The Western Meseta hillforts

Abstract

The origin of the fortified villages in the Western part of the Northern Plateau lies in the ‘Soto de Medinilla’ cultural group at the beginning of the last millennium B.C. This paper analyzes the area where most of the hillforts are located, making an assessment of the different groups identified in its landscape: the first hillforts of Ávila and Salamanca provinces, and those from Western Zamora and the León Mountains. As the funerary record and the internal organization of the sites are almost unknown for this period (c. 900-400 B.C.), the paper focuses on other signs of social change, such as the new forms of occupying and exploiting the territory, and the material culture. This kind of human settlement, with little evidence of social hierarchy, self-reliant economy and strong links with the surrounding territory, will last during all the Iron Age, many of the sites being inhabited until the Romanization of the region.