ABSTRACT

Rituals and symbols permeate everyday life, but all too often they escape the attention of archaeologists. The agricultural history of Spain provides a good example of how this happens.

For many years the rural economy of Galicia has been a source of inspiration for prehistorians working in other parts of Europe. It is the raised storehouses or hórreos that have attracted most attention (Figure 1.1; Frankowski 1918; Martínez 1975), for they are often quoted as parallels for small timber buildings discovered in the excavation of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and France (Fowler 1983: 183; Gransar 2000). The prehistoric buildings are most often represented by four large post holes and are conventionally referred to in English as ‘four posters’ or in German as ‘Speicher’ (granaries). That may not be their only interpretation, but it finds some support on sites where wooden structures of this kind had been burnt, as they are sometimes associated with carbonised grain.