Miniatures from domestic contexts in Iron Age Iberia

Abstract

This article reviews a set of miniatures from domestic contexts in Iron Age eastern Iberia, and interprets them in terms of their role in forging social personae. After an introduction to the historical case under consideration, the miniatures are described in terms of their typology and their contexts of provenance are outlined. Though not abundant, they tend to occur in central places in the landscape; specifically, they are often found in houses of the powerful. The vast majority are miniatures of pottery and tools, though some miniature weapons are recorded. We contend that these objects were used as a means of enculturation and for the learning of values and norms. It is no coincidence that they emerge in the archaeological record of Iron Age Iberia at the same time as the rise of a social structure based on hereditary power.

Keywords:

• Iberia
• Iron Age
• miniatures
• enculturation
• household archaeology
• gender roles

Acknowledgements

We thank Arturo Oliver for providing us with unpublished information about the miniature sword from El Tossalet de les Forques. The manuscript has benefited from comments by Teresa Chapa, Ignasi Grau, Juan Salazar and Peter van Dommelen. Consuelo Mata, Fernando Quesada and Raimon Graells helped with bibliographical references. This article is dedicated to Maria and Laia, miniatures of our lives.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Research and University Agency of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the seventh programme Marie Curie COFUND contract n° 6000385 and by the Museum of Prehistory of the Diputación de Valencia.

Notes on contributors

Mireia López-Bertran

Mireia López-Bertran is Marie Curie fellow at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (Spain). Between 2010 and 2012 she was a postdoctoral fellow with the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture – FECYT and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. She specializes in the Phoenician and Punic sites of the ancient Mediterranean, with research interests in embodiment, rituals and gender.

Jaime Vives-Ferrándiz

Jaime Vives-Ferrándiz has been Curator at the Museum of Prehistory in Valencia (Spain) since 2004. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Glasgow in 2012. His research focuses on the western Mediterranean during the first millennium BC and he is especially interested in colonial situations and movements of people and material culture. He is field co-director of the excavations at the Iberian settlement of la Bastida de les Alcusses.