PUBLIC SPACES IN IRON AGE EUROPE: PERSPECTIVES FROM GAUL AND IBERIA
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 21/12/2020

Public spaces were key arenas of social negotiation, and could serve as locations for a variety of often interconnected events such as political assemblies, religious celebrations and fairs. Popular assemblies in particular were important mechanisms of collective governance, similar to those existing in societies all around the globe. They represented early arenas for political debate, conflict resolution, alliances, and the display of power, and were therefore important tools for the functioning of communities. Although these political institutions were to a certain extent instrumentalised by members of the Late Iron Age elite through their clientage networks, they also limited the agency of the upper classes and redistributed social power. This paper will address the role of public spaces in the construction of collective identities in Late Iron Age Western Europe, using selected case-studies to exemplify the diversity but also commonality of these ‘plazas’. Recent research has uncovered evidence of public spaces for political gatherings and ritual performances in numerous oppida, both in Gaul and in other regions such as the north-western Iberian Peninsula. In some cases, the use of certain locations as public spaces preceded the development of large agglomerations on the sites, a phenomenon that has important implications for our understanding of early urbanisation processes.


Author(s): Fernández-Götz, Manuel (School of History, Classics and Archaeology)