2015 IRON AGE SAUNAS OF NORTHERN PORTUGAL: STATE OF THE ART AND RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES

MARCO V. GARCÍA QUINTELA AND MANUEL SANTOS-ESTÉVEZ

IRON AGE SAUNAS OF NORTHERN PORTUGAL: STATE OFTHE ART AND RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES

Summary. Special buildings used as saunas have been found in certain largehillforts in the north of Portugal and in the Cantabrian coastal area of Asturiasand Galicia in Spain. The principal aim of this study is to highlight theimportance of these buildings in the archaeology and art of the European IronAge, where they are very rarely mentioned. Two approaches are developed: inParts 1 and 2, we explain the structure of the buildings, their function, and thecurrent debate surrounding their dating. In Parts 3 and 4, further analyses aredeveloped on their position in the landscape, associating the saunas with thepublic life of the hillforts, and on the decorative structure of the pedrasformosas (‘beautiful stones’) found in some of them, and their relation tocertain artistic trends in so-called Celtic art.

1. HISTORY OF RESEARCH AND FORMAL ANALYSIS

A unique type of building has been identified in Iron Age settlements in the north-westIberian Peninsula. After lengthy discussion, this was finally defined as a sauna in the 1970s.

The first printed reference appeared in a publication by the antiquary and clericJerónimo Contador de Argote (1676–1749), who described the pedra formosa (‘beautiful stone’,as it was named by the local population) of Briteiros and Sanfins, referring to the building inwhich it was found as a cave (Argote 1734, 460, 466). However, it was F. Martins Sarmento(1833–99) who defined the typology of these buildings by identifying other possible examples(Monte da Saia, Vermoin and Sabroso).1 He was also able to introduce briefly the pedra formosaof Briteiros into the international bibliography (Hübner 1880, 66, 599; Paris 1903, 35, with someerrors), though these very distinctive buildings were soon to disappear from the internationaldebates (Queiroga 2003, 23–5 is the exception).

The next milestone was the work of Mario Cardoso (1889–1982), who between 1929and 1960 proposed a general reappraisal, thanks to the discovery in situ of the second pedra

1 Sarmento kept a detailed diary of his research. At a later date, these manuscripts were partially published in theRevista de Guimarães and were widely used by other archaeologists. See Sarmento 1906, 41–2 (on Sabroso);Cardoso 1932, 16–23 (on Monte da Saia).

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formosa at Briteiros (1930). This made it possible to offer a detailed archaeological descriptionof the building and to define its typology (Cardoso 1931; 1932). Cardoso also identified theoriginal location of the first pedra formosa from Briteiros (Cardoso 1935) and referred to thepedra in Sardoura (Cardoso 1949). In the 1940s, these Portuguese buildings were associatedwith similar structures found in the Navia valley in Asturias, Spain, following the excavationwork carried out by A. García-Bellido in Coaña and Pendia (García y Bellido 1940; 1942). Newbuildings of this kind were later found in a number of large Iron Age hillforts between the Douroand Minho rivers, most of them in Portugal (to date, only one is known in Galicia: Armea), andnew examples were added also to the northern sample. At the same time, the pedras formosasappeared to be limited to only a part of the southern sample. After a long debate, it is nowaccepted that the buildings which contained these pedras, and their northern correlates, wereused as saunas, and that they were public buildings.

The terminology used for these buildings has changed as the research has progressed.The names such as ‘funerary chambers’ have been abandoned. Other expressions such as pedraformosa or monumento con forno (‘monument with oven’) refer to just one part of the buildings,while words such as ‘sauna’ or ‘bath’, apart from having different meanings, imply structuresthat were intended for daily use, which is debatable. Throughout the text we will refer to the‘stone’ or the ‘oven’ in order to describe specific parts of the building, and ‘sauna’ when we referto its function, without alluding to its cultural meaning. To support the argument, we providebrief details of the region throughout the Iron Age.

In the north-west Iberian Peninsula, the Iron Age spanned the period between the eighthand first centuries BC. The archaeological landscape is dominated by hillforts or castros. A majorchange occurred around the fourth century BC, with a significant increase in the density ofsettlement and the occupation of valleys. From the second century BC onwards, in the south ofthe region (corresponding to the area on which we will focus), large hillforts were created thatare categorized as oppida, to distinguish them from the much smaller and more commonhillforts. After 26 BC, the year in which the Emperor Augustus completed the Roman conquestof the Peninsula, many hillforts remained in use. Regional differences have been identified inrecent years, marked by the exploitation of different resources, and probably by different socialsystems resulting in distinct types of material culture. The area was undeniably Indo-Europeanthroughout this period, although linguists have differentiated two separate languages. One iscalled ‘Lusitanian’, as the most characteristic texts have been found in the former Romanprovince of Lusitania; the other is a form of Celtic, with place-names ending in –briga(‘fortress’, ‘heights’). Various aspects suggest that these languages coexisted with each other andwith Latin, which was introduced together with its epigraphic tradition.2

Buildings used as saunas in the north-west Iberian Iron Age are distributed throughouttwo clearly differentiated areas (Fig. 1). We use the geographic denominations ‘Cantabrian’ and‘Douro-Minho’ recommended by Á. Villa Valdés (2012, 89) when referring to these regions.This regional difference is overlain with typological variations. In the Douro-Minho area, 17buildings are known (Table 1).

Eleven of these have the characteristic pedra formosa (Fig. 2). Six are still extant in theoriginal monuments (Armea, Braga, Briteiros 2, Tongobriga, Sanfins and Galegos), another three

2 Many of the 20 articles contained in Alberro and Arnold e-keltoi 6 The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula http://www4.uwm.edu/celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol6/index.html deal with the period.

IRON AGE SAUNAS OF NORTHERN PORTUGAL

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http://www4.uwm.edu/celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol6/index.html

http://www4.uwm.edu/celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol6/index.html

Figure 1Location of the saunas found in Iron Age hillforts in the north-west Iberian Peninsula.


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pedras have been moved from where they were found, either for conservation reasons or becausetheir original context has disappeared,3 and two more have been given up as lost (Sardoura andCastro das Eiras). There are two other monuments in which the pedra formosa no longer remains(Castro de Roques and Monte da Saia).

The decoration that has given the name pedra formosa appears in five of the 11 cases.One of them is a fragmented piece (Alto das Quintãs), and another is only known from anillustration (Castro das Eiras). Two pedras do not contain any icons (Braga and Sardoura), andthe decoration on a further two is limited to braiding around the door (Freixo and Sanfins). Thepedra of Santa Maria de Galegos also lacks icons, although a square block of stone tangent to theentrance is richly decorated. Finally, the pedra of Armea has suffered numerous alterations andit is not possible to ascertain its original form and position. We are therefore left with thecomplete decoration of the two examples from the citânia of Briteiros, the one from Alto dasEiras (although it is missing a fragment of its upper part), and the drawing from Castro das Eiras.

Table 2 lists 12 buildings in the Cantabrian area. They are concentrated in the basins ofthe Navia and Eo rivers, although the examples from Punta dos Prados and Borneiro significantlyextend the area of distribution. They are different from those of the Douro-Minho area in fiveprincipal ways.

3 The first pedra of Briteiros is in the museum and house of Martins Sarmento in Guimarães; the pedra from Altodas Quintãs is in the municipal offices of Vila Nova de Lanhoso; and the one from Alto das Eiras is in municipalpremises in Famalicão awaiting new permanent exhibition.

TABLE 1

The Duero-Miño saunas

Name Location First and last publication

Briterios 1 Citânia de Briteiros, S. Salvador de Briteiros,Guimarães (PT)

Cardoso 1928; 1935; Lemos et al. 2008, 322–3

Briteiros 2 Same location as Briteiros 1 Cardoso 1931; 1932; Lemos et al. 2008, 321–2Monte da Saia Chavão, Barcelos (PT) Cardoso 1932, 16–23; 1951, 5–28Armea Santa Mariña de Augas Santas, Allariz

(Ourense, SP)Lorenzo Fernández 1948; Blanco Rotea et al.

2009Sardoura Monte Castro, Sardoura, Castelo de Paiva (PT) Cardoso 1949Sanfins Sanfins, Paços de Ferreira (PT) Almeida 1974Galegos Sta. Maria de Galegos, Barcelos (PT) Silva 1986, 56–8Tongobriga Freixo, Marco de Canaveses (PT) Dias 1997, 33–4Alto de Quintãs Castro de Calvos, Póvoa de Lanhoso (PT) Dinis 2002Castro das Eiras Castro das Eiras, Arcos de Valdevez (PT) Queiroga 2003, fig. 16.1Braga Maximinos, Braga (PT) Lemos et al. 2003; Lemos 2007–8, 213–22Castro de Roques Vila Franca, Viana do Castelo (PT) Silva and Maciel 2004Alto das Eiras Pousada de Saramagos, Vila Nova de

Famalicão (PT)Queiroga and Dinis 2008–9

Padrão Monte do Padrão, Santo Tirso (PT) Unpublished, information on a preliminary digby A. de Brito Moreira, archaeologist at thesite

Doubtful or incomplete informationSabroso S. Lourenço de Sande, Guimarães (PT) Sarmento 1906; Silva 2007, 46–7Vermoim Vermoim, Vila Nova de Famalicão (PT) Cardoso 1932, 23–4; Queiroga and Dinis

2008–9, 144Ribalonga Ribalonga, Alijó (PT) Silva 2007, 36–7



1.The Cantabrian buildings do not have a pedra formosa. The discovery in 2007 (LópezGonzález et al. 2007) of the equivalent monolithic block separating two rooms in the hillfortof Borneiro reveals a different architectural solution to that seen in the examples from theDouro-Minho. In Punta dos Prados and Coaña, there may have been a similar solution (Fig. 3).This division is an important element that, in both areas, divides the steam rooms from theother parts of the building in a different way.

2.The layout is longitudinal in both examples. The southern buildings always display four rooms.The Cantabrian buildings are simpler, with three rooms instead of four (but Coaña 1 and ChaoSamartín both have four) and in some cases they have lateral entrances (perhaps as a result ofRoman period adaptations, Villa Valdés 2012).

3.In both areas, the buildings are on the edge of the hillforts but in different positions. TheDouro-Minho group are located further away from the inhabited area (although at timesinformation is lacking), but the Cantabrian buildings form a part of the ‘urban’ layout, and aresited near monumental gates (see below, Part 3).

4.The Douro-Minho saunas are associated with large hillforts (the exception is Braga), althoughit seems that the Cantabrian buildings occur in any type of hillfort, sometimes very small onessuch as Pendía or Pelou. In fact, Villa Valdés believes that any area excavation in a Cantabrianhillfort is likely to reveal a sauna (pers. comm.).

5.The buildings from the Douro-Minho area were mostly buried, but probably not those from theCantabrian area.

Figure 2Pedras formosas currently known. 1. Sardoura (from Cardoso 1949, 491). 2. Braga, Maximinos. 3. Armea. 4. Santa

Maria de Galegos. 5. Freixo, Tongobriga. 6. Sanfins. 7. Alto das Quintãs. 8. Alto das Eiras. 9. Castro das Eiras(from Queiroga 2003, fig. 16.1). 10. Briteiros 1. 11. Briteiros 2.



In this study we will primarily discuss the buildings from the Douro-Minho area, as weare interested in the decoration of the pedras formosas, which has not been discussed recently inthe literature. Moreover, the Cantabrian area has recently been subject to a general survey (VillaValdés 2012). Some details should be given concerning the layout of the buildings.

Their typical structure consists of four rooms running lengthways (Fig. 4; Table 3). Wewill examine the different spaces, beginning with the entrance.

The first room, referred to as the ‘vestibule’ or ‘lobby’, is a patio surrounded by walls,with a clearly defined entrance. It was possibly the only part of the monument that was not buriedin the Douro-Minho sample. In this room there are one or two troughs for water brought fromnearby springs by conduits of varying degrees of elaboration (in Braga, it is only a small, highlyeroded cavity). The second room, known as the ‘ante-chamber’, is reached through an ordinarydoorway. This room frequently has benches along the sides, and is presided over by the pedraformosa with its decoration facing into the room (Fig. 5). The third room is the steam roomproper; it is reached through a semi-circular opening in the centre of the bottom part of the pedra,so that it can only be crossed by an adult crawling on his back. In several cases, the pedra hasbeen cut away to provide a grip, making it easier to crawl from the ante-chamber to the chamberand vice-versa (Fig. 6). The fourth space is an enclosed semi-circular oven, whose walls form afalse dome topped with a flat stone with a hole that would have served as the chimney.

The way in which the stone is worked varies significantly. The most relevant example isin Freixo/Tongobriga, where the entire building is carved from the bedrock, except for the roof(Fig. 7). In other examples, we see a wide range of solutions, making use of local rockconfigurations and working with granite blocks, sometimes of considerable size, to create thefloors, walls and roofs of the building (Fig. 8). This elaborate use of stone is not justified in termsof functionality in order to create a sauna, since it would have been sufficient just to dig a simple

TABLE 2

The Cantabrian saunas

Name Location First and last publication

Coaña 1 and 2 El Castelón de Villacondide, Coaña (Asturias,SP)

García y Bellido 1940, 295–8; Uría Ríu 1941,92–5; Villa Valdés 2012, 72–6

Pendía 1 and 2 Pendía, Boal (Asturias, SP) García y Bellido 1940, 298–9; 1942, 296–8;Uría Ríu 1941, 95–7; Villa Valdés 2012,76–80

Borneiro Borneiro, Cabana de Bergantiños (A Coruña,SP)

García y Bellido 1968, 34–5; López Gonzálezet al. 2007, 14–17; López González 2009

Punta dos Prados Espasante, Ortigueira (A Coruña, SP) Ramil González 1995–6; Parcero-Oubiña et al.2009, 87–90

Chao Samartín Grandas de Salime (Asturias, SP) Villa Valdés 2000, 107–10; 2012, 80–2Pelóu Castrelo de Pelóu, Pelóu, Grandas de Salime

(Asturias, SP)Montes López et al. 2009; Villa Valdés 2012,

82–3Taramundi Os Castros, Taramundi (Asturias, SP) Villa Valdés et al. 2007, 272; Villa Valdés

2012, 83–6Castelón de

CastañosoO Castelón de Castañoso, A Fonsagrada (Lugo,

SP)López Fernández et al. 1987, 51;

http://www.manuelgago.org/blog/index.php/2011/12/11/unha-sauna-castrexa-en-perigoso-equilibrio-video/

Doubtful or incomplete informationCecos Ibias (Asturias, SP) Villa Valdés 2007, 27Llagú El Castiello de Llagú, Llagú, Oviedo (Asturias,

SP)Berrocal Rangel et al. 2002, 115–20; Villa

Valdés 2007, 90






hole in the earth (Sidonius Apollinaris II, 9, 8–9). Neither is it functional to use large blocks ofstone or dig underground, features that are absent in the monuments in the Cantabrian area wherethe dominant schist stones offer architectural alternatives. Nor does the construction methodused for the walls of saunas in the south follow the technique used for the other buildings foundin the hillforts, which are made of smaller masonry blocks. The use of slabs seems to have beenaimed at creating the effects of a natural rock face, as can be seen in Freixo/Tongobriga.

2. TOWARDS A FUNCTIONAL DEFINITION AS SAUNAS

Prior to 1930, the hypotheses concerning the function of these buildings, summarized byF. Calo Lourido (1994, 772–4), were speculative: sacrificial altars, sanctuaries, bread ovens,pottery kilns, metal workshops and slaughterhouses. The first hypothesis, which was to becomea lasting communis opinio, held that these buildings were used for funerary rites involving thecremation of bodies (Cardoso 1931, 205–6; 1932, 131–2; Lorenzo Fernández 1948; García yBellido 1968). This interpretation was modified as a result of the publication of detailed studiesof certain monuments.

Figure 3Cantabrian equivalents of the pedras formosas. Top, Punta dos Prados. Bottom, Borneiro. The zones are divided by

a carved stone, as in the Douro-Minho, although the technique is different.



Firstly, J. Lorenzo Fernández (1948) identified the earliest phase of the crypt of theBasilica of the Ascension in Armea, a monument commemorating the martyrdom of a local saint,Santa Mariña, and successively remodelled in medieval times (Blanco Rotea et al. 2009), as asauna similar to those found in the north of Portugal. Shortly afterwards, F. Conde-ValvísFernández (1955) criticized the interpretation of the building as a crematorium, and suggestedthat it was a building used for bathing. This idea was consolidated with the publication by C.A.F.Almeida (1974) of the excavation of the monument from Sanfins and the systematizationproposed by A.C. da Silva (1986, 53–60), who included in his discussion the recently excavatedmonument of Galegos. To reach this conclusion, two different arguments were used.

The first one is archaeological. All the buildings have different ways of channellingwater towards the entrance hall, various kinds of bathtubs, and the last chamber wasunequivocally an oven or fire chamber. In addition, stones have frequently been found with signs

Figure 4Layout of the saunas in the Douro-Minho and their varying state of preservation. A. Briteiros 2. B. Alto das Eiras.

C. Santa Maria de Galegos. D. Monte da Saia. Adapted A) from Cardoso 1931, 204–5; B) from Querioga and Dinis2008–9, 148; C) and D) from Silva 1986, pls. XXXV, XXVII.



of exposure to fire, although there is some debate regarding how they were used. Excavationreports also refer to ashes being found in this room, although they are also found in otherparts of the building and the surrounding areas (Cardoso 1932, 19; Almeida 1974, 163, 166,etc.; Silva 1986, 59; Dias 1997, 33; Silva and Maciel 2004, 122–3; Lemos 2007–8, 218). Weshould also note the ethnographical description of how saunas, with similar elements, operatedin Mesoamerica: ‘The vapor or steam bath . . . is achieved by sprinkling highly heatedrocks with water, which evaporates instantly and produces a surge of hot, moist steam’ (Groark1997, 7).

The second argument is based on a text from antiquity. We read in an ethnographicfragment from the Greek geographer Strabo, referring to the inhabitants of the Douro valley:

TABLE 3

Maximum dimensions of the saunas from the Duero-Miño in metres

Name Length Width

Briteiros 1 12 2.5Briteiros 2 12.40 3.10Monte da Saia 9.60 5.25Armea Seriously alteredSardoura UnknownSanfins 11.30 6.30Galegos 11.50 4Tongobriga 9 without the atrium 3.20Alto de Quintãs DestroyedCastro das Eiras UnknownBraga IncompleteCastrode Roques IncompleteAlto das Eiras 17 6.30

Figure 5View of the sauna in Braga from the lobby of the building as it is exposed in the city’s Maximinos railway station,

with eroded water basins visible. The second room or ‘ante-chamber’ is behind, with two side benches and theaniconic pedra formosa.



They cover themselves in oil twice a day in appropriate places for this purpose, and take steambaths using the emanations from hot stones, bathe in cold water, and eat a single mealconsisting of pure, simple ingredients (Strabo III, 3, 6).

Strabo is a contemporary of Augustus, but in his description of the northern tribes of Iberia hedepends on Posidonius (135–51 BC; cited by Strabo III, 3, 3 and 4), who may have gained hisinformation from the first Roman expedition to the region by the consul D. Iunius Brutus in 136BC (cited by Strabo III, 3, 1, 4 and 7).

Today, the communis opinio is that these buildings were some type of ‘sauna’ or ‘publicbath’. Nevertheless, the difference between saunas and baths in antiquity and in variousethnographic contexts has led to a debate upon how they were actually used and upon the exactchronology of the monuments. Two opposing hypotheses, which we call ‘Indigenist’ and‘Romanist’, were developed.

M. Almagro and his colleagues propose the ‘Indigenist’ hypothesis (Almagro Gorbeaand Moltó 1992; Almagro Gorbea and Álvarez-Sanchís 1993). They consider that the functionof the buildings as saunas is demonstrated. They include in the argument buildings from otherregions in the Iberian Peninsula, and they then move to an extensive comparative study of theshape and use of saunas in European proto-history and in Greco-Latin contexts. Finally, theysuggest that the Iberian saunas were used to celebrate initiation ceremonies for warriors, basedon the passage from Strabo just quoted, and the testimonies from classic ethnography about thewarlike nature of the inhabitants of the north of Iberia. This proposal suffers from the same

Figure 6Entering and leaving via the pedra formosa. A. Yolanda crawls from the chamber towards the ante-chamber in

Galegos. Grooves carved in the back of the pedras help with access. B. Alto das Quintãs. C. Sanfins. The front ofthis device is illustrated in Figure 2.



problem in two respects. Firstly, the attempt to increase the base sample by including Romanbaths and other remains whose function is questionable weakens their argument. Secondly, thecomparative catalogue they present is very large, and suffers from the same problem as theattempt to extend the sample: its heterogeneity weakens the hypothesis being presented.

The first author to present the ‘Romanist’ hypothesis was Conde-Valvís Fernández(1955), followed by Almeida (1974). This hypothesis rests on the functional similarity betweenthe sequence of rooms and uses in hillfort saunas and Roman baths, as well as the Imperialchronology attributed to the buildings, on the basis of material remains found during excavation(it should be stressed that none of the ashes or fire remains found in the southern excavations hasbeen subjected to C14 analysis to date). The main defender of this hypothesis in recent times isS. Ríos González (2000; 2002), who focuses on these saunas from a ‘Romanist’ interpretativeapproach to the art from the north-west Iberian Peninsula found in hillforts (Calo Lourido 1994;2003). Ríos González (2000, 118–22) attempts to define which buildings were definitely saunasin archaeological terms, and creates a comparative catalogue limited to Roman baths from theRepublican period. His conclusion is that ‘the hill fort baths found in the NW are localadaptations of baths from the Mediterranean area’ (Ríos González 2000, 122; 2002, 390–1). The‘Romanist’ hypothesis is also characterized by its rejection of any religious function for thesaunas (explicitly in Almeida 1974, 164–5, 167).

New work has, however, cast serious doubt on this interpretation. During the work ofVilla Valdés, as part of a lengthy project to conserve the heritage of the Navia river valley inAsturias, two new saunas were excavated (Chao Samartin and Taramundi), and a re-examinationwas made of the area as a whole (summarized in Villa Valdés 2012, highlighting the first C14

datings). Other excavations were carried out in Borneiro (López González et al. 2007, 14–17)and Punta dos Prados (Parcero-Oubiña et al. 2009, 87–90), revealing different stages of

Figure 7Sauna of Tongobriga excavated in the bare rock. In the background, the excavation of the Roman baths and the

large esplanade of the Roman city forum.



construction. The conclusion derived from these studies was that the saunas were in use for along period, from the fourth century BC until abandonment during the early stages of Romanoccupation. Closer to the Douro-Minho area, the excavation of the sauna in Braga (Figs. 5 and2.2) offers a similar conclusion. Analyses of its stratigraphy and finds indicate that it was builtin the Second Iron Age, in a location previously dedicated to some type of ritual activityassociated with water (Lemos et al. 2003; Lemos 2007–8, 213–22). As the pedra formosa in thisbuilding is of less elaborate design, this could suggest that it was an older structure, although thiscannot be proven.

There is another argument that can be offered. Following the influential study of M.Mauss (1950), it is important to consider the corporal hexis as a physical reflection of anideology. The narrow openings of the pedras formosas mean that in order to enter or exit thesteam bath, it is necessary to do so by crawling on one’s back along the floor (Figs. 6, 2 and 3),so the hexis required to use the Galician saunas was radically different from that used in the

Figure 8Materials used for the 1:1 scale reproduction of the sauna of Alto das Eiras, weighing 200 metric tonnes. Towards

the middle is the replica of the pedra formosa.



Roman baths. The relevance of this fact can be seen in another passage by Strabo (III 2, 15),when, reflecting his awareness of the importance of the corporal hexis, he mentions that theIberian natives change their clothing as a sign of adopting Roman habits.

We need to abandon the practice of dating the buildings only on the basis of thematerials found during excavation, which correspond to the last stages of use or abandonmentunder Roman control. Also relevant to the discussion is the relatively late date, around 200 BC,when ‘public [Roman] baths were in existence’ (Nielsen 1990, 29), and the difficulties inherentin tracing their origins and early development (Fagan 2001).

We can, therefore, conclude that the previously favoured hypotheses suffer fromdifficulties. It should also be noted that sometimes the archaeological record is presentedquite inadequately, something that is particularly lamentable in the most recent publications.However, we do not believe that an improvement in the archaeological record shouldbe separated from the creation of new lines of analysis. New theories can inspire betterempirical work, and a better archaeographical basis can serve as the foundation for newinterpretations. For this reason, we will propose two new areas of study using the existinginformation: the position of the monuments in the landscape and the iconography of thepedras formosas.

3. THE POSITION IN THE LANDSCAPE

Saunas from the Cantabrian and Douro-Minho areas share a marginal position inrelation to the domestic zones in hillforts. However, if we observe them in detail, we findsignificant differences.

Villa Valdés (2012, 89–100) studied the pattern of location of the Cantabrian saunas inthe hillforts and their relationship with the landscape in general. These saunas are a part of the‘urban’ layout; they are located next to the monumental entrances, something that facilitated theirdiscovery and study during ordinary excavation procedures. They are also associated with a largebuilding for communal and/or ritual use. These factors can be seen in the more distant examplesof Borneiro (A Coruña) and Coaña (Asturias). To our knowledge, no similar work has beencarried out on the Douro-Minho cases, and so we will explore this question in the followingpages.

The saunas appear close to large hillforts known as oppida to distinguish them from theordinary, much smaller hillforts (González Ruibal 2006, 1, 318–39). Without exception, thesehillforts stand on summits or slopes, with extensive visual control over the surroundinglandscape. The saunas are also set apart from the habitation areas, and although they are withinthe walled enclosures, they may be extensions or reinforcements of the main enclosure (in somecases, the information is incomplete). It is significant that they were found by chance (the two inBriteiros) or by following the routes of watercourses as in Sanfins (Almeida 1974, 163). Thisprecarious context led to the destruction of those from Sardoura (Cardoso 1949) and Alto deQuintãs (Dinis 2002).

They occupy positions with extensive visual control, different from the visibility fromthe oppida. While their location is conditioned by access to water, they are also often sited inplaces with spectacular views (Fig. 9) (although the present-day plant cover makes it difficult toappreciate this). They were invisible to the inhabitants of the hillforts, since they wereunderground monuments. Only the entrance hall was open, and if the structure was in use, a



column of smoke and steam would have been seen rising from the chimney. This means that thepedras formosas would only have been visible to those who entered the building and saw themwith the help of artificial light.

The buildings that concern us are therefore situated at the intersection of two paradoxes:they are buildings with an obvious complexity, but which are in positions that make theminvisible, while being located at points with extensive visibility. An example of this paradox isthe sauna of Sanfins. It is located below one of the gates of the hillfort, protected by a sculptureof a warrior that is visible from the sauna (Fig. 10). Its position alongside a road leading into thehillfort affects its visibility and presence, although it was built underground.

In this interplay of visibility and invisibility, everything would seem to indicate that thelocation was chosen to create a latent presence effect. Individuals who did not use the sauna

Figure 9Visibility from the saunas of the Douro-Minho. Top: view towards the west from the walls of the hillfort of Sanfins;the arrow indicates the position of the sauna. Bottom: view towards the west from the highest point of the hillfort of

Roques at the point where the River Lima flows into the Atlantic. The sauna is amongst the trees on the northernslope (towards the bottom left in the photo), with similar visibility.



knew where it was, could see its entrance, and even knew when it was operating, from the smokerising from the oven. This ‘secret’ location might have been socially conditioned. It brings tomind the ‘men’s houses’ known in a wide range of ethnic groups. Access to these buildings wasprohibited to a sector of the population (women), and access to the associated knowledge and thepractices carried out in the houses was also prohibited, although the location of the buildings wasevident, displaying the place where the secret was practised.

It is also interesting to examine the relationship between the saunas and the otherelements of the hillforts in which they are located, in contrast with the Cantabrian pattern. Inparticular, we find a similar relationship between the sauna and ‘masculine’ structures found inSanfins and Briteiros, where the so-called Casa do Conselho (‘Council House’) occupies theposition equivalent to the warrior. The Casa do Conselho is described as follows (Fig. 11):

Inside this circular building of about 11 meters in diameter and with a bench along theinner wall may have operated a decision-making council, which administrated thecommunity. The location of this construction is symbolic: it is situated next to the firstrampart, a wide area without any family compounds, and a place from where it is possibleto see much of what would have been the area of influence of the settlement (Lemos andCruz 2011, 66–8).

Figure 10Sanfins: statue of a warrior found in the wall located above the sauna. An arrow marks its original position. To the

left, the door in the wall that connected the living area with the sauna.



There are signs of a similar spatial relationship in the hillfort of Monte Pedrão, between acircular enclosure like the ‘Council House’ of Briteiros and the position of the saunadiscovered recently but scarcely explored. This set of observations lead us to two differentarguments, one chrono-cultural, the other topological.

The pattern of location brings to mind the chronological discussion referred to above. InFreixo/Tongobriga and Braga, saunas and Roman baths exist together and their exact locationalrelationship reveals a significant difference between the two types of structure. In Tongobriga,the buildings are in the same area (Fig. 7), but while the sauna discretely blends in with the restof the rock, and is on the edge of the hillfort as is usual, the baths are an imposing building sitedalongside the forum of what by then was a Roman city (Dias 1997, 34, 65–9; plate ‘Termas’). InBraga (Fig. 12), a hillfort has been identified, although its size and its chronology are uncertainand its relationship with the sauna at Maximinos has not been established (Lemos 2007–8, 221,229–30), while in Bracara Augusta the baths of Alto da Cividade occupy the centre of the Romancity (Martins and Silva 2000). The sauna is some 400 m from the baths and some 40 m lower,reflecting the locational pattern seen in Tongobriga. Differences are also observed in the size ofthe buildings. The 12 Roman baths in the Douro valley ranged between 4200 and 230 m2, theRoman baths of Tongobriga vary between 739 and 805 m2, while those in Bracara Augusta vary

Figure 11Aerial view of the Citânia de Briteiros from the south-west, showing the position of the ‘Council House’ (in the

square) next to the wall and the sauna further downhill.



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between 1300 m2 and 498 m2 (Núñez Hernández 2008). These are all significantly larger than themore modest hillfort saunas (Table 3).

The topological consideration allows us to see how the buildings are simultaneouslylocated above and below, on a vertical axis. This is because the hillforts occupy dominantpositions, but the saunas are located in relatively low areas. This is a question of the viewpoint:the baths are above, like the whole of the hillfort, when seen from outside and at a distance, butwhen seen from the areas of habitation, they are below. Secondly, if we consider the position ofthe buildings from a horizontal perspective, they are both inside and outside: they are within thewalled enclosures, but they are also on the periphery of the hillfort, and more or less distant fromthe areas of habitation. This perspective may be thought to support the initiation rites hypothesisput forward by Almagro, since the buildings are ‘on the outskirts’. The recent book by R.Woodard (2013) analysing Indo-European rites and myths of warriors returning home alsoprovides a comparative context for the study of saunas as the location for complex behaviourembedded in the social life of Iron Age warriors.

All of these observations need to be explored in greater detail. We suggest twodirections: the relationship between the saunas, the habitation areas and other types of activityaround the hillforts, and in relation to the patterns of location of other artistic and/or symbolicelements such as Iron Age rock art. Ideally, the aim would be to design a complex model of sociallife in relation to the patterns of location so as to identify and objectively question the meaningof the saunas.

4. THE DECORATION OF THE PEDRAS FORMOSAS

Little attention has been focused on the decoration of the pedras formosas. Thehypotheses of the ‘Indigenists’ and ‘Romanists’” have been presented above because they are ofsignificance to the debate, but it is necessary to turn to the works of Cardoso (1928, 143–50;1931, 254–6) to find detailed descriptions. Those that come after them are very limited (CaloLourido 1994, 770–1; Dinis 2002, 165).

The pedras formosas are large granite slabs, decorated using the relief and false relieftechnique. Although in shape the stone is an irregular pentagon, the decoration is containedwithin a perfectly regular pentagon in Briteiros 2 and Alto das Eiras. In general, the pedras withthe most complex decoration display clear technical differences between the shape of the support– normally rough and irregular – and the organization of the decoration, which is very regularand systematic. This would suggest either that the craftsmen who created the support were notresponsible for creating the decoration, or that the logic and intention behind both actions – thepreparation of the support and the decorative finish – were different.

These differences in the planning may explain the diversity seen in the distribution ofthe decoration and the work that made it possible to include the pedra formosa in the architectureof the monument. This is especially clear in Briteiros 1, where the grooves cut to support the roofdestroyed part of the decoration, although it is possible that these misalignments may be due tothe decorated stone being reused. In any event, we can see two types of pedras formosasexclusively in relation to the shape of the base stone.

Firstly, we have rougher, less elaborate stones, which seem to conserve part of theirnatural shape. Within this group are the undecorated stones of Braga and Sardoura, and Castrodas Eiras, which is decorated with carvings (Fig. 2).



The second group consists of flat stones with worked surfaces, whose upper section endsin a triangle to support a twin-angled roof. In these cases the decoration is usually in relief, andis more elaborate, revealing the involvement of a sculptor, a craftsman whose hand cannot beseen in the rougher pedras formosas. The quality of these reliefs is similar to that seen in thestatues of the warriors produced in the region with a similar technique and decoration (Schattner2003).

Both the decorative motifs and the way they are distributed on the support are entirelygeometric. We base our study on the methodology proposed by D.K. Washburn and D.W. Crowe(1988; Crowe 2004). These authors explored the design of the geometric motifs and how, basedon a series of defined rules, they structure the decoration of the objects. An initial observation ofthe pedras reveals the clear symmetry of the decoration and the predominance of designs basedon curved lines, a feature that associates them with what is known as ‘Celtic art’ (Megaw andMegaw 1986, 11–12; 1989; Harding 2007, 72–7, 109–13, 141–3, 155–7, 172–265). Theseparallels are not only limited to the generic use of curved lines, but we also find specific designsthat are very common in the Celtic art of the British Isles and the Continent.

As regards the structural analysis of the decoration, the studies of Washburn and Crowe,which focus on the geometric designs and the role of symmetry in their composition, proposethat the symmetries are based on four principles: transposition, rotation, reflection and glidereflection (Fig. 13). Together with these principles, we would add the concept of the oppositionbetween form and counter-form, used by C. Velandia (2005). This principle is based on reversingthe relationship between the background and the figure, forming a figure with the backgrounddelimited by another (below, Fig. 16), a concept that should not be confused with a figure innegative.

This said, the craftsmen responsible for the pedras formosas used all of the principlesof symmetry mentioned above in their creation, with the exception of displaced reflection. Wewill begin by exploring the designs.

Figure 13The four principles proposed by Washburn and Crowe for the production of figures and symmetrical compositions.



Circular designs The variety of the resulting figures is very limited, with simple circles, circleswith a central point and concentric circles. There are also triskeles, which are always carvedinside a circle. These motifs are usually located on the top of the pedras (Fig. 14). Within thisgroup we could include the central decoration of the stone of Briteiros 1, consisting of a groupof simple circles that are partially overlapped with a horizontal and vertical transposition,comprising a very artistic framework following what Washburn and Crowe (1988, 52–4) call a‘bidimensional pattern’ (Fig. 15).

S-shaped designs These are possibly the most characteristic type of decoration used on thepedras formosas, in a wide range of variations and combinations that correspond to what R.Megaw and V. Megaw (1986, 12) call the ‘S curve’. They may form a composition similar to thebraid with a multiple vertical transposition, or use a vertical mirror image. Other, more complex,figures are based on these two types of construction, including what we refer to as‘counterforms’, which in turn produce other decorations by overlapping vertical transposition.These highly sophisticated combinations are particularly visible in Alto das Eiras. In Quintãs, wefind a design consisting of a vertical transposition combined with a vertical mirror image, which

Figure 14Circular designs on the upper part of the pedras formosas.

Figure 15Example of two-way movement in the middle section of Briteiros 1.



is the counterform of the composition found in Alto das Eiras. Decorations were also created byrotating the ‘S’: in Alto de Quintãs there is a horizontal ‘S’, while there is a figure created bysymmetrical rotation on the lower part of Briteiros 1 or its counterform in Alto das Eiras, creatingdesigns which could be referred to as cross-shaped (Fig. 16).

Rectilinear designs These are only found in Briteiros 1 and Galegos (Figs. 2.10 and 6.A). In thefirst case, they are X-shaped and distributed vertically so that the composition on one side of thepedra is symmetrical to the other. In the case of Galegos, the decoration is on a cube of rock ata tangent to the entrance. This block is decorated with horizontal ‘S’ designs on the front, andrectilinear designs on its upper edge. In this instance, the compositions are asymmetrical, withsome X-shaped combinations together with other herringbone patterns. We have not been able toidentify their pattern.

Dually symmetrical designs These are found in Briteiros 1 and Alto das Eiras (Figs. 2.8 and2.10). In the first case they are formed from a spiral, and in the second from concentric circles,while in both cases the designs are the result of dual symmetry, first duplicating the design as ahorizontal mirror image, and then as a vertical mirror image (Fig. 17).

Braided designs These are either undecorated, as in the case of Briteiros 2, or with moredetailed decoration, as in the case of Briteiros 1, Alto das Eiras and Sanfins. In all of these, the

Figure 16Motifs shown on the middle of the pedras formosas and the principles of symmetry applied in the decoration.



braided design is used to separate the decorative areas and distribute the decoration, as inBriteiros 1 and 2 and Alto das Eiras, or to help make certain parts of the pedra stand out fromthe rest, as in Sanfins or Tongobriga, where they surround and highlight the access door to thechamber (Fig. 2).

Although we use the term ‘braided designs’ only to refer to the motifs that clearlyrepresent ropes, it should be noted that the vast majority of the designs are based on ropes. Forexample, the S-shaped designs would be the result of twisting a strand of three ropes, and thedesigns seen on the bottom part of Briteiros 1 would be the result of duplicating this strand.Ropes dominate many of the designs seen on the pedras formosas, and are also found on otherarchitectural supports in the hillfort culture of the north-west Iberian Peninsula.

Apart from these motifs that decorate the main surface of the pedras formosas, there areothers whose role is not so clear, and whose designs and technique are associated with rock art.In general, both share the same elements: concentric circles, snake shapes, triskeles and S-shapeddesigns (Fig. 18). We know of three cases of rock art carvings on pedras formosas: (1) the crosswithin a circle and the S-shaped motifs on the inner face of the pedra of Briteiros 2 (Fig. 19); (2)the cross at the entrance to the chamber and the trident-like shape on the pedra formosa inGalegos (Fig. 18.F); and (3) the snake carved onto the floor that seems to stretch from theante-chamber to the chamber in Tongobriga (Fig. 18.C). We are uncertain of the temporalrelationship between these carvings and the rest of the elements in the building, although it is

Figure 17Motifs on the bottom parts of the pedras formosas and the creation of designs using twisting and folding

chordiforms.



Figure 18Motifs used to decorate the pedras formosas and in rock art in the north-west Iberian Peninsula. PEDRAS

FORMOSAS: A. Briteiros 1. B. Alto das Eiras. C. Tongobriga. D. Briteiros 2. E. Briteiros 1. F. Galegos. ROCKART: M. Gargamala (Mondariz). N. Monte das Ferraduras (Cotobade). O. Chan da Lagoa (Campo Lameiro). P.

Laxe das Cruces (Ponte Caldelas). Q. Laxe das Rodas (Muros). R. As Canles (Campo Lameiro).

Figure 19Carvings on the back of the pedra of Briteiros 2, with a sinuous motif that is a variety of the S-curve, and a cross

carved inside a circle (see Fig. 18M and R).



worthwhile recording their presence and remembering that crosses within circles are frequentlyfound on rock art from the Second Iron Age (García Quintela and Santos Estévez 2008, 61–95;Santos Estévez 2008, 126–44, 149, 162–76). These observations present complex lines ofopposition and continuity that call for a more detailed study. We will therefore examine thedistribution of the motifs carved onto the surface of the pedra.

We begin with the fact that their surface is divided into three vertical sections,occasionally with braided designs marking each sector (e.g. Alto das Eiras and Quintãs), whichwe call the upper, middle and lower sectors. In the upper sector, the sides are at a lower level thanthe central part of this sector, on the apex of the pentagon. The lower sector corresponds to thezone defined by the height of the entrance to the chamber, while the larger, middle sector liesbetween the other two.

Based on this arrangement, we see a pattern in the distribution of the designs dependingon the sectors (Fig. 20). The circular motifs appear in the highest part of the upper sector or onthe sides of the middle sector; when the S-shaped designs are vertical, they are located in theupper or middle sector, but never in the lower sector. When the S-shaped designs are horizontal,they are located in the lower sector, as is the case with the figures derived from rotating the S andcross-shaped figures. The rectilinear designs, in the case of Briteiros 1, appear in the middlesector. In Galegos, where the decorated beam could be an addition, we believe that the front facehas an equal pattern to the lower sector, with horizontal S-shapes, and the upper face correspondswith the middle sector, which features rectilinear designs in the same way as Briteiros 1. Finally,the lower sector contains the only dually symmetrical figures. This vertical distribution of the

Figure 20Decorative structure of the pedras based on the type of motifs, their position and layout according to the principles

of symmetry.



decoration would seem to be coherent with the way of decorating other supports in the Iron Age(Prieto Martínez et al. 2003) as well as the way in which the decoration is divided into sections(Prieto Martínez and Santos Estévez 2009).

Finally, we consider the organization of the decoration, taking into account also the wayin which the designs construct the panels, maintaining a distribution into three sectors. Thedesigns in the upper sector are structured by horizontal transposition. In the middle sector, thedecoration is structured by vertical transposition, by vertical mirror images and by the creationof ‘contraforms’, while in the lower sector, vertical mirror images are used.

It is important to note that this structuring of the decoration is seen in the type ofdesign used, as well as the way in which it is used and repeated. For example, the S-shapeddesigns are vertical and distributed vertically in the middle section, as in Alto das Eiras, andare horizontal in the lower section and distributed horizontally in the upper part, as in Alto dasQuintãs and Briteiros 1 respectively. The circular designs are distributed horizontally in theupper section, as in Alto das Eiras, and are distributed vertically in the middle section, as inBriteiros 1. Thus, the different parts of a pedra formosa are not so much differentiated by thepresence of dissimilar motifs for each part, as by the different way of placing and distributingthese motifs. In this way, it is possible to achieve a very diverse decoration using a smallnumber of designs.

Similar designs are found in the regional archaeology, in the decoration of the torquesand the clothing of the monumental warrior statues. Here we find vertical S-shaped designs in theupper part of the sagum and horizontal S-shaped designs in the lower part, both of which aredivided, in the same way as the pedras formosas, by braided elements on the belt (Calo Lourido2003, 12–13, Taf. 15, 17–21). We also find parallels for both the designs and the structure of thedecoration in the European Iron Age.

As for the designs, the presence of triskeles is well known, and S-shaped patterns areparticularly abundant: the pelta or palmette, running scroll or S curve, seen in the belt hook fromHölzelsau (Austria) or the Wandsworth shield boss (England) amongst others, which seem torepresent hybrid animals with the body of a snake and the head of a horse or bird, genericallyreferred to as dragons. However, other forms are lacking in the north-west Iberian Peninsula,such as the ‘lotus’ (Harding 2007, 15), usually interpreted as Greek imports in the La Tène style.In the case of the structure of the decoration, the triple distribution is also seen in other reliefsfrom Celtic sculpture, although there is a particular resemblance to the pillar from Pfalzfeld,whose decoration is divided into three, with horizontal S-shaped motifs in the lower section andvertically in the middle section, with both sectors separated by braids. According to Jacobsthal(1969, 8), a human head crowned the pillar before its disappearance by 1608/9.

This brief comparative review raises the question of what these figures actuallyrepresent. The question is considered more broadly by Megaw and Megaw (1994, 294–5):

This again throws into doubt the claim that ‘Celtic’ art – or Muslim art, or Jewish art – isnon-representational, since meaning is clearly conveyed by the pattern used. That the meaningis not transculturally evident may well be connected with the fact that visual representation inAustralian Aboriginal society is learned orally in stages and is thus often most abstract tooutsiders when it is most secret and most precise in meaning. To assume, therefore, thatelements are ‘decorative’ or ‘ornamental’ simply because they are not openly representationalor narrative, is a culture-bound interpretation which is not universally applicable, and isunlikely to apply to Celtic art.



What are the representations that are concealed behind the iconography of the pedras formosas?How is it possible to move from the grammar of the form to the semantics? Again, this is a matterfor further study.

CONCLUSION

This article was written with three main goals in mind. The first was to present asummary of a number of exceptional buildings from the Iron Age in the north-west IberianPeninsula, in order to encourage their inclusion in studies and debates on the Iron Age in Europe.The second was to present the prevalent interpretations, highlighting some of the problems thatare inherent to them. And finally, we have advocated the need for a new formal study to placethese structures and the concepts inherent in them in the context of the Iron Age in Europe. Inorder to achieve these goals, we have presented the material in two parts.

In the first part of the paper, our aim has been to characterize these buildings and topresent the history of research and to outline the steps that have led to their being defined assaunas, including the current debate between two chronological hypotheses, labelled as‘Indigenist’ and ‘Romanist’. Using this as a basis, we have proposed two different butcomplementary approaches.

The first approach involves an examination of location, which has demonstrated theoutlying position of the saunas with respect to the habitation areas. We believe that furthercomparative research should be undertaken on the patterns of localization of other artistic featuresof Iron Age date, and on other buildings or monuments that may have served a public function inrespect of the hillforts. We have also indicated the importance of the outlying location of the saunasin the mythical and ritual behaviour of warriors in different Indo-European traditions.

The second approach has been to consider the decorative features of the pedras formosasfrom the Douro-Minho area in the context of European Iron Age art. That, hitherto, pedrasformosas have been omitted from general discussion of Celtic art and summaries of European IronAge culture (Duval 1977; Duval and Kruta 1982; Collis 1984; Megaw and Megaw 1989; Éluère2004) is surprising. These scholars appear to be following the advice of Jacobsthal (1969, v), whowrote: ‘the student of Celtic art as a general European phenomenon might well leave Spain on oneside’. This omission is inexplicable, especially in the work of Lenerz-De Wilde (1991).

These two analyses operate at different levels that are difficult to include in a singleargument, at least given the current state of research. However, we believe that such an approachis warranted since detailed formal study helps to eliminate bias. It also allows for approaches ondifferent scales: a large-scale comparative analysis of the different artistic manifestations in thelandscape, and a micro-scale approach to the patterns of regularity and the formation of imageson the surface of the pedras.

This paper has by no means exhausted all of the possibilities for the formal study of thepedras formosas and the buildings of which they form a part. Our interpretations have beenlimited to suggesting certain lines of approach that could be used to develop new understandingsof these neglected monuments.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank João Fonte, Yolanda Seoane-Veiga and Silvia González Soutelo for theircontribution to the fieldwork and discussions. João was also responsible for Figure 12 and Yolanda for



Figure 2.8. Felisbela Oliveira Leite organized a working team from the municipal district of Famalicão inorder to see the pedra formosa of Alto das Eiras and visit the site. Gonçalo Cruz was our guide in Briteirosand provided us with unpublished photos included as Figure 11, © Sociedade Martíns Sarmento. F. SandeLemos provided us with the information on the sauna of Braga. Without Tarcísio Maciel in Castro deRoques and Claudio Brochado in Monte da Saia we would never have been able to discover the saunas ofthese hillforts. In Freixo, António Lima provided us with an excellent overview of Tongobriga. MarianaPereira welcomed us in Povoa de Lanhoso and provided us with the information available about the pedraof Alto de Quintãs. Alvaro Brito showed us the location of the unpublished sauna from the hillfort of MontePedrão. In the case of the Cantabrian record, Á. Villa Valdés was our guide on the visit to the Asturiansaunas that he has excavated or re-excavated; M. Miranda and Ó. López were our guides in Castelón deCastañoso; and César Parcero and Fidel Méndez, respectively, provided us with unpublished informationon Punta dos Prados and Borneiro. Anxo Rodríguez Paz designed Figures 1 and 4 and reviewed thecontents of the graphic section. Finally, João, Silvia, César and Yolanda read and discussed the originalversion of the text. Any errors that still remain are the exclusive responsibility of the authors. The researchwas funded by project number 10PXIB210112PR of the Xunta de Galicia.

(MVGQ) Facultade de Xeografía e HistoriaUniversidade de Santiago de Compostela

Praza da Universidade s/n15782 Santiago de Compostela

SPAINE-mail: [email protected]

(MS-E) Post-doctoral fellow FCT (SFRH/BPD/93700/2013)CITCEM – Universidade do Minho

Largo do Paço4704-553 Braga

PORTUGALE-mail: [email protected]

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2015 IRON AGE SAUNAS OF NORTHERN PORTUGAL: STATE OF THE ART AND RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES