RITUALS IN THE DARK: EXPLORING CAVE RITUALITY IN CELTIC-ROMAN SPAIN
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-10-24

As osmotic membranes where the supernatural could be encountered, but also as powerful thresholds of separation, transition and transformation, caves were used as multi-purposed ritual venues by the Protohistoric and Roman populations of Hispania Celtica, from the 4th BC to the 3rd century AD. Archaeological, epigraphical and iconographical record of a variety of ritual activities are attested in these rocky topographies: manipulation of Prehistoric human remains; deposition of pottery, coins, weapons, personal ornaments, and altars; writing of texts; making of graffiti and muddy figurines; underground journeys; religious recycling of Prehistoric rock-art; healing practices; collective ceremonies; modification of speleothems; rites of passage; etc. But despite its potential, they remain to be understudied. On the basis of fieldwork and anthropological experience as “participant observer”, this paper discusses the methodological problems and explores some themes of the cave rituality attested in the area of Central Spain from the Iron Age to the Roman period, including its symbolic meanings, deities, ritual agents and audiences, gender bias, and multiplicity of ritual practices. Moreover, this paper focuses on the pervasive centrality of darkness in the ceremonies held deep inside these Spanish caves, and its role to shape the participants’ actions, emotions & experiences, and to form the “landscape context” of rituals.


Author(s): Alfayé, Silvia (Universidad de Zaragoza)