The fibulae from the Celtiberian oppidum of Contrebia Carbica

Abstract

A set of 112 fibulae from the Celtiberian oppidum of Contrebia Carbica and their immediate surrounding area are analyzed. It is one of the most interesting and numerous sets recovered in a Pre-Roman city of Hispania. It is important to highlight the scarcity of »Hispanic annular fibulae«, well contextualized in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, at the same time that the Early La Tène types, made in one piece, appear only in a minority. The largest number of fibulae corresponds to late La Tène types, which may be related to the emergence of the urban core, around the late third century or the early 2nd century BC, especially those made in two pieces, characteristic of Hispanic types. These models endured to the 2nd century BC, when the fibulae with zoomorphic representations appeared. At the same time, during Middle La Tène period further technical improvements in fibulae were introduced, imposing new models in which the foot is fixed, attached, fused and even, in a late-stage, integrated into the bridge itself, being these types dated around the 2nd century and even at the start of 1st century BC, when in these lands the process of romanization became increasingly evident. From the start of the 1st century BC some specimens as »Nauheim« type fibulae are relatively numerous, which presence could be related to the end of town, destroyed during the course of the Sertorian Wars. The city would subsequently be inhabited, as it is evidenced by the presence of a set of »Alesia« type fibulae or »Omega« type brooches, while a flat plate type fibula could be related to a roman villae. In short, althoug these materials have been found outside well-defined archaeological contexts, a whole study can address interesting questions about typological and structural aspects, their dispersion and the existence of possible production centers, while they are essential to address a chronological approach in this outstanding oppidum, which is one of the most important in Celtic Hispania.