Vitrina Cero: 'The Marquis of Cerralbo' (ENG)

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1. Necropolis of Hortezuela de Ozén, Guadalajara. Group consisting of the marquis and marquise, various clergymen and belallers. Archivo Juan Cabré. Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte.

2. Necropolis of Los Centenares, Luzaga, Guadalajara. The Marquis of Cerralbo at the end of one of the streets formed by a rou of urn burials.

3. Necropolis of Valdenovillos, Guadalajara.

4. Necropolis of Val. Alpanceque, Soria.

5. Group portrait taken during a visit by the Marquis of Cerralbo and his wife to the archaeological site of Torralba, Soria. Archivo Juan Cabré. Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte.

6. In the picture, the Marquis of Cerralbo, the Marquise of Villahuerta, Déchelette and his wife. Archivo Juan Cabré. Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte.

7. Necropolis of El Altillo, Aguilar de Anguita, Guadalajara. Stela decorated with a stylised horse and rider.

8. Necropolis of Navafría, Clares, Guadalajara. Cobbled streets separated by rous of stelae. Archivo Juan Cabré. Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte.

THE MARQUIS OF CERRALBO (1845-1922): BETWEEN COLLECTING AND ARCHAEOLOGY Enrique Aguilera y Gamboa, whom we are honouring this year on the centenary of his death, was a very learned man, tireless traveller and avid collector. A pioneer of archaeology in Spain, he helped to draft the 1911 Law on Excavations. The Marquis is best known for fronting excavations in a little-studied region of Spain's central plateau, namely the Upper Jalón basin (Guadalajara, Soria and part of Zaragoza), wher ehe documented over one hundred archaeology sides, mostly Iron Aged necropolises. Thanks to these dicoveries, archaeologists began talking about Celtic traits in the pre-Roman cultures of the Iberian Peninsula.

1. Necropolis of Hortezuela de Ozén, Guadalajara. Group consisting of the marquis and marquise, various clergymen and belallers. 2. Necropolis of Los Centenares, Luzaga, Guadalajara. The Marquis of Cerralbo at the end of one of the streets formed by a rou of urn burials. 3. Necropolis of Valdenovillos, Guadalajara. 4. Necropolis of Val. Alpanseque, Soria. 5. Group portrait taken during a visit by the Marquis of Cerralbo and his wife to the archaeological site of Torralba, Soria. 6. In the picture, the Marquis of Cerralbo, the Marquise of Villahuerta, Déchelette and his wife. 7. Necropolis of El Altillo, Aguilar de Anguita, Guadalajara. Stela decorated with a stylised horse and rider. 8. Necropolis of Navafría, Clares, Guadalajara. Cobbled streets separated by rous of stelae. © Fotografías 1, 5, 6 y 8: Archivo Juan Cabré. Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid, Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. © Fotografías 2, 3, 4 y 7: Archivo del Museo Cerralbo.

PALAEONTOLOGICAL SITE OF TORRALBA (MEDINACELI, SORIA) 300,000 years ago. Torralba was the first Lower Palaeolithic site ever excavated in Spain. Cerralbo’s campaigns in 1909 and 1913 unearthed lithic artefacts associated with horse, deer, rhinoceros and especially elephant remains. The marquis presented this place as the oldest hunters’ settlement in Europe, and his intensely traditionalist ideological convictions led him to maintain outdated interpretations; for instance, he continued to use biblical timelines, and his descriptions of the Palaeolithic lifestyles were based on those of Castilian peasants. Nevertheless, the site’s reputation as an elephant hunters’ camp endured, making Torralba a seminal reference on the European Lower Palaeolithic.

NECROPOLIS OF EL ALTILLO (AGUILAR DE ANGUITA, GUADALAJARA) 5th–first half of the 4th century BC. The archaeological site of Aguilar de Anguita consists of a settlement called Los Castillejos and three necropolises: La Carretera, El Altillo One and El Altillo Two. Excavations in these cemeteries began before 1911, revealing approximately 2,264 graves marked with stelae and arranged along longitudinal streets. The grave goods are simple in most cases, but a few tombs contained complex sets of armour and weapons that shed light on the Celtiberian warrior’s gear, similar to the Iberian’s but with several unique features.

WARRIOR’S GEAR AS GRAVE GOODS (4th century BC) 5. AGUILAR DE ANGUITA-TYPE ANTENNAE SWORD. Considered the most characteristic typology in Celtiberian necropolises, this sword is named after the archaeological site. Though concentrated in the provinces of Soria and Guadalajara, such swords have also been found in Vettonian territory and other regions. 6. SOLIFERREUM. Throwing weapon made entirely of iron, ritually bent to render it unserviceable. 7. HORSE BIT. Element from an incomplete horse bit with a strikingly unusual mouthpiece. The fact that it was buried with weapons seems to indicate the existence of mounted warriors. 8. SPEAR AND FERRULE 9. SHIELD BOSS

CERRALBO’S ARCHAEOLOGICAL LEGACY: ARCÓBRIGA The marquis’s greatest contribution to archaeology was locating the ancient Roman town mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary (third century AD) on Cerro del Villar, a hill near Monreal de Ariza, Zaragoza. This location was important because it had a pre-Roman horizon from the same period as the Celtiberian necropolis, as well as the remains of an Ibero-Roman town with a complex defensive system and major public buildings (baths, basilica, etc.). The site was so large that it took over a decade to excavate (1908–1920), with work on the Celtiberian cemetery beginning around 1911. Structurally similar to other Celtiberian necropolises, the cemetery contained over 300 tombs, and the grave goods consisting of pottery pieces, bones and metal objects, mostly personal ornaments or elements associated with warrior culture.

GRAVE GOODS FROM THE NECROPOLIS OF ARCÓBRIGA WARRIOR CULTURE 10. Arcóbriga-type sword 4th–3rd century BC. This type of “atrophied antennae” sword, occasionally with a richly decorated hilt, was named after the necropolis. It is frequently found in Celtiberian and Vettonian graves.

PERSONAL ORNAMENTS 11. Headdress support 4th–3rd century BC. The marquis believed that these items were used to secure the high hairdos worn by women. He identified the graves that contained them as “priestesses’ tombs”. 12. Bracelets 4th–1st century BC. 13. Articulated, quatrefoil and multifoil plaques 4th–1st century BC. Decorative metal pieces applied to textile and leather garments. Some still have the cardboard to which they were adhered when they first entered the National Archaeological Museum. 14. Belt buckle 4th–2nd century BC. Known as an “Iberian-type” buckle due to its form and abundance in southern Iberia, although at a later date it also became fairly common on the peninsula’s central plateau. 15. Tweezers 4th–1st century BC. If these tweezers were used for hair removal, as experts believe, they denote the importance of physical appearance in life and in death. Their rich decoration confirms their relevance. 16. Fibulae 4th–1st century BC. Brooches occasionally adopted animal forms, like these dolphin and horse-shaped fibulae, becoming chronological and cultural markers and, in the case of the horse, evidence of a warrior elite.

LUXURY IN THE IBERO-ROMAN TOWN OF ARCÓBRIGA 17. Stucco fragment Second half of the 1st century AD. Fragment of a mural painting with the classic dolphin iconography, found in a house with a porticoed courtyard.

CERAMIC GRAVE GOODS FROM LOS CENTENARES 18. Footed urn (GOBLET) 4th–3rd century BC. 19. Kernos-type urn 3rd–2nd century BC. The form of this piece, with a small cup (kotyliskos) attached to the rim, is associated with a ritual practice also found in Vaccaei and other cultures of the central Iberian plateau.

NECROPOLIS OF LOS CENTENARES (LUZAGA, GUADALAJARA) Late 4th–3rd century BC. Excavated in 1911, this necropolis presents a typical structure of graves set along streets, although the pattern of alternating cobbled and dirt lanes is less usual. The grave goods consist almost entirely of ceramic pieces: urns, spindle whorls and balls. The scarcity of military gear has been interpreted as evidence of a change in funerary rites or the absence of a warrior community.

20. Ceramic SPINDLE WHORL and ball 4th–2nd century BC. Storage facility in Santa María de Huerta with Luzaga pottery (Archivo Juan Cabré, Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, Madrid. Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte).

THE CERRALBO COLLECTION AT THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM The Marquis of Cerralbo donated his collection to the Spanish nation. A large part of the archaeological items entered the National Archaeological Museum in 1926 (the first shipments, which he had kept at the Palace of Santa María de Huerta in Soria), and the bulk followed suit in 1940. At the museum, Juan Cabré designed a “Cerralbo Gallery” where materials from Torralba, Ambrona and several Celtiberian necropolises were displayed. These pieces were packed up during the Spanish Civil War and never exhibited together again, although the marquis’s donations have had a significant presence in every permanent exhibition at the museum up to the present day. Protohistory Gallery in the “Museum in Brief” (1940–1951). Display cases on the right with materials from Aguilar de Anguita (Archivo del Museo Arqueológico Nacional)

NECROPOLIS OF EL ALTILLO, AGUILAR DE ANGUITA, GUADALAJARA 21. Short sword 5th century BC. The peculiar round disc shape of the pommel links this weapon to Alpine and Hallstatt specimens. It still has the original round label from the Cerralbo collection. 22. Scabbard with strip binding 5th–mid 4th century BC. These metal strips would have reinforced a dagger sheath or sword scabbard consisting of a wooden or leather core. They have typological similarities to peninsular Celtiberian pieces and, in Europe, to Hallstatt models and others from the British Isles.

1. BIFACE 2. CLEAVER 3. BIFACE 4. BIFACIAL SIDE-SCRAPER

10. Arcóbriga-type sword

11. Headdress support

17. Stucco fragment

18. Footed urn (GOBLET)

19. Kernos-type urn

22. Scabbard with strip binding

21. Short sword

20. CERAMIC SPINDLE WHORL AND BALL

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5. Aguilar de Anguita-type antennae sword

6. SOLIFERREUM

7. Horse bit

8. SPEAR AND FERRULE

9. SHIELD BOSS

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15. Tweezers

13. Articulated, quatrefoil and multifoil plaques

16. FIBULAE

14. Belt buckle

12. Bracelets