A new vision of the pre-Roman societies of the Central Basin of the Duero river: Daggers as a link between war, elites and transhumance in the Vaccean Region.

Abstract

Recent studies on the armament of the pre-Roman peoples of the central Duero basin allow us to argue that the elites and their clientele were the ones who owned the weapons and particularly the daggers that we repeatedly find in the tombs of the necropolis in the area. Later, we analyze the bases of their economy, linking these elites with the possession of transhumant herds. Afterwards, we relate the transhumance with other aspects such as: the dispersion of the settlements with its urban characteristics, the existence of shepherds-warriors’ groups for the defense of the herds and the rituals of exposure to the vultures of the warriors killed in combat. Finally, we give our interpretation of the idea of warfare that pre-Roman peoples had in the centuries prior to the arrival of the great Mediterranean armies to the North Plateau and the role of weapons and daggers, in particular, in the transhumance-warfare-elites trinomial.