FROM HUTS TO 'THE HOUSE': THE SHIFT IN PERCEIVING HOME BETWEEN THE BRONZE AGE AND THE EARLY IRON AGE IN CENTRAL IBERIA (SPAIN)

• Published in: Oxford journal of archaeology Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 393 - 410
• Main Author: BLANCO-GONZÁLEZ, ANTONIO
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2011; Blackwell
• Subjects: Archaeology; Bronze Age; Europe; Family structure; Home; Inheritance; Iron Age; Land rights; Living arrangements; Metal Ages; Prehistory and protohistory; Social change; South West Europe; Spain; Iron Age; Bronze Age; Europe; Spain; Iberian Peninsula; Dwelling; Village; Hut; Family; House; Social organization; Society; Spatial organization
• ISSN: 0262-5253; 1468-0092
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0092.2011.00373.x

Summary This paper focuses on the domestic realm in Late Prehistory in inland Iberia. A diachronic study of living quarters reveals two organizational approaches based on very different principles. The Bronze Age societies consisted of ephemeral family units: their huts are scattered, being relocated completely and regularly about every decade. From 800 BC onward, nucleated and permanent villages are formed: they are centred around ‘the house’. This is an institution that shelters generations of a family; it is the basic cell of the social order introduced in the Iron Age when everyday domestic practices were differently organized. Dwelling places become larger and are rebuilt over earlier ones. This change in practice is due to a new emphasis on links with the ancestral past and the genealogical transmission of land rights.