Why does Ullastret change what we knew about the Iberian civilization?

UllastretAfter it was discovered in 1931 that Ullastret had Iberian remains from the 6th to 2nd centuries BC, the Republican Generalitat made an unusual decision for the time: to protect the site without even having started any excavation. As explained by the current head of the Ullastret site of the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia, Gabriel de Prado, this was not common practice, but they must have been aware of its importance. “Since then, hundreds of excavations have been carried out, giving the city a dimension that the first researchers little imagined,” says Prado.

Ullastret is not only one of the largest and most important Iberian sites on the Iberian Peninsula, but it also has an exceptional added value: unlike many sites in the south or east, it did not suffer a large Roman urban overlay, which allows its original urban layout to be studied. The Iberians did not leave written texts that we can understand, but Indika, the name the Iberians gave to their city, has helped us to know much more about a civilization that is still misinterpreted and that classical sources disparaged.

The capital of the Indigetes was originally formed by two inhabited centers separated by only three hundred meters: Puig de Sant Andreu, ten hectares, and Illa d'en Reixac, five hectares, the latter connected to the mainland by an artificial isthmus in the middle of an ancient lake that was twice the size of Banyoles. “Both centers evolved in parallel from the Iron Age and functioned as a single city,” assures Prado. To this extent, a recent discovery has been added. Following archaeological controls carried out for the installation of an irrigation network, an entire neighborhood outside the walls has been discovered, which would add another three to five hectares.

The discovery of the port area

Gabriel de Prado points out that, despite being in a very embryonic phase, it could be the loading or port area of the city, as it could be reached from the sea by flat-bottomed boats. With this latest find, the city would reach a global surface area of about twenty hectares. Beyond this central urban area, Ullastret exercised territorial dominion within a radius of almost five kilometers: there were quarries near the necropolis, control points to watch the coast, agricultural exploitations and a network of roads that connected the city with its surroundings and the port of Empúries.

Ullastret is an exceptional window to understand the society of the Iberians. Archaeology allows us to trace the entire journey: how small scattered huts grouped together and transformed into more solid stone constructions, and how the city emerged, with its walls and towers, and a large moat on the western side, where there was no protection from water or the precipice. “Research shows that both Sant Andreu hill and the island of Reixac emerged in parallel as part of the same community, sharing similar domestic structures, with the only exception that no temples have yet been found on the island of Reixac,” details Prado. Even so, it is not known what may be found in future excavations.

While a standard house had between 20 and 30 m² and one or two rooms, from the 4th century BC onwards, large aristocratic buildings or palaces between 800 and 1,000 m² appeared in Ullastret. At least four of these large residences have been identified, two on Sant Andreu hill and two on the island of Reixac. These palaces integrated residential and work spaces, large-scale warehouses with ovens and dozens of amphorae, and, in at least one of the palaces, a large meeting room with a capacity for 25 to 30 people has been excavated. “This architecture demonstrates that the social model of Ullastret did not emanate from a power centralized in a single chieftain or king, but from a collegial government formed by different families of high lineage, often defined as a senate or council of elders,” says Prado.

The status of these families was also manifested in the rituals. During the construction of the palaces, numerous offerings of lambs and goats were buried near the entrance. “We found more than a hundred of these animals buried there, some consumed in the banquet and others that were interred intact. The fact that so many animals were discarded at one time is a demonstration of livestock wealth that only the elites could afford and which was repeated when major renovations were made to the building,” says the lead archaeologist of Ullastret. The excavated palace still holds some unanswered mysteries. In 2006, a small treasure was found there: 54 Emporitan silver drachmas, which had been buried on a fragment of a ceramic vessel and covered by another fragment. Why the owner buried everything shortly before the Second Punic War and never returned to retrieve it is an open question.

Although the population of Ullastret could have reached six thousand inhabitants from the 4th century BC onwards, with an average life expectancy of about twenty years for women due to complications in childbirth and thirty for men, only eighty tombs have been found in the local necropolis. This disproportion is explained because the majority of the population was cremated, and burial in a funerary monument was reserved exclusively for the elites who wished to endure in the memory of their community.

Displayed heads and venerated heads

One of the most striking aspects of Ullastret's culture is the phenomenon of severed heads. DNA analyses have provided exceptionally well-preserved genetic and isotopic data. All the heads correspond to the Iberian population. Most were war trophies and had blunt weapon wounds, as well as a hole made with an iron nail and a frontal erosion made specifically to fix them in the most crowded public spaces, such as the city gates. As classical authors describe, warriors would cut off the heads of enemies on the battlefield, carry them hanging from their horses' manes, and display them as a demonstration of victory.

“The typology of the weapons hung next to the heads is of swords like those of the La Tène culture, straight and long, typical of the northern peninsular area. This confirms that the heads belonged to Iberians from neighboring tribes located within a radius of 100 to 300 kilometers,” highlights Prado. Not all were from enemies. One of the skulls must have belonged to a local family, because it had no nail hole or frontal erosion, but wear on the facial mask, which indicates that it would have been placed inside a niche inside the home. Therefore, it must have been an ancestor that the family kept at home and revered.

The temples imitate the Greeks on an architectural scale, but the rites and beliefs would be more reminiscent of Celtic culture. “We conducted a study and it was concluded that they were oriented towards the summer solstice; there are also deities that recall Greek mythology, but others refer more to Celtic traditions,” assures Prado.

The archaeologist insists that the Iberians have all the elements to be considered a civilization. There was a specialization of labor: there were people who worked in the pit, others cultivated the fields, there were those who extracted iron to make tools, etc. "The greatest exponent of labor specialization is the cistern –explains Prado–. The lining is made with a very specific hydraulic mortar that we analyzed with a German university, and it is so well done that it would pass today's safety protocol".

The end of Indika

Traditionally, the Iberian society had been defined under the duality of being simple peasants or a society of warriors, but researchers qualify that both realities coexisted. Although there was no permanent professional army like the Roman one, violence was present, although the Iberians did not have a will for territorial expansion or conquest like Rome. We do not know how they would have evolved, because the Second Punic War (from 218 to 201 BC) was the epilogue of their end. They were collateral damage from the conflict between Carthage and Rome; the different tribes had to take sides and many took advantage of the alliance with the Romans to attack old local enemies.

Regarding the end of Ullastret, not all answers are known. It is likely that part of the indigenous population participated in the indigenous coalition defeated by Cato at the Battle of Empúries in 195 BC, although ancient sources do not explicitly mention the Indigetes among the combatants of the Iberian revolt against the Romans. Surprisingly, however, archaeology has found neither traces of fire nor signs of violent destruction or combat. “The city must have been abandoned in an organized manner, as demonstrated by the land access gate to the island of Reixac, found blocked with a well-built stone wall. Archaeologists interpret this as a symbolic closure or a negotiated capitulation of the local elites with Rome,” says Prado. The city was probably forced to be evacuated to prevent new insurrections and the population was dispersed; this way, agricultural labor was maintained and Rome could continue collecting taxes.

We would know much more about the Iberians if their language could be deciphered. “I don’t think we will ever find literary texts, but commercial letters on lead sheets and monumental inscriptions on stone that could be a propaganda element located at the entrance of the city are preserved,” highlights Prado. In Ullastret, three large sandstone blocks with Iberian monumental epigraphy have been found. “At first, it was thought that they could be part of a public building, such as one of the temples, but recent studies are more inclined to believe they were part of the wall and the entrance gate,” says the archaeologist. For now, the texts found are too short and even the most advanced technological tools cannot draw any conclusions.