ABSTRACT
Goldwork is one of the most outstanding material manifestations of protohistory in the northwestern Iberian Peninsula (the so-called Castro culture). The abundance of local goldbearing sources is one of the factors that explain why large numbers of gold items of a high technical quality and great beauty are found. We currently know of more than one hundred torcs and around half that number of earrings, as well as less numerous diadems/belts, bracelets, pendants and hair rings. Most of these pieces are preserved in the region’s museums and in national museums in Madrid and Lisbon, although some are in foreign institutions such as the Ashmolean or the British Museums. However, only two museums have published catalogues of their Castro culture gold pieces, the Lugo Museum (Balseiro 1994) and the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid (García-Vuelta 2007).
