Las diademas-cinturón castreñas: el conjunto con decoración figurada de Moñes (Villamayor, Piloña, Asturias)

The Golden Code of the Bird‐Men: Iconographic and Social Interpretation of the Moñes I Diadem‐Belt (Asturias, North‐west Iberian Peninsula, First Century BC)

“…In traditional iconographic interpretations of Moñes, two main aspects have been ignored, and these will be the starting point in this analysis. One is the zoomorphic nature of the figures, which Marco Simón describes in detail in his interpretative hypothesis (Marco Simón ; ); the other is the fact that the story underwent amendments, as witnessed by the various repairs/over stamps on some fragments (García Vuelta and Perea ; García Vuelta ).…”

“…4.96). The unique diadem‐belts are all found in the northern reaches (García Vuelta and Perea ; García Vuelta ; , 180–236). In the interior (León and Zamora regions), jewellery is minimally represented (Sánchez‐Palencia Ramos , 533–4; Perea and Sánchez‐Palencia , 146), although there are important finds in the area of the great hillforts of the western Meseta.…”

“…The long and confusing history of appearance of fragments during the nineteenth century led to their dispersal to three different institutions in Spain and France. The most thorough analysis to date has focused on the technological processes of manufacture of the fragments in Madrid (García Vuelta and Perea ; García Vuelta , 156–8). Its findings show that the artefact originally had two components: Moñes I (a double frieze, composed of fragments A, B‐C, D and E) and Moñes II (a single frieze, including fragments F and G) ( Fig.…”

“…The two friezes in Moñes I and the single band in Moñes II were created by stamping and/or embossing from the back of the sheet, following previously worked projecting lines. It is estimated that, in the manner of Mediterranean ‘cylinder‐seals’, a combination of complex and simple moulds was used, as revealed by the topographic study of the fragments in Spain (García Vuelta and Perea , 14–15). The surviving locking/fastening system between the two parts (the end of fragment A from Moñes I and fragment F from Moñes II) consists of C‐shaped open rings of rectangular section, which were worked by hammering and embossing small grooves, and then welded at the front.…”

“…The cauldrons portrayed echo the iconography of the Atlantic Bronze Age, which lasted into the Iron Age (from the seventh to fourth centuries BC; García and Bellido 1941). Meanwhile, some of the weaponry appears to be third century BC in date (Raddatz , 190; López Monteagudo , 108, among others), a hypothesis which was later extended to the dating of other diadem‐belts (García Vuelta and Perea , 20; García Vuelta , 236). Others authors, such as Marco Simón, noted that the uniqueness of the figurative representations in Moñes pieces must date them to an ‘immediately pre‐Roman or early Romanization period’ (Marco Simón , 345).…”