Tapalpa Plateau Part 1 of 6: The Magic Pueblo of Tapalpa

Attractive two-story structures form the borders of the Plaza. The Meseta de Tapalpa (Tapalpa Plateau) is heavily forested. Much of the architecture of Tapalpa, its chief town, incorporates pillars and balconies made from local wood. The ground floors of the structures around the Plaza Principal are mostly occupied by tiendas (shops) selling local crafts. The upper floors are usually filled with restaurants that overlook the Plaza. 

Tapalpa is one of Mexico's 132 Magic Pueblos. These are places that have maintained their original architecture, traditions, history, and culture and are filled with symbolism and legends. Tapalpa fills the bill in all these categories and is one of my favorite destinations for a day-trip. Of the 132 Magic Pueblos, Carole and I have visited just over 40. Ajijic, the pueblo where we live, made the list not long ago. This posting is the first of a six part series.

Google map of the route to Tapalpa from Lake Chapala. The pueblo is to the southwest of Lake Chapala in the middle of a high plateau (see red marker). The plateau's east side is a steep escarpment that rises 610m (2000ft) from some shallow lakes running north to south. Near the edge of the plateau where the road reaches the lip of the escarpment, there is hang-gliding site with spectacular views. For an interactive Google map of this area, click here.

Of the three ways to reach Tapalpa, the fastest is along the 54D Autopista (toll road). Exit at Atoyac to cross one of the lakes and then make a left on Highway 401 to the turnoff on Highway 436 to Tapalpa. A slower way, but still scenic, is to take Highway 401 (the "free road") from Acatlán de Juarez along the base of the escarpment to the Tapalpa turnoff. A third (also scenic) way is to take 401, then turn onto Highway 437 about 16km (10mi) south of Acatlán.

View to the east along Calle Morelos. The shops of the first photograph of this posting were behind me when I took this shot. Calle Morelos is named after a national hero, José Maria Morelos. He led the insurgent forces in the War of Independence after Miguel Hidalgo was captured and executed. This calle (street) is typical of those in Tapalpa's Centro area.

Like many other Magic Pueblos, the Centro is painted in two tones, white and rusty brown. Tapalpa's narrow, winding, cobblestone streets add to the antique flavor of the place. Unfortunately, the narrowness of the streets and the increase in car ownership in Mexico sometimes means bumper-to-bumper traffic on weekends and holidays and parking can be problematic.

The arcade along Calle Raul Quintero borders the Plaza. Raul Quintero was born in Tapalpa in 1900 and became a noted poet, prose writer and essayist. He had a very sensitive soul but his life was hard and poor and he died of tuberculosis at only 34.  

Strollers along the arcade will find various tourist-oriented shops. La Villa Tapalpa Restaurant stands at the far end, with tables that fill the walkway overlooking the Plaza and Calle Matamoros. I enjoyed a delicious cup of café de olla at one of its tables during my second visit to Tapalpa. The clock tower in the distance is part of the Ayuntamiento (City Hall). 

Like most plazas in Mexico, Tapalpa's has a bandstand called a kiosco. Some kiosco's are quite elaborate, but most follow the same basic design. This one is fairly simple and uses wood for its columns and ceiling. The trees that surround the kiosco provide shade for the wooden benches that circle it.

The Ayuntamiento and its clocktower. Tapalpa's City Hall stands at the corner of a calle named for Agustín Yáñez. He was Jalisco's Governor from 1953-59 and national Secretary of Education between 1964-70. Yáñez was also a writer, novelist, and teacher. I have always been impressed by how Mexico honors its writers, poets, and artists and sometimes selects them to serve in important political posts.

The south side of the Plaza, looking toward the clock tower. The calle along here is called Matamoros, in honor of Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moorslayer). As with the rest of the Plaza, the ground floor along this street is filled with tiendas crammed with tourist nicknacks. It also contains the Hotel Casa de Maty, where I stayed with a group of friends several years ago. The 2nd floor contains a string of restaurants and bars with an excellent view of the Plaza.

The arcade and wooden portales along Calle Matamoros. A sign in the foreground points to El Mirador (The Lookout) a restaurant-bar above Hotel Casa de Maty. The restaurant can be accessed from a staircase in the lobby of the hotel. I have eaten here several times, including during this visit. The restaurant is clean, airy, and has reasonably-priced food and good service. 

The bar at El Mirador contains a bewildering variety of tequilas. In fact, drink menus in Mexico will usually list far more tequila brands than any other liquor, wine, or beer. The other drinks are almost an afterthought. Tequila was originally created on the 18th century haciendas near the town of Tequila, Jalisco. Some brands, like José Cuervo, Orendain, and Sauza still carry the family names of the original haciendas owners. 

Tequila is distilled from the juice of the crushed hearts of Blue Agave plants. Not only are there countless individual brands, but there are also three basic types of tequila: Blanco, Reposado, and Añejo. The difference depends upon the aging process. Blanco is colorless and is barely aged, if at all. Reposado is golden and has been aged for 2-12 months. Amber-colored Añejo is aged for at least 12 months.

There are also two variations: Joven, which is a mixture of Blanco and Reposado and Extra Añejo which has been aged up to three years. Blanco is the type usually found in mixed tequila drinks, such as a margarita, while Reposado and Añejo are usually consumed straight. Añejo is usually considered to be of the highest quality, no matter the brand, and is always the most expensive.

Food stalls along the north side of Calle Matamoros. This string of inexpensive eateries is called Portal del Taco. The stalls run along the north side of the street below Templo Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. In towns like Tapalpa, sit-down restaurants are largely for tourists or up-scale residents. Locals tend to patronize the less expensive food stalls and food carts. Street food can be quite tasty, but some places pay more attention to sanitation than others. 

If there is a large group patronizing a particular stall or cart, that's a good tip-off that it's probably OK. The locals know from experience which are safer to patronize. Be wary if the person who prepares the food is also the one who handles the money. There is nothing more unsanitary than money, because it passes through so many hands. With those cautions in mind, eat hearty!

A set of stairs leads up from the broad plaza. Ground floor tiendas line either side, with restaurants above them. When I first visited Tapalpa, I had a nice meal at the corner table of the restaurant just above the man in the green shirt. The building to the right of the restaurant is the same one shown in the first photo of this posting.

Since Tapalpa is built on the side of a hill, the town is not laid out in the usual Spanish grid pattern. The plaza and the surrounding streets conform to the terrain, so the streets may wind, curve and intersect in sometimes unexpected ways. Still, it is a great walking town, and not that big, so getting a bit lost can be fun.

View from the top of the plaza's staircase. Calle Matamoros and the Restaurant-Bar El Mirador can be seen at the bottom of the staircase. The streamers above the fountain and staircase were hung during a recent fiesta celebration.

To the left and slightly above the plaza are two churches. The one on the right is Templo San Antonio de Padua, built in the 17th century. It is now a museum containing religious artifacts from the 17th and 18th centuries. On the left is Templo de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, built in the 20th century. In subsequent postings, I will show more of these churches as well as the 16th century Capilla la Purisima, built only a few years after the first conquistadors arrived in the area.

This completes Part 1 of my Tapalpa Plateau series. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question in the Comments section, please include your email address so that I can respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

 

Barcelona Part 7: Life in the Late Bronze Age

Late Bronze Age hill fort. In Iberia, defensive structures on hills had been around since Los Millares, during the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) and El Argar of the Early Bronze Age (see Parts 4 & 5). However, those early fortified towns were more the exception than the rule. As militarization and warfare dramatically increased during the Late Bronze Age (see Part 6), so did protective fortifications.

All over Europe, including Iberia, people began to build distinctive structures that archeologists call "hill forts". They were usually--but not always--built on top of hills or ridges. The fortifications included one or more ditches which were sometimes circular or oval, but generally followed the contours of the top of the hill. The inside banks of the ditches rose to high walls topped by wooden palisades. Usually there was only one entrance, with a very strong gate.

In this posting, I'll give you a look at these fortified communities, the houses they contained, and the way in which people lived. In addition, I'll provide some insight into the role of women, including some surprising new information about how women traveled much more than men and how this may have made them the conduits for broad cultural changes. 

Drawing of a typical fortification. The builders used wood beams to form containers filled with rocks to create a barrier on top of the embankment. Defenders could stand on the ledge created behind the wood barrier at the top. While many of the hill forts were relatively small, some were as large as 6km (3.7m) across. Their positions at the tops of hills and ridges provided commanding views of the surrounding countryside and would have made them difficult to attack.

Recently, archeologists have begun to question whether all hill forts were built for defensive purposes. In some cases, no evidence has been found of any structures inside the embankments. This suggests that those "hill forts" may have been used to pen animals. In other cases, the artifacts found indicate that particular sites may have been used for markets and as production sites for bronze. 

Bronze Age Hoards

Flanged axeheads found in a large hoard in Catalonia. These may have been cast as ingots for trade. They would have been used by purchasers to melt down for casting into other useful objects. One activity that occurred in many hill forts was the production of bronze. While copper could be mined locally in Catalonia, the tin alloy had to be imported from western Spain or even as far north as the Cornish coast of Britain.

Bronze disks called tutuli were used for necklaces and pendants. The above objects were contained in the same hoard as the flanged axeheads. During the Early Bronze Age, much of the bronze produced would have initially been used for tools, weapons, and other practical gear. By the time of the Late Bronze Age, the metal was being produced in such quantity that it could be used for less practical purposes, including jewelry.

Collection of bronze bracelets from the same hoard. As noted in Part 4, the bronze hoards usually contain large numbers of objects of a similar type. For some, this suggests storage by metal workers who planned to return to their cache for supplies. Other hoards, particularly those found in bogs or rivers, are believed to have been buried as sacrificial offerings. Still others may have been secretly buried to protect valuable objects from raiding parties.

Bronze Age homes

Scale model of a village during the Late Bronze Age. Rectangular buildings started to replace round structures in Urnfield villages in central Europe. This style began to reach Iberia during the Late Bronze Age, but roundhouses also continued in use all through the Iron Age right up to the Roman invasion. Although the shapes may have changed, the construction materials largely remained the same: walls of wattle and daub or stone, with thatched roofs.

A family socializes around a central fire while waiting for dinner. The patriarch and his wife, distinguished by their grey hair, sit at opposite ends of the group. They are surrounded by younger people of various ages, including small children. By the Late Bronze Age, cloth had largely supplanted leather for clothing. Linen, made from locally grown flax, was widely used. In colder areas, garments woven from sheep's wool would have been popular.  

Reconstruction of a bronze age house. The fire pit in the floor would have served both for cooking and heat. The meats cooked on a grill like this would have included beef, pork, goat, and mutton. Leather from hides can be seen drying on the wall. It would have been used for belts, shoes, ropes, and various tools.

A kitchen pantry. Non-meat foods included those made from wheat, barley, millet, rye, and oats. Other foods were beans, peas, poppy seeds (used for oil or as a drug), hazel nuts, apples, pears, and acorns. Since Catalonia has a long sea coast, at least some seafood would have been consumed.

Beehive-style ovens like this are still used around the world.  I often seem them in my travels around Mexico. The remains of leavened bread left as offerings have been found in some Urnfield sites. The pottery on the shelf is unadorned, as was typical of Urnfield ceramics. 

Women of the Bronze Age

Woman of the Urnfields Culture. She wears a woolen robe over her linen blouse and leather shoes on her feet. A necklace made from bronze tutuli disks circles her neck. These disks are quite similar to those from those in the hoard shown in a previous photo. 

The contents of graves indicate that both men and women wore bronze jewelry, including arm bands and pins to hold their robes and cloaks together. Daggers were also found in both men's and women's graves. However, men's graves tended to contain razors and swords, while those of women contained large belt plates or buckles.

This bright copper bracelet once adorned an Urnfield woman. Tests on the remains of Bronze Age women, including DNA and tooth enamel, have shown some surprising results. As young adults, many of the women had traveled considerable distances from their places of origin before they settled in the communities where they were buried. By contrast, tests of male remains from those same communities showed little evidence of travel.

Further, the women did not come in groups, all from the same location, as they might if they had been captured in a war or a kidnapping raid. Instead, they arrived individually from multiple locations. When they were buried, these foreign women were treated no differently than local women, indicating that they were not slaves but had been accepted as equals by the community. 

Items of feminine decor included elaborate belt buckles. In most cultures, women raise the children. This makes them the most important transmitters of culture. All these foreign women arriving from various locations brought new ideas and new technologies. The result was much more rapid cultural change than had occurred in previous eras when people rarely traveled far from home.

A lot of this traveling was enabled by the extensive trade networks that had developed during the Bronze Age. One of the most important items of trade was the tin ore that was necessary to alloy with copper to make bronze. Many other goods were transported as well, including wine, oil, textiles and luxury objects such as jewelry. 

 

Various pins used by women to secure their hair or clothing. The Late Bronze Age cultures of Europe did not reach the cultural peaks of those to be found in the eastern Mediterranean such as the Minoans of Crete, the Mycenaens Greece, the Hittites of Anatolia or the Egyptians. Even so, the Europeans of this time were skilled metal workers and produced many beautiful artifacts of gold, silver, copper and bronze.

This completes Part 7 of my Barcelona series. I hope you found it interesting and, if so, you will leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

Barcelona Part 6: The culture of warfare of Europe's Late Bronze Age

The mysterious Battle of the Tollense Valley. Above, an artist has depicted the wild and brutal combat which occurred during this bloody encounter. A man on the left lies dead or dying from a spear in his stomach. In the upper left, archers shoot their arrows into a mass of flailing warriors. On the right, a mounted man charges into the fray as dead or dying fighters tumble into the river. The previously unknown battle occurred sometime between 1300 and 1200 BC. 

Bones, weapons, and other artifacts from this Late Bronze Age site were discovered in 1996 in the remote Tollense Valley of northern Germany. Studies of the remains indicate that the battle may have involved as many as 5,000 combatants, with as many as 1,000 of them left dead. Its scale stunned archeologists, who had previously believed that no conflict of this size had occurred in Europe during that period.

It has become clear, however, that the Late Bronze Age was a time of ever-increasing militarization and warfare. During the same period as the Tollense Valley battle, Catalonia was invaded and conquered by people from the same culture who used similar weapons, tactics, and levels of ferocity. At the end of this posting, I will provide some of the fascinating details about the Tollense Valley Battle to illustrate how this may have played out in northeast Iberia.

The Urnfield Culture of warrior aristocrats 

The Late Bronze Age in Europe. At its greatest extent, the Urnfields culture stretched from the Balkans to eastern France and from the Netherlands to Italy and parts of Sicily. Archeologists consider the Urnfields people to be an early version of the Celts, whom they call Proto-Celts. Sometime between 1300 and 1200 BC, warriors from the Urnfield Culture invaded and conquered Catalonia. Although successful, they did not gain much ground in the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. 

During the same period, people of the Atlantic Bronze Age dominated the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula all the way up into Britain. Most of Scandinavia was occupied by people of the Nordic Bronze Age culture. Since the Tollense Valley lies very near the Urnfields-Nordic border, the battle may have involved a clash between these two different cultures. However, the identity of the combatants, the exact circumstances of the battle, and the reasons for it are still a mystery.

The Urnfields people are named for their burial practices. Inhumation (burial of bodies) was the standard practice of the Neolithic (New Stone Age), and Chalcolithic (Copper Age) people, as well as the Yamnaya pastoralists from the steppes who conquered them. The Urnfields Culture  broke with this long tradition by practicing cremation. The ashes, mostly from single individuals, were placed in urns and buried in pits, as seen above. Some Urnfields cemeteries contained hundreds of separately buried urns.

The Urnfields culture first arose in central Europe around 1800 BC. It was the successor of earlier cultures which had themselves developed as a result of the Yamnaya conquest. The Urnfields people were organized in tribes led by chiefs and war leaders and were aggressive and prone to raiding. They lived in fortified settlements and were thoroughly familiar with the military technology of their time, including the manufacture and use of bronze weapons and armor.

The rise of the Urnfields culture in central Europe coincided with the collapse of Bronze Age civilizations such as the Minoans of Crete, the Mycenaeans of Greece, and the Hittites of Anatolia. The Egyptian New Kingdom and the Assyrians were weakened but not destroyed. 

It is not clear what role Europe's Bronze Age cultures may have played in the collapse of these civilizations. 

It is possible that some of the mysterious "Sea People" who invaded the eastern Mediterranean during the collapse may have included mercenaries and free-lancers from the European Bronze Age cultures such as the Urnfields. 

Weapons and armor

An armed and armored Urnfields warrior-aristocrat. A man equipped like this would have been the leader of a war band, or even of a small army. While the bronze tipped spear and bronze sword would have been widely available to ordinary fighters, his bronze armor sets him apart as a man of wealth and fighting prowess. In other words, an early aristocrat. These items include his crested helmet, cuirass (torso armor), shield, and greaves (shin protectors). 

Bronze swords, spear tips, and daggers have often been found in Urnfields' grave sites. However, bronze armor (except for greaves) is rarely found there. Shields, cuirasses, and helmets are typically found in "hoards" that have been deliberately buried, either to protect them from theft or to store them for future use. Others were sunk as ritual offerings in bogs. The creation of bronze armor was technically difficult and expensive, so most of it was likely inherited or otherwise re-used. 

Metal workers casting bronze swords. Increasingly, bronze technology was directed toward its use in warfare. Above, several men work at different stages making swords. The casting process included pouring molten metal into a shaped cavity called a mold. The two men on the right are preparing to cast a sword, while the man in the foreground checks the quality of the sword he has just removed from the mold at his feet.  

Scattered around them are the broken remnants of swords and other bronze items. These bits and pieces, possibly recovered from a previously buried hoard, will be melted down and the metal re-used to make new weapons. The outline of the sword in the mold has a U-shaped device on the hilt, revealing it to be an "antenna sword", a term created by archeologists because of the resemblance to antennas used on old fashioned radios and TVs.

An antenna sword in Barcelona's Monjuic Archeological Museum. Antenna swords first appeared in Iberia and elsewhere in the western Mediterranean around the 1000 BC. The sword above would have been lethal in combat, with honed edges on either side of the blade for slashing and a sharp point for stabbing. It would likely have been carried by a mounted warrior-aristocrat. 

Bronze swords first came into use in Minoan Crete around 1700 BC. Previous to the development of swords, the weapons used for stabbing and slashing were daggers of various sizes, made from stone, copper, or bronze. By the Late Bronze Age (1500-1100 BC) bronze swords were widely available, even to the average farmer. In Denmark alone, around 20,000 swords have been recovered in grave sites from this period. The total in circulation must have been much higher.

 

Bronze spear points. These have hollow sockets where wooden shafts could be inserted. A bolt would then be driven through the hole in the side of the hollow end to secure the point. Although spears as weapons date back to Paleolithic times, bronze spear points didn't appear until about 1800 BC, a century before swords. Such points were smaller, simpler, and cheaper to make than swords. Free farmers could easily afford one or more spear points and could make their own wooden shafts.

Mycenaean pottery paintings of this era show that the average foot soldier carried two spears, which makes considerable sense. If he threw, broke, or otherwise lost his only spear, he would be defenseless. The second spear could keep an opponent at bay, particularly if the antagonist was armed with a sword or other weapon shorter than a spear. Shafts from Late Bronze age spears are scarce but those found measured 1.43m (4'8"). 

Bronze Urnfield helmet. The high crest and other decorative elements mark this helmet as the property of a leader or chief. Even the warrior-aristocrat shown in the earlier photo wears a simpler helmet than this one. In the confused swirl of battle, it was important for the combatants to be able to quickly and easily identify their leaders. Distinctive headgear for such men has been found in cave paintings as far back as the Neolithic period.

Urnfield helmets were made in two halves, shaped to fit a head. They were then connected by crimping along the edges of the crest. The areas below the crest in the front and back were connected with plates and rivets. The purpose of the rods extending to the front and rear is not clear, but may simply be decorative. On the side of the helmet, near the bottom, there are three small holes for attaching a strap under the wearer's chin.

Bronze cuirass, or body armor for the torso. This sort of armor first appears around 1500 BC. The Urnfields warriors may have adopted bronze torso armor from contact with the Mycenaean Greeks around 1300 BC. Cuirasses like this show a high level of craftsmanship and it is probable that only high-ranking individuals would have been able to afford them. 

It is possible that a lower ranking fighter might have obtained one by stripping it from the body of a dead enemy chieftain. However, war leaders generally claimed the best of the loot, so it might have been difficult for him to hang on to a cuirass in those circumstances, even if he was the one who killed the original owner.

Cuirasses were carefully hammered to give them the shape of a human torso, including male nipples and a groove for the spine in the back. They were made in two pieces (front and back) which were connected at the sides by rivets and hooks. The armor was worn over a wool or leather jacket to cushion the metal and provide warmth.

Bronze shields were for protection but also acted as a symbol of  rank. Less than 100 Late Bronze Age shields have survived, including some from the Urnfields period. Most were found in hoards or sunk in bogs. For a time, some archeologists believed that shields from this period were primarily for ritual display rather than actual use in combat. Since Tollense, bronze shields have been closely re-examined for so-called "wear", a euphemism for combat damage.

These inspections revealed holes shaped like spear points, dents that could only have been made by sword blows, and other possible damage from arrows. Some shields were intact, meaning that they may have been used for ritual display or that the carrier was a leader who was directing, but not personally participating in, the combat. Because the shields are rarely found in graves, they may not have been personal property, but communally-owned badges of rank.  

The round or slightly oval-shaped shields average 60-70cm (2-2.3ft) in diameter and 1.5k (3.3lbs). A bronze disk of about 20cm (0.65ft) was first cast, then expanded in size through hammering and annealing. The outside edges were often crimped over wire for extra strength against sword blows.  In the final stage, decorations were added. This long and technically difficult process was expensive, so common fighters carried shields of wood and hardened leather.

Late Bronze Age Combat

The Tollense clash may have focused on control of a causeway. A mounted warrior brandishes his bronze sword as he charges into a surging mass of foot soldiers. Several fighters lie dead from arrows on the bridge. One archer at the center right takes aim at a warrior on horseback at the far end of the bridge. On the hilltop, mounted figures survey the ongoing mayhem. One of them may be a chief, very possibly wearing his crested helmet, with the shield denoting his rank slung over his shoulder.

Surveys of the Tollense battle site have disclosed the remnants of a wood and stone causeway leading across the river. The causeway had originally been built 500 years previously, but repairs and improvements were contemporary with the battle. One scenario is that local fighters were attempting to defend their territory from an invading army by using the causeway as a chokepoint.

Another theory suggests that one group was a trading caravan from the Nordic Bronze Age area, guarded by mercenary warriors. The other may have been an Urnfields army sent to seize it by chieftains who wanted to control the route. Causeways such as the one at Tollense were important to the European trade networks. These included the Baltic amber route which carried amber for jewelry to southern Europe and Iberia, passing through this area along the way.

Flint arrowhead embedded in an arm bone. A young man passing by found this artifact protruding from the riverbank in 1996. The discovery set off archeological investigations that have continued ever since. The arrowhead shows that even during the Late Bronze Age, stone weapons were still in use and could be lethal. In the artist's portrayal, the archer firing at the mounted warrior may be the one who shot this arrow, since the arrowhead's trajectory was upward. 

The causeway lies upstream from the mass of skeletons, suggesting that dead or dying fighters may have fallen into the river and floated downstream. Another possibility is that, after the dead combatants of the defeated army were stripped of items of value, their bodies were simply thrown into the water. In either case, the bodies floated downstream to a river bend where they piled up and were gradually covered over by silt.

The bones of at least 140 individuals have been found at the site. 

Before deciding that this was a battle site, archeologists first had to discount a possible cemetery or a site of human sacrifice. As the bones were analyzed, it became clear that the vast majority were from males of prime fighting age (between 20 and 40). A handful of women and children were also present, but they may have been camp followers. Together, the gender, age range, and random distribution of the bones rule out a cemetery.

Bronze Age sacrifices were usually small in scale and very ritualized. The bones at Tollense are from a very large number of people and there is no indication of ritual behavior. The damage was inflicted by a variety of weapons, including sword cuts on bones and bronze arrowheads stuck in skulls. Most bones show no healing, indicating that death occurred the same day. The few long-healed wounds suggest experienced soldiers who had survived other engagements before falling in this one. 

The dead may have totaled as many as 1000 out of a possible 5000+ combatants. However, only about 5% of the potential battle area has been excavated so far. The winning side would probably have honored their fallen fighters properly, according to their culture. The Urnfields warriors, for example, would have cremated their dead and buried the ashes. Therefore the actual number of dead and the overall number of combatants may be even higher than the bones indicate.

So, who were these people? DNA from a selection of the bones shows that they were largely from the central European areas like southern Germany, Poland, and Hungary. This was far from the Tollense Valley, but it was the heartland of the Urnfields culture. Their tooth enamel also shows that they ate millet, which was not grown in the area of the battle but was cultivated in central Europe. Interestingly, a few came from the Baltic area, France and even the Iberian Peninsula. 

This completes my Part 6 of my Barcelona series. I hope you enjoyed it and, if so, you will leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below. If you leave a question, please include your email so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim

 

Barcelona Part 5: The Early Bronze Age in Catalonia

Warriors gather in an Early Bronze age village. This scene captures life in Catalonia about 4000 years ago. While one warrior chats with a family, a metal worker prepares to pour molten bronze into molds. Another worker hammers the cooled axe heads into final shape. The warriors may be local men setting out on a mission or a passing detachment pausing to re-supply and catch up on the news. 

Warrior detachments often provided protection to merchant-traders who brought goods from as far away as the Baltic Coast or the Eastern Mediterranean. The men above are armed with bronze swords and spears tipped with bronze. They possess no protective armor other than simple bronze helmets and shields of hardened leather with bronze fittings.

Map of Iberian Peninsula during the Early Bronze Age. The Iberian Peninsula was usually one of the last areas of Europe to be reached by migrations and new pre-historic technologies. Copper was alloyed with arsenic to produce bronze in the Middle East as early as 7000 years ago. However, on the Peninsula, the Bronze Age  began about 4200 years ago at El Argar , one of Europe's first state-level civilizations (see map). Bronze came to northeastern Iberia and Catalonia even later.

During this period, the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic (Copper Age) culture continued in Catalonia. The Bell Beaker phenomenon, which occurred late in the Chalcolithic period (see Part 4), is noted for its high quality copper and ceramic goods. However, little in the way of bronze was produced in Catalonia during this period and only on a small scale at scattered locations. Most bronze in use arrived through trade networks

One reason for the slow start of Catalonia's Bronze Age was the limited availability of tin. The discovery that tin was a much better alloy than arsenic led to more and better bronze, but tin was much more difficult to obtain. A look at the map above shows that most of the Iberian Peninsula's tin mines were located in the northwest, with only a handful in other areas and none in Catalonia.

The Bell Beaker/Steppe Culture in Catalonia

Ceramic pot in the Bell Beaker style. The pots were used for a wide variety of purposes, including as crucibles to melt metals such as copper, gold, and silver. These ceramics, as well as other features of the Bell Beaker phenomenon, were first produced for the elites in the Iberian Peninsula. They then spread through trade networks to other cultural elites in western and central Europe. 

About 4500 years ago, just as the Bell Beaker phenomenon reached central Europe, the great migration of pastoralists from Eurasian steppes called the Yamnaya also reached that area (see Part 4). The high quality Bell Beaker artifacts and corresponding cultural ideas were quickly adopted by the newcomers. This probably helped them in their subsequent conquest of Europe's Neolithic/Chalcolithic cultures. 

Yamnaya is Russian for "People of the pit burials". The Neolithic/Chalcolithic people had buried their dead in large communal barrows for thousands of years, reflecting their egalitarian heritage. By contrast, the pastoralists from the steppes, called the Yamnaya, usually buried their dead individually in stone lined pits called cists, and then covered these with mounds called kurgans. This method reflected the Yamnaya social hierarchy, based on chieftainship, patriarchy, and their concepts of personal property.  

A striking feature of the Yamnaya was their great mobility and the key to this was their invention of wheeled vehicles. Their wagons were valued so highly that they were sometimes buried in kurgans with their owners. Mobility and a warlike attitude enabled them to rapidly take over the societies they encountered. This profound transformation can be seen in the Proto-Indo-European language the Yamnaya spoke, which became the basis for most modern European languages. 

Over the centuries, waves of Yamnaya migrated into Europe, spearheaded by groups of young men who were seeking their fortunes in new areas. They mated with Neolithic/Chalcolithic women, to the detriment of Neolithic/Chalcolithic men whose DNA disappears from the genetic record in many areas at about the same time. All this led to dramatic cultural changes in many areas of Europe. However, as usual, such changes arrived much later in the Iberian Peninsula.

Daily life

Roundhouses were typical of many Early Bronze Age villages. The walls of roundhouses were a combination of wooden strips woven together and covered with mud. This method of construction is called "wattle and daub". The roofs were of thatched materials supported by wood poles. The large open room was heated by a fire pit in the center, where cooking activities also occurred. There was no chimney, since the smoke would filter out through the thatched materials. 

The roundhouses provided both living and working areas for the multi-generational families who inhabited them. Weaving, potting, jewelry-making and other individual crafts would have been conducted inside, possibly by the light of the central fire. 

Finely crafted shell necklace. People have been making jewelry from shells for at least 150,000 years. Various kinds of personal adornment found in the Early Bronze Age graves show that both sexes wore jewelry. This included items made from copper, bronze, gold, and silver, as well as shell necklaces like the one above. 

To assemble this many individual shells, all of the same size and shape, and then shape and drill each of them so that they could be strung must have taken immense patience and concentration. It is not clear whether this particular necklace was made from shells collected from the Catalonian coast or whether the necklace arrived from elsewhere through the trade networks. 

Unusual double vase found at Stiges, on the coast south of Barcelona. There is a nub of what may have been a handle on the part that connects the two containers. The purpose of the double vase is not clear and I could not find any other examples in Barcelona's Montjuic Museum of Archeology or on the internet. 

Possibly it had some ceremonial function during feast rituals. It certainly would have been difficult to drink or pour from either vase without spilling from the other. I encourage anyone with any information or suggestions to share them. 

Flanged axe head made during the Early to Middle Bronze Age. This axe was found at Cova d'Olopte, a cave north of Barcelona in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. In the illustration at the beginning of this post, the two metal workers are creating flanged axes similar to this one. 

Because of the dangerous and highly flammable nature of metallurgy, it would have been conducted outside the home, as seen in the first illustration. Axe heads like this may or may not have been intended for actual use as a tools. Sometimes they were used as ingots and melted down later to create other useful objects. 

Early Bronze Age workman's tool kit.  These artifacts are dated to between 4100 to 3500 years ago. They include a knife and a flat ax, both made of copper. The other knife and the punch are bronze made from an alloy of copper and arsenic. 

Notice that neither of the knives has a tang, or shaft, to fit into a wood or bone handle. Instead, they have holes for rivets which would have attached them to their handles. These artifacts were found in various sites around Catalonia and are clearly intended as working tools rather than ingots. 

Animal bones from the Early Bronze Age. These include large and small skulls, probably from domesticated animals like cattle and sheep. There are also two jaw bones, one from a canine and the other from a grazing animal, as well as a hollow leg bone. These remains may be the normal detritus of daily living. On the other hand, feasting was a popular way to commemorate religious or social occasions and to strengthen community bonds, as it still is today.

This completes Part 5 of my series on the ancient history of Barcelona and Catalonia. I hope you enjoyed it and, if so, you will include any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please include your email address so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim