Citânia de Briteiros

The Citânia de Briteiros is an archaeological site of the Castro culture important for its size, 'urban' form and developed architecture. Although primarily known as the remains of an Iron Age proto-urban hill fort (or oppidum), the excavations at the site have revealed evidence of sequential settlement, extending from the Bronze to Middle Ages.

The site was probably constructed between the first and second century BCE. 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.

Sometime in the first century AD the settlement was occupied by Roman settlers. Expansion of the Roman Empire into the region has left evidence in the oppidum at Briteiros, in the form of coins ranging from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE. A small number of amphorae and red pottery pieces have been found, and there is some evidence of Romanization in the architecture of the alleys and buildings of the eastern slope, but overall the visible impact of Roman occupiers is not strong. The reduced number of later coin and pottery finds suggests that occupation of the oppidum was declining from the 1st century CE, resulting in the 2nd century with very few people living within the ramparts. Evidence shows that there was a transitory reoccupation in the High Middle Ages, which included the building of a medieval chapel and graveyard on the acropolis.

Architecture

The visible ruins of the walled village or hill fort includes a plan of great dimensions with four lines of walls and approximately oval shape. The main platform covers 250 by 150 metres area, following along two principal axis. The defensive ramparts includes a partially maintained fourth line to the north and a pair of moats. The preserved walls measure 1–3 metres thick and less than 2 metres high.

Around 100 residential compounds were found in this area, grouped into small blocks divided by several streets. 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. Assuming around 6 people per family unit, a population of the acropolis of around 625 people has been estimated, 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. 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.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

Guimarães, Portugal

Details

Founded: 100-0 BCE
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Portugal