Los cuchillos de hierro de la necrópolis protohistórica del Calvari del Molar (Priorat, Tarragona): una revisión.

Abstract

This article offers a review of the iron knives found in the cemetery of El Calvari (El Molar, Tarragona) during the excavations carried out by Salvador Vilaseca in 1930. The new graphic documentation and a review of iron objects from other sites in the area show that they are all cutting instruments with a straight spine and a single cutting edge. At the same time, a review of the local and regional archaeological contexts suggests that the oldest examples can be dated to the late 8th - early 7th centuries BC, earlier than previously suggested. The El Calvari iron knives were found as single grave goods in their respective tombs, all of which were in relatively peripheral areas of the cemetery. Taken as a whole, these data allow us to re-evaluate these objects and their social meaning, as well as to nuance of some of the hypotheses previously published in the archaeological literature.