500 BC).

Warlike activity in the north-western Iberian Peninsula during the Bronze Age,therefore, evolved in a similar way to the rest of western Europe (Vzquez 1995, 89) wherewe know that, at the beginning of the second millennium BC, the sword and spear appearas novelties in the archaeological record. These new types of weapons, especially the sword,achieved a position of great social and symbolic importance, becoming (within a process thatGuilaine and Zammit (2002, 2212) have characterized as the emergence of the hero) an itemcharacterizing the appearance of warrior aristocracies comprised of systems of chiefdoms witha higher or lower level of complexity, in which war was an activity that was both frequent and

highly valued (Kristiansen 1999; 2002; Guilaine and Zammit 2002, 21722). Although thistendency towards warfare in the Bronze Age has to be put into perspective (see, for example,Harding 1999, 72), I believe that warfare must be considered as more than simply anothergeneral field of activity characteristic of European Bronze Age society. The real significance ofwarfare, as we will attempt to show, is demonstrated by the fact that changes in warfare lead toprofound transformations in society.

The appearance of the warrior-champion can also be identified elsewhere. In northernPortugal the statue-stelae of Bronze Age warriors found at San Joo de Ver and near Chaves inthe Tmega and Faies rivers (Figs. 4AC) symbolize the social importance that individualwarriors could achieve. The dissimilarity seen between fortified and unfortified settlements in

northern Portugal during the Late Bronze Age would also seem to point in the same direction.It has been suggested that these fortified sites may have served as central settlements and theresidences of these warrior elites (Queiroga 2003, 378, 423).

The archaeological record therefore offers us indications suggestive of a change inmethods of warfare, and the resulting ideological and social changes which this brought about.Traditional types of collective combat were augmented by new techniques such as individualcombat in which the champion, an aristocratic member of the warrior elite bearing these newtypes of metal weapons, played a fundamental role.

The appearance of individual combat between champions in the north-western IberianPeninsula is indicated by several lines of evidence. Firstly, on the petroglyph of Auga da Laxe I,

there is a representation of a large sword, of Middle or Late Bronze Age type, together withrepresentations of weapons characteristic of the beginning of the Bronze Age. There is somedebate as to the dating for this sword: Vzquez (1995, 467) considers that it is a carps tonguetype, indicating that the petroglyph was in use until 900/750 BC, while other authors believe itis a pistiliform sword, dating between 1000850 BC. These chronological uncertainties apart, themost important point is the co-existence of weapons from different periods which, apart fromdemonstrating the continued use of the petroglyph ofAuga da Laxe I throughout the BronzeAge,also indicates, in a more indirect manner, the appearance of warrior elites in the region duringthis period, and the changes that the presence of these champions would have brought about inthe tactics of warfare. In fact, the larger size of the sword in comparison to the other weapons

shown on the rock may be interpreted as a manifestation of the pre-eminence of the championover the warrior group.




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Another clear indication of this transformation is offered by the replacement, from the

Late Bronze Age, of the representation of halberds, daggers and shield shapes on these panoplyrocks (which appear to reflect collective methods of warfare) by the ritual deposition ofweapons, including swords, in watery contexts (Bradley 1998, 251; on deposits: Meijide 1988,7990) (Figs. 1 and 5). These deposits have been related to the appearance of a type of warfareand representation in which the individual and combat between champions have a special socialrelevance (Gonzlez Ruibal 20062007, 114). This interpretation gains some support from thefact that in some of these river deposits (Meijide 1988, 86), pairs of swords of the same typehave been found, possibly indicating the practice of individual combat described by Kristiansen(2002, 329).

The appearance of these swords and the replacement of their representation on a

petroglyph by the object itself suggest the transformation of the warrior into a champion. It isalso possible to interpret the discoveries of pairs of swords in this way, not least because

Figure 4Statue-stelae of warriors. Bronze Age, northern Portugal: A. San Joo de Ver (modified from Jorge and Jorge 1990,fig. 10). B. Bed of the River Tmega, Chaves (modified from Jorge and Almeida 1980, 16). C. Faies, Chaves (modified

from Almeida and Jorge 1979, 15).





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European epic traditions often present heroes characterized by having a pair of weapons (Miller2000, 20812).

Through the sword itself, instead of its representation, the specialized warrior would

ratify his position of privilege within society, presenting himself as the owner of these costlyweapons with a symbolic value that would make them more than mere instruments of war.Within this context, swords would have been objects of great symbolic value, almost magical innature, which explains the special treatment given to them in some European burials. It is evenpossible that some weapons generated a biography that was independent of that of their owners(Osgood 1998, 2; Kristiansen 2002, 32931). This idea gains some support from a numberof indicators: the magical nature of specific weapons in the Celtic cultural tradition (Ettingler1945); the important social role of swords in some European folkloric traditions (Ellis Davidson1960); the important role played by weapons in the religions of many ancient Indo-Europeanpopulations (e.g. the veneration of spears as gods: Iustinus, Epit. XLIII 3; the adoration of the

sword as a god of war by the Alans: Ammianus Marcellinus, Hist. XXXI, 2, 23; the oath offidelity sworn by the Quados on their swords, which they venerated as gods: Ammianus

Figure 5Weapons dredged from the River Ulla (modified from Meijide 1988, 78).




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Marcellinus, Hist. XVII, 12, 21; the adoration by the Scythians of an ancient sword they believedsymbolized Ares and to which they consecrated swords and made human sacrifices: Herodotus,Hist. IV, 62 and Mela, Chorog. II, 1, 15) or their importance in the epic heroic traditions in which,

as Miller suggests (2000, 2078), the sword, often with its own name, is the predominant weaponof the hero, the icon and symbol of the Indo-European hero-warrior. A wide range of socialvalues have been ascribed to the sword in other cultural traditions perhaps the best known beingthe Samurai of Japan (Schwentker 2006, 69).

Further support for this hypothesis comes from the archaeological record of thenorth-western Iberian Peninsula in the form of a representation of a warrior on the Pedra dasFerraduras (Fig. 6). He carries a weapon that is much larger than himself perhaps to indicate thesymbolic importance of the sword. The carving also reflects a cultural stratigraphy in the waysof using and appropriating carved rocks since the individual bearing the sword appears to havebeen carved using a different technique from that of the sword, and may well have been a

subsequent addition a champion or hero sufficiently distinguished to be shown next to such along-lasting symbol of power and prestige as the sword.

the early iron age: the disappearance of the champion

The emergence of the Iron Age in the north-western Iberian Peninsula (the Castrosculture) has, for several decades, been explained as the result of an endogenous and linearevolution from the Late Bronze Age (Calo and Sierra 1983; De la Pea 2003, 11118). Strongsupport for this lies in the fact that the first hillforts in north-west Portugal appeared in the LateBronze Age (Gonzlez Ruibal 20062007, 756; Queiroga 2003, 212). Further, it used to be

that Iron Age society in the area lost its warlike character, and became a peaceful peasant society(Fernndez-Posse and Snchez-Palencia 1998). However, given the cultural continuity and other

Figure 6Warrior with sword. Pedra das Ferraduras. Photo: Manuel Santos Estvez.





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evidence presented in the archaeological record, it is difficult now to sustain the view that IronAge society in north-western Iberia was peaceful (Gonzlez Garca 2006).

The concepts of Bronze Age and IronAge are chronologically defined, based on the dateof appearance of certain traits in material culture. Alternative meanings (either cultural, social orhistorical) have rarely been proposed. Here I will apply them in the conventional way, but a sideeffect of this will be to give them some further significance, in this case following the changesin the social sphere of warfare.

The cultural continuity between the Bronze and Iron Ages does not mean thatcommunities underwent no significant transformations during the transition to the firstmillennium BC; as we will argue below, these were major changes manifested in warfare.

The main break in continuity was the settling of communities and the fortification ofsettlements, with all the inherent social implications (Parcero 2002). This process initiated

considerable changes in the field of warfare. Bradley (1998, 243) has demonstrated thedevelopment of communal defences between the Bronze and IronAges based on the coincidence,at Castrio de Conxo (Santiago de Compostela, A Corua, Spain) (Fig. 7), of petroglyphs withrepresentations of weapons and an Iron Age hillfort. He suggests that in the Bronze Age thepetroglyphs provided symbolic defence for the community while in the Iron Age defence wasmanifest in fortifications.

This transformation is also documented in other parts of Europe, and implies a changein the practice of warfare. In northern Europe the widespread occurrence of spears, swords,shields and fortified settlements seems to indicate that a much more static type of warfaredeveloped, based on confrontations between groups of warriors (Osgood 1998, 81).

It has been argued that this change in tactics and in the practice of warfare may havebeen a result of the influence of Greek fighting strategy using the phalanx (Randsborg 1999,202). This is unlikely, since the tactical changes seen in northern Europe in this period did notinvolve fighting in close formation. The phalanx had profound tactical implications (Hanson1990; Sabin 2000) as well as ideological implications for the Greeks: it was the manifestation inwarfare of the isonomic ideal of the polis (Detienne 1968). Such conditions which accountfor the appearance of closed fighting formations in Greece or Italy did not exist at this timeamong northern European societies. Further, European barbarian peoples did not fight in closeformation (see, for example, the Germans: Thompson 1958, 35). In my view, this theory failsby confusing fighting in a group, or collective, with fighting in close formation. The first type of

combat seems to have been present in most of Europe from the Early Iron Age, while the seconddeveloped only at an early stage in Greece.

Figure 7Castrio de Conxo. Tracing (modified from X.M. Lomba Martnez in Catalogacin 1987, 8990, fig. 10).




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All of this would seem to indicate, therefore, that from this time the predominantstrategy was to carry out incursions into enemy territory with small groups of warriors, insteadof fighting in close formation. In the Iron Age the razzia reappeared, a method that had beenpractised alongside other types of warfare in the Bronze Age (Osgood 1998, 9).

The change in the tactics of warfare between the Bronze and Iron Ages has often beenexplained as being derived from the quest for metals, which would have frequently triggeredfighting expeditions. In fact, this same argument is often used to explain the appearance offortified sites, as locations from where it was possible to dominate and control the routes alongwhich metals were carried. Queiroga (2003, 101) accounts for the origin of fortifications andwarfare during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age in northern Portugal(the point where hillforts first appeared in the north-western Iberian Peninsula) as a consequenceof the close relationship between the first centres of population with defensive structures in thearea and the extraction of metals and metalworking at a local level.

In our study area it is possible to see that during the transition from the Bronze to the

Iron Age there was a transformation in society that was closely linked to its adoption of asedentary lifestyle, and to the importance of collective work in the construction of hillforts. Fromthis moment onwards the archaeological record contains no further evidence for warrior elites,and instead tells of the human collective that inhabited these settlements. This was a newideological construction, which centred on the community and involved a series of changes tomodes of warfare (Gonzlez Ruibal 20062007, 193). This change in social organization wouldexplain the transformation of weaponry, also evident in other parts of Europe. The many longswords seen in the Late Bronze Age disappear and are replaced by daggers, a sign that individualcombat between champions had been abandoned (Gonzlez Ruibal 20062007, 2267). The newtype of warfare was collective, involving the entire group and not just a warrior elite. This

democratization of combat very probably involved greater violence than in the Bronze Agewhen the casualties were restricted to the champions.

We may stress, once again in agreement with Clastres (1988, 221), the contrast betweenthe society with warriors that characterized the north-western Iberian Peninsula during the endof the Bronze Age and the reappearance of a warrior society in the Early Iron Age (Iron I), inthe same area, one in which all of the men are potential warriors, because of a permanent stateof warfare, and they are effective warriors when armed conflict breaks out from time to time. Andit is precisely because all of the men are always prepared for war that it is not possible todifferentiate, amongst the male community, one group that is more warrior-like than the others:the relationship with war is the same for all.

The likelihood of transformation from a warrior society to a society with warriors,and vice versa, has already been considered by Clastres (1988, 222). In order for the firsttransformation to occur it would be necessary for changes to arise, both external (an increase inthe aggressiveness of neighbouring groups, or a weakness in them that favoured their beingattacked), and internal (the exaltation of the warrior ethos). The change from a society withwarriors to a warrior society would occur provided there was a shift in the tribal ethic or in thesocio-political context that moderated the longing for war, or limited its field of application. Inany event, as Clastres states, this path would be the direct consequence of a particular localhistory and ethnography.

This shift from societies with warrior elites to societies without them and vice versa is

similar to the situation that occurred within the social structure of the Kachin from the highlandsof Burma, studied by Leach. In these communities, groups characterized by a gumsa-type





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political system conceived themselves as being governed by chiefs who belonged to a hereditaryaristocracy, in comparison to other groups, gumlao, who rejected this hierarchy (Leach 1976,220). The importance of Leachs study (1976, 30114) lies in having demonstrated thereversibility between these two systems, a situation that seems to have existed in the north-

western Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Bronze Age, during the transition to the Iron Age, andwhich apparently reappeared again at a later stage in this last period.

the late iron age: the return of the champion

This new change is seen in the transition from the Early Iron Age to the Late Iron Age,in particular from the second century BC onwards. During this period, in southern Galicia andnorthern Portugal, large fortified settlements (oppida) emerged, embodying evidence of theexistence of social differences amongst their inhabitants. One of the main characteristics that

symbolized these differences was decoration and sculptures in stone. Gonzlez Ruibal (20062007, 3934) suggests that the presence of decorative motifs in the construction of somedwellings in these large settlements indicates that they were the homes of privileged individuals.This same interpretation may be given to the simultaneous appearance of statues of the so-calledGalaico-Lusitanian warriors (Fig. 8), representations, which were idealized and transformed into

Figure 8

Galaico-Lusitanian warriors. Museu da Sociedade Martins Sarmento (Guimares, Portugal). Photo: Alfredo GonzlezRuibal.




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the deities or heroes, of the aristocratic warrior elite that reappeared in this period (Tranoy 1988,223; Almagro-Gorbea and Lorrio 1989, 418; Silva 2003, 47; Alarco 2003, 116).

Judging by the imagery offered by these statues, it was an elite that considered itself aswarrior-like, and was seen as such by the rest of the population. These elements are surely

indicative of the presence, during the Late Iron Age, of a process of social transformation which,as we saw in the Late Bronze Age, involved a change from warrior societies to societies withwarriors.

This process may also be seen in the northern part of the north-western IberianPeninsula, in the provinces of A Corua and Lugo. Here, however, the appearance of thesearistocratic groups is demonstrated in a different way through gold and silver objects, mainlytorcs and other types of jewellery, which are also present, but to a lesser degree, in the southernregion. This increase in the production of personal ornament at the end of the Iron Age reflectsthe fact that adorning the body appears to have become an obsession for women and men,especially for those belonging to the dominant groups (Gonzlez Ruibal 20062007, 419). The

warrior-like nature of this elite may be deduced from the frequency of discoveries of torcs, anitem closely linked during the European Iron Age to warrior chieftains or divinities (Castro Prez1992; Brun 2002, 47, 523, 56; Olivier 2002, 81; Marco Simn 2002, 6971).

The differences between these two areas of the north-western Iberian Peninsula aresult of the different social organization of the communities in the two zones are also seen inthe different weapons that appear in each region. Compared to the predominance of the curvedfalcata in the southern sector, in the north the predominant weapon was the antennae dagger(Gonzlez Ruibal 20062007, 43540). The interesting point here is that the weaponry of bothareas represents the same method of warfare: hand-to-hand combat following surprise raids bygroups of warriors in enemy territory. This is evidence of the equipment carried by warriors,

reconstructed for this period and region from archaeological finds of weapons (Lpez Cuevillas1947; Gonzlez Ruibal 20062007), information provided by ancient sources (Strabo, Geog. III,3, 6; Diodorus of Sicily, Library V, 34, 5) and the weaponry shown on statues of Galaico-Lusitanian warriors (with additional information provided by Quesada 2003, 1045). All of thismay be dated to between the mid-second century BC and the mid-first century AD dates thatcoincide with the dating established for these statues by Schattner (2004, 489), based on a studyof their stylistic features, of between the fourth and third centuries BC for the oldest examples,and the first century AD for the most recent.

The panoply of these warriors comprised a small circular shield (caetra), a helmet,dagger and a pair of spears, a linen tunic tied at the waist, and decorative elements such as torcs,

bracelets or viriae. Individuals equipped in this way would have belonged to the new warrioraristocracy, since the equipment carried by ordinary fighters, as in the Bronze Age, was muchmore modest.

In the north-western Iberian Peninsula, from the Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age, aprocess involving the appearance and disappearance of warrior elites seems to have existed thatcorresponded to a series of structural transformations occurring within the communities living inthe area. Following Clastres, we may structure this process in this way: during the Bronze Age,societies with warriors appeared, a process which reached its climax in the Late Bronze Age withthe appearance of the warrior champion as the pre-eminent representative of aristocratic groupsspecializing in warfare. During the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age, and particularly

during the first Iron Age, these specialized groups were obscured by the warlike activity ofsocieties that were more egalitarian and which we characterize as warrior societies. Finally,





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during the Late Iron Age, aristocratic groups based on the activity of warfare reappeared, andwith them, the creation of societies with warriors. This means that war and warfare played afundamental role in the social configuration of human groups during the later prehistory of thenorth-western Iberian Peninsula.

individual combat: warfare and social configuration

By way of conclusion, I would like to clarify a series of issues related to individualcombat and the mainstream interpretation offered for this type of warfare, based on the analysisof the archaeological record. It is necessary to place the archaeological data within the culturalcontext to which they correspond. Here I am referring to the attempt to interpret the record interms of Indo-European ideology, as proposed some time ago by Parcero (1997, 38) for the IronAge, and which could be dated back to the Late Bronze Age, on the basis of linguistic clues thatmight suggest that these regions were occupied by Indo-Europeans at an earlier date (Moralejo

2006, 21821).In the north-western Iberian Peninsula, we find types of combat that were typical of the

Indo-European cultural sphere: on the one hand, types of communal combat, such as the razzia,aimed at obtaining booty, mainly livestock, and which is referred to extensively in the Indo-European myths concerning the raid in search of livestock (Lincoln 1991, 11756); on the other,the appearance of warrior elites and the subsequent development of the ideological importanceof warfare (Dumzil 1990), with the appearance of individual combat, as duels betweenchampions. This type of combat is seen in mythical epic traditions and historical sources (Blaive1991; 1993) in many Indo-European populations, such as the Greeks (in Homer: Van Wees 1988;1992; 1994; Archaic Period: Fernndez Nieto 1975), the Romans (Oakley 1985; Lendon 2006,

2312), the Celts (Brunaux 2004, 634; Rawlings 1996, 869) or the Germans (Osgood 1998,823; Kristiansen 2002, 329).

However, individual combat does not represent a total transformation of previous formsof warfare. The development of this type of combat did not cause the disappearance of othertypes of warlike practices, such as raids. I believe that the Greek instance is a perfect example ofthis situation; in Homeric society and in Archaic Greece, individual combat was a resource usedto resolve conflicts between groups or communities (Fernndez Nieto 1975, 3769). It served asa substitute for a battle (Van Wees 1992, 2001), a way of minimizing the possibly disastrousconsequences of warfare, or of a duel that occurred during a war.

However, in contrast to the implications of the Greek case, individual combat did not

become a mere replacement for war or a battle, as argued by Blaive (1991, 110; 1993, 578) indefending the arbitrary nature of these duels. Meulder (1996, 99) has indicated that amongst theIndo-Europeans, combat between champions served many other purposes, such as a prelude toa more generalized confrontation, or as a preview of the results of a battle. In fact, in the case ofCeltic Hispania, we have literary testimonies to the practice of individual combat (ValeriusMaximus III, 2, 21; Apianus, Iber. LIIILIV; Polybius XXXV, 5) which co-existed alongsideother types of combat, demonstrating that the duel is a bloody game, but not war itself (SopeaGenzor 1995, 120).

This practice exists in other cultural contexts, and often serves to minimize the lossescaused by a more generalized conflict. Amongst theYanomam of the Amazon basin, individual

combat is characterized as offering an alternative to death, and is governed by a series of strictrules to ensure that damage is kept to a minimum (Chagnon 2006, 322). Solutions of this kind




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include types of individual combat or ritual warfare seen in very different cultural spheres, suchas the flowery wars of the Aztecs (hand-to-hand combat between a minimum number ofcombatants representing each side: Hassig 1992, 86; Hicks 1979), the duels based on fist andcudgel fights of the Yanomam (Chagnon 2006, 31219, 3228) or the individual combat

between the great Baruya warriors of Papua New Guinea (Godelier 1986, 1301).The practice of individual combat, amongst the Indo-Europeans or in other cultural

areas, is usually linked with societies that were characterized by the predominance of a warlikeethic and ideology and monopolized by a warrior elite, which used them as a mechanism to gainprestige. Amongst the Yanomam, individual combat allows the men to demonstrate their statusas warriors, as fiercemen (waiteri), a role that culminates when they are able to prove that theyhave made a kill, giving them entry to the unokai group (men who have killed), and whothereafter have more opportunities of finding a wife and achieving greater prestige (Chagnon2006, 357). Amongst the Baruya, this type of combat identified the aulatta (great warriors),armed with a head-splitting cudgel, who challenged the enemy face to face, obtaining prestige,

renown, glory and admiration in their group and amongst their neighbours and rivals (Godelier1986, 1317). Within the Indo-European area, we may refer to the example of the Romans. InRome, individual combat was the means by which young aristocrats achieved uirtus, thetypically masculine quality of military bravery (Lendon 2006, 236); the desire by young men toexceed the uirtus of their equals led them to seek individual combat, a type of behaviour we mayconsider as typically Roman (Wiedemann 1996, 978).

These represent a series of values that are reminiscent of the same structures we mayperceive on analysing the archaeological record and which, judging by the study of the epic herodescribed by Miller (2000, 21516), are a typical feature of Indo-European populations, withhand-to-hand combat with an opponent as one of the ways that allowed a male to gain prestige.

All of this indicates that individual combat represents a type of society which, according to thetypology defined by Clastres, we may define as a society with warriors.

Comparisons with other Indo-European areas, such as the Roman Empire, also allow usto reject the idea that warfare conducted in close formation was practised in the north-westernIberian Peninsula, either in the Late Bronze Age, or in the Iron Age. The case of Rome revealsthe opposition that exists between the practice of individual combat and fighting in closeformation. In this instance, it is important to consider the information offered, amongst otherancient sources, by Livy on the different consequences for Titus Manlius Torquatus and his sonTitus Manlius of their respective individual combats. While the first, as a result of his individualcombat with a Gaul in 367 or 361 BC, led to his being showered with fame and prestige, adopting

the cognomen oftorquatus in memory of the torc he captured from his defeated enemy (T. Liv.VII, 10.114), the second was condemned to death by his father for breaking ranks to challengeGeminus Maecius to a duel (T. Liv. VIII, 7.122). Leaving to one side the historical veracity ofthese tales, what stands out is that, according to Roman logic, individual combat was rejected infavour of fighting as a formation of legionaries. This comparison, together with the data derivedfrom the archaeological record of the north-western Iberian Peninsula, which we have analysedand which indicates an alternation and survival amongst types of combat based on personalchallenges between champions and raids by groups of warriors in enemy territory, allows us tosuggest that combat in close formation never played a role in the tactics of warfare in societiesfrom recent prehistory in the north-western Iberian Peninsula.

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It seems clear, therefore, that the populations in the north-western Iberian Peninsulawere characterized, from the Bronze Age and throughout the entire Iron Age, as possessinga distinctively warlike character. However, this characterization is too generic, and is opento greater clarification. The concepts coined by Clastres of warrior societies or societies

with warriors are useful for characterizing the different stages of the social history of theperiod in question. The first stage, the Late Bronze Age, would correspond to a societywith warriors, followed in the Early Iron Age by a warrior society, whose transformationthroughout the Late Iron Age would lead to the renaissance of a society with warriors. Thissocial process was interrupted by the Roman conquest, completed during the reign ofAugustus. A complement to this research is the proper evaluation of the social role ofindividual combat, characteristic of societies with warriors, which supplements the previousdiachronic analysis.

Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

Laboratorio de Patrimonio, Paleoambiente y PaisaxeEdificio Monte da CondesaCampus Universitario Sur

E15782 Santiago de CompostelaSPAIN

e-mail: [email protected]

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