Warrior Champions in Late Prehistoric Iberia Gonzalez Garcia

FRANCISCO JAVIER GONZÁLEZ GARCÍA
BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS: WARFARE AND

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE LATER PREHISTORY OF THE
NORTH-WESTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA1
‘The sword is the samurai’s soul’

Japanese proverb
For my father, in the year

of his 90th birthday
Summary. This article explores changes in the ‘art of warfare’ among

societies in the north-western Iberian Peninsula in the Late Bronze and Iron
Ages. These changes are interpreted as a manifestation of the transformation
experienced by societies living in the region first from ‘warrior societies’
to ‘societies with warriors’ at the end of the Bronze Age and then back to
‘warrior societies’ in the Late Iron Age. Evidence of individual combat as a
manifestation of ‘societies with warriors’ is analysed in the broader context of
Indo-European and ethnographical examples. It reflects societies in which
there were groups specialized in warfare and represents the establishment, in
the region, of an Indo-European warrior ideology.
Using the archaeological and written record, this paper explores the evolution of the ‘art
of war’ in the region of Galicia (the north-western Iberian Peninsula), from the Bronze Age until
the beginning of the Roman conquest (II Iron Age), relating the process to the transformations
evident in the social structure of the communities in the study area.
the middle and late bronze age: the appearance of the champion in
the north-western iberian peninsula
Societies living in the north-western Iberian Peninsula (see Fig. 1) appear to have been
characterized in the Bronze Age by their warlike nature, expressed in discoveries of weapons,
1 This study forms part of the research project PGIDIT05PXIA23602PR financed by the Consellería de Innovación,
Industria e Comercio of the Xunta de Galicia.
OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 28(1) 59–76 2009

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Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
and 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA. 59
BETWEEN WARRIORS AND CHAMPIONS
Figure 1
Map of the study area with the location of Bronze Age weapons found in Galicia (modified from Meijide 1988, 77).
OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

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60 Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Figure 2
Pedra das Procesións. 3D scanner image (LAr, IEGPS, CSIC-LPPP, IIT, USC).
and, above all, of petroglyphs depicting weaponry, which reveal the highly symbolic nature of
weapons, signifying the strength of the warrior, the world of men and the art of war (Vázquez
1994, 118). In some cases, these carvings may be considered as ‘panoply’ rocks, since they
depict only weapons (De la Peña and Rey 2001, 174). Some of these petroglyphs have been
linked to clearly warlike contexts, as is the case of the Pedra das Procesións (also known as Auga
da Laxe I: Santa Mariña de Vincios, Gondomar, Pontevedra, Spain) (Fig. 2) and the Pedra das
Ferraduras (Fentáns, Sanxurxo de Sanxurxo de Sacos, Cotobade, Pontevedra, Spain) (Fig. 3).
These two locations have been interpreted (Vázquez 1995, 43–4, 72–5) as sanctuaries – places
intended for meetings of warriors or activities related to warfare, or possible community rituals
(assemblies, rites of passage or initiation, etc.). These carvings express an ideology that was
warlike and that legitimized the community or the brotherhood of the warriors who celebrated
their rituals in these places (Vázquez 1995, 59). In these petroglyphs, the weapons are
represented ‘in an active position, that is they appear to suggest that they are being held’, since
they are carved ‘on a vertical or slightly inclined surface, with the blade facing upwards’ (Santos
Estévez 2004, 180), possibly indicating collective forms of warfare.
The appearance of jewellery together with these metal weapons at the beginning of the
Bronze Age also indicates the presence of a social hierarchy that would have been expressed
through the possession of both types of objects. Here we may be seeing ‘a society in which the
warrior male, or whoever used metal weapons, occupied an important position in the social
hierarchy, perhaps as chieftains who demonstrated their power, legitimated either directly or
indirectly by warlike coercion, through the ownership of weapons and jewellery’ (Vázquez 1995,
293).
On the basis of these data, which seem to indicate the appearance of a warrior
aristocracy, we may characterize Bronze Age society in Galicia (in line with Clastres 1988, 222)
as a society with warriors, meaning a society where despite the fact that ‘all of its men folk were
involved in warfare from time to time, [ . . . ] a certain number of them would be constantly
involved in fighting expeditions, even in cases when the tribe was provisionally at relative peace
with neighbouring groups; engaging in warfare on their own incentive, and not to respond to a
collective imperative’. In the north-western Iberian Peninsula these Bronze Age groups of
aristocratic warriors comprised a warrior elite who carried the weapons and ornaments that

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Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 61
Figure 3
Pedra das Ferraduras. Tracing (LAr, IEGPS, CSIC-LPPP, IIT, USC).
appear in the archaeological record. Apart from warfare, the functions of this warrior elite
included mobilizing groups of men to carry out raids. The presence and participation of
individuals who did not belong to these warrior bands is suggested by the existence of both
metallic and non-metallic weapons in the Late Bronze Age in northern Europe. The metal
weapons would have been carried by the high-ranking warriors, while the foot soldiers would
have carried weapons made from organic materials (Osgood 1998, 37).
Within this warlike context, a series of changes can be recognized, in the north-western
Iberian Peninsula, which seem to indicate the appearance of a champion figure. This change may
be seen in the progressive replacement from the Middle Bronze Age (1500–1200 BC) of the
dagger – the characteristic weapon of the Early Bronze Age (1800–1500 BC) – by the sword,
a process which, according to the typology of the swords, became widespread during the Late
Bronze Age (1200–700 BC), with large numbers of ‘archaic pistiliform’ swords between 1200–
850 BC; ‘classic pistiliform’ swords between 1000–850 BC, and ‘carp-tongue’ swords (Meijide
1991, 241, 246–51, 267). This change must have involved a transformation in the form of
combat, as we will see below.
These swords were products of great technical quality, access to which was restricted
to a select few. They are similar to those found across the entire Atlantic region, suggesting the

© 2009 The Author
existence of contacts between elite groups, either in peaceful or warlike contexts, with groups
outside the peninsula (Vázquez 1995, 87). The importance of the sword as a weapon of the elite,
denoting the presence of an aristocracy, increased to the stage where these weapons were no
longer functional, but were instead symbolic and ritual items of prestige – a matter discussed
by Worley (2005, 5–6) in the case of swords from Period I of the Scandinavian Bronze Age
(1800–1500 BC).
Warlike activity in the north-western Iberian Peninsula during the Bronze Age,
therefore, evolved in a similar way to the rest of western Europe (Vázquez 1995, 89) where
we know that, at the beginning of the second millennium BC, the sword and spear appear
as novelties in the archaeological record. These new types of weapons, especially the sword,
achieved a position of great social and symbolic importance, becoming (within a process that
Guilaine and Zammit (2002, 221–2) have characterized as the ‘emergence of the hero’) an item
characterizing the appearance of ‘warrior aristocracies’ comprised of systems of chiefdoms with
a higher or lower level of complexity, in which war was an activity that was both frequent and
highly valued (Kristiansen 1999; 2002; Guilaine and Zammit 2002, 217–22). Although this
tendency towards warfare in the Bronze Age has to be put into perspective (see, for example,
Harding 1999, 72), I believe that warfare must be considered as more than simply another
general field of activity characteristic of European Bronze Age society. The real significance of
warfare, as we will attempt to show, is demonstrated by the fact that changes in warfare lead to
profound transformations in society.
The appearance of the warrior-champion can also be identified elsewhere. In northern
Portugal the statue-stelae of Bronze Age warriors found at San João de Ver and near Chaves in
the Támega and Faiões rivers (Figs. 4A–C) symbolize the social importance that individual
warriors could achieve. The dissimilarity seen between fortified and unfortified settlements in
northern Portugal during the Late Bronze Age would also seem to point in the same direction.
It has been suggested that these fortified sites may have served as central settlements and the
residences of these warrior elites (Queiroga 2003, 37–8, 42–3).
The archaeological record therefore offers us indications suggestive of a change in
methods of warfare, and the resulting ideological and social changes which this brought about.
Traditional types of collective combat were augmented by new techniques such as individual
combat in which the champion, an aristocratic member of the warrior elite bearing these new
types of metal weapons, played a fundamental role.
The appearance of individual combat between champions in the north-western Iberian
Peninsula is indicated by several lines of evidence. Firstly, on the petroglyph of Auga da Laxe I,
there is a representation of a large sword, of Middle or Late Bronze Age type, together with
representations of weapons characteristic of the beginning of the Bronze Age. There is some
debate as to the dating for this sword: Vázquez (1995, 46–7) considers that it is a ‘carp’s tongue’
type, indicating that the petroglyph was in use until 900/750 BC, while other authors believe it
is a pistiliform sword, dating between 1000–850 BC. These chronological uncertainties apart, the
most important point is the co-existence of weapons from different periods which, apart from
demonstrating the continued use of the petroglyph of Auga da Laxe I throughout the Bronze Age,
also indicates, in a more indirect manner, the appearance of warrior elites in the region during
this period, and the changes that the presence of these champions would have brought about in
the tactics of warfare. In fact, the larger size of the sword in comparison to the other weapons
shown on the rock may be interpreted as a manifestation of the pre-eminence of the champion
over the warrior group.

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Figure 4
Statue-stelae of warriors. Bronze Age, northern Portugal: A. San João de Ver (modified from Jorge and Jorge 1990,
fig. 10). B. Bed of the River Támega, Chaves (modified from Jorge and Almeida 1980, 16). C. Faiôes, Chaves (modified
from Almeida and Jorge 1979, 15).
Another clear indication of this transformation is offered by the replacement, from the
Late Bronze Age, of the representation of halberds, daggers and shield shapes on these ‘panoply
rocks’ (which appear to reflect collective methods of warfare) by the ritual deposition of
weapons, including swords, in watery contexts (Bradley 1998, 251; on deposits: Meijide 1988,
79–90) (Figs. 1 and 5). These deposits have been related to the appearance of a ‘type of warfare
and representation in which the individual and combat between champions have a special social
relevance’ (González Ruibal 2006–2007, 114). This interpretation gains some support from the
fact that in some of these river deposits (Meijide 1988, 86), pairs of swords of the same type
have been found, possibly indicating the practice of individual combat described by Kristiansen
(2002, 329).
The appearance of these swords and the replacement of their representation on a
petroglyph by the object itself suggest the transformation of the warrior into a champion. It is
also possible to interpret the discoveries of pairs of swords in this way, not least because

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Figure 5
Weapons dredged from the River Ulla (modified from Meijide 1988, 78).
European epic traditions often present heroes characterized by having a pair of weapons (Miller
2000, 208–12).
Through the sword itself, instead of its representation, the specialized warrior would
ratify his position of privilege within society, presenting himself as the owner of these costly
weapons with a symbolic value that would make them more than mere instruments of war.
Within this context, swords would have been objects of great symbolic value, almost magical in
nature, which explains the special treatment given to them in some European burials. It is even
possible that some weapons generated a ‘biography’ that was independent of that of their owners
(Osgood 1998, 2; Kristiansen 2002, 329–31). This idea gains some support from a number
of indicators: the magical nature of specific weapons in the Celtic cultural tradition (Ettingler
1945); the important social role of swords in some European folkloric traditions (Ellis Davidson
1960); the important role played by weapons in the religions of many ancient Indo-European
populations (e.g. the veneration of spears as gods: Iustinus, Epit. XLIII 3; the adoration of the
sword as a god of war by the Alans: Ammianus Marcellinus, Hist. XXXI, 2, 23; the oath of
fidelity sworn by the Quados on their swords, which they venerated as gods: Ammianus

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Figure 6
Warrior with sword. Pedra das Ferraduras. Photo: Manuel Santos Estévez.
Marcellinus, Hist. XVII, 12, 21; the adoration by the Scythians of an ancient sword they believed
symbolized Ares and to which they consecrated swords and made human sacrifices: Herodotus,
Hist. IV, 62 and Mela, Chorog. II, 1, 15) or their importance in the epic heroic traditions in which,
as Miller suggests (2000, 207–8), the sword, often with its own name, is the predominant weapon
of the hero, the icon and symbol of the Indo-European hero-warrior. A wide range of social
values have been ascribed to the sword in other cultural traditions perhaps the best known being
the Samurai of Japan (Schwentker 2006, 69).
Further support for this hypothesis comes from the archaeological record of the
north-western Iberian Peninsula in the form of a representation of a warrior on the Pedra das
Ferraduras (Fig. 6). He carries a weapon that is much larger than himself perhaps to indicate the
symbolic importance of the sword. The carving also reflects a cultural stratigraphy in the ways
of using and appropriating carved rocks since the individual bearing the sword appears to have
been carved using a different technique from that of the sword, and may well have been a
subsequent addition – a champion or hero sufficiently distinguished to be shown next to such a
long-lasting symbol of power and prestige as the sword.
the early iron age: the disappearance of the champion

The emergence of the Iron Age in the north-western Iberian Peninsula (the Castros
culture) has, for several decades, been explained as the result of an endogenous and linear
evolution from the Late Bronze Age (Calo and Sierra 1983; De la Peña 2003, 111–18). Strong
support for this lies in the fact that the first hillforts in north-west Portugal appeared in the Late
Bronze Age (González Ruibal 2006–2007, 75–6; Queiroga 2003, 21–2). Further, it used to be
that Iron Age society in the area lost its warlike character, and became a peaceful peasant society
(Fernández-Posse and Sánchez-Palencia 1998). However, given the cultural continuity and other

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Figure 7
Castriño de Conxo. Tracing (modified from X.M. Lomba Martínez in Catalogación 1987, 89–90, fig. 10).
evidence presented in the archaeological record, it is difficult now to sustain the view that Iron
Age society in north-western Iberia was peaceful (González García 2006).
The concepts of Bronze Age and Iron Age are chronologically defined, based on the date
of appearance of certain traits in material culture. Alternative meanings (either cultural, social or
historical) have rarely been proposed. Here I will apply them in the conventional way, but a side
effect of this will be to give them some further significance, in this case following the changes
in the social sphere of warfare.
The cultural continuity between the Bronze and Iron Ages does not mean that
communities underwent no significant transformations during the transition to the first
millennium BC; as we will argue below, these were major changes manifested in warfare.
The main break in continuity was the settling of communities and the fortification of
settlements, with all the inherent social implications (Parcero 2002). This process initiated
considerable changes in the field of warfare. Bradley (1998, 243) has demonstrated the
development of communal defences between the Bronze and Iron Ages based on the coincidence,
at Castriño de Conxo (Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Spain) (Fig. 7), of petroglyphs with
representations of weapons and an Iron Age hillfort. He suggests that in the Bronze Age the
petroglyphs provided symbolic defence for the community while in the Iron Age defence was
manifest in fortifications.
This transformation is also documented in other parts of Europe, and implies a change
in the practice of warfare. In northern Europe the widespread occurrence of spears, swords,
shields and fortified settlements seems to indicate that a much more static type of warfare
developed, based on confrontations between groups of warriors (Osgood 1998, 81).
It has been argued that this change in tactics and in the practice of warfare may have
been a result of the influence of Greek fighting strategy using the phalanx (Randsborg 1999,
202). This is unlikely, since the tactical changes seen in northern Europe in this period did not
involve fighting in close formation. The phalanx had profound tactical implications (Hanson
1990; Sabin 2000) as well as ideological implications for the Greeks: it was the manifestation in
warfare of the isonomic ideal of the polis (Detienne 1968). Such conditions which account
for the appearance of closed fighting formations in Greece or Italy did not exist at this time
among northern European societies. Further, European barbarian peoples did not fight in close
formation (see, for example, the Germans: Thompson 1958, 3–5). In my view, this theory fails
by confusing fighting in a group, or collective, with fighting in close formation. The first type of
combat seems to have been present in most of Europe from the Early Iron Age, while the second
developed only at an early stage in Greece.

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All of this would seem to indicate, therefore, that from this time the predominant
strategy was to carry out incursions into enemy territory with small groups of warriors, instead
of fighting in close formation. In the Iron Age the razzia reappeared, a method that had been
practised alongside other types of warfare in the Bronze Age (Osgood 1998, 9).
The change in the tactics of warfare between the Bronze and Iron Ages has often been
explained as being derived from the quest for metals, which would have frequently triggered
fighting expeditions. In fact, this same argument is often used to explain the appearance of
fortified sites, as locations from where it was possible to dominate and control the routes along
which metals were carried. Queiroga (2003, 101) accounts for the origin of fortifications and
warfare during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age in northern Portugal
(the point where hillforts first appeared in the north-western Iberian Peninsula) as a consequence
of the close relationship between the first centres of population with defensive structures in the
area and the extraction of metals and metalworking at a local level.
In our study area it is possible to see that during the transition from the Bronze to the
Iron Age there was a transformation in society that was closely linked to its adoption of a
sedentary lifestyle, and to the importance of collective work in the construction of hillforts. From
this moment onwards the archaeological record contains no further evidence for warrior elites,
and instead tells of the human collective that inhabited these settlements. This was a new
ideological construction, which centred on the community and involved a series of changes to
modes of warfare (González Ruibal 2006–2007, 193). This change in social organization would
explain the transformation of weaponry, also evident in other parts of Europe. The many long
swords seen in the Late Bronze Age disappear and are replaced by daggers, a sign that individual
combat between champions had been abandoned (González Ruibal 2006–2007, 226–7). The new
type of warfare was collective, involving the entire group and not just a warrior elite. This
‘democratization’ of combat very probably involved greater violence than in the Bronze Age
when the casualties were restricted to the champions.
We may stress, once again in agreement with Clastres (1988, 221), the contrast between
the ‘society with warriors’ that characterized the north-western Iberian Peninsula during the end
of the Bronze Age and the reappearance of a ‘warrior society’ in the Early Iron Age (Iron I), in
the same area, one in which ‘all of the men are potential warriors, because of a permanent state
of warfare, and they are effective warriors when armed conflict breaks out from time to time. And
it is precisely because all of the men are always prepared for war that it is not possible to
differentiate, amongst the male community, one group that is more warrior-like than the others:
the relationship with war is the same for all.’
The likelihood of transformation from a warrior society to a society with warriors,
and vice versa, has already been considered by Clastres (1988, 222). In order for the first
transformation to occur it would be necessary for changes to arise, both external (an increase in
the aggressiveness of neighbouring groups, or a weakness in them that favoured their being
attacked), and internal (the exaltation of the warrior ethos). The change from a society with
warriors to a warrior society would occur provided there was a shift in the tribal ethic or in the
socio-political context that moderated the longing for war, or limited its field of application. In
any event, as Clastres states, this path would be the direct consequence of a particular local
history and ethnography.
This shift from societies with warrior elites to societies without them and vice versa is
similar to the situation that occurred within the social structure of the Kachin from the highlands
of Burma, studied by Leach. In these communities, groups characterized by a gumsa-type

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political system conceived themselves as being governed by chiefs who belonged to a hereditary
aristocracy, in comparison to other groups, gumlao, who rejected this hierarchy (Leach 1976,
220). The importance of Leach’s study (1976, 301–14) lies in having demonstrated the
reversibility between these two systems, a situation that seems to have existed in the north-
western Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Bronze Age, during the transition to the Iron Age, and
which apparently reappeared again at a later stage in this last period.
the late iron age: the return of the champion

This new change is seen in the transition from the Early Iron Age to the Late Iron Age,
in particular from the second century BC onwards. During this period, in southern Galicia and
northern Portugal, large fortified settlements (oppida) emerged, embodying evidence of the
existence of social differences amongst their inhabitants. One of the main characteristics that
symbolized these differences was decoration and sculptures in stone. González Ruibal (2006–
2007, 393–4) suggests that the presence of decorative motifs in the construction of some
dwellings in these large settlements indicates that they were the homes of privileged individuals.
This same interpretation may be given to the simultaneous appearance of statues of the so-called
Galaico-Lusitanian warriors (Fig. 8), representations, which were idealized and transformed into
Figure 8
Galaico-Lusitanian warriors. Museu da Sociedade Martins Sarmento (Guimarães, Portugal). Photo: Alfredo González
Ruibal.

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the deities or heroes, of the aristocratic warrior elite that reappeared in this period (Tranoy 1988,
223; Almagro-Gorbea and Lorrio 1989, 418; Silva 2003, 47; Alarcâo 2003, 116).
Judging by the imagery offered by these statues, it was an elite that considered itself as
warrior-like, and was seen as such by the rest of the population. These elements are surely
indicative of the presence, during the Late Iron Age, of a process of social transformation which,
as we saw in the Late Bronze Age, involved a change from ‘warrior societies’ to ‘societies with
warriors’.
This process may also be seen in the northern part of the north-western Iberian
Peninsula, in the provinces of A Coruña and Lugo. Here, however, the appearance of these
aristocratic groups is demonstrated in a different way – through gold and silver objects, mainly
torcs and other types of jewellery, which are also present, but to a lesser degree, in the southern
region. This increase in the production of personal ornament at the end of the Iron Age reflects
the fact that ‘adorning the body appears to have become an obsession for women and men,
especially for those belonging to the dominant groups’ (González Ruibal 2006–2007, 419). The
warrior-like nature of this elite may be deduced from the frequency of discoveries of torcs, an
item closely linked during the European Iron Age to warrior chieftains or divinities (Castro Pérez
1992; Brun 2002, 47, 52–3, 56; Olivier 2002, 81; Marco Simón 2002, 69–71).
The differences between these two areas of the north-western Iberian Peninsula – a
result of the different social organization of the communities in the two zones – are also seen in
the different weapons that appear in each region. Compared to the predominance of the curved
falcata in the southern sector, in the north the predominant weapon was the antennae dagger
(González Ruibal 2006–2007, 435–40). The interesting point here is that the weaponry of both
areas represents the same method of warfare: hand-to-hand combat following surprise raids by
groups of warriors in enemy territory. This is evidence of the equipment carried by warriors,
reconstructed for this period and region from archaeological finds of weapons (López Cuevillas
1947; González Ruibal 2006–2007), information provided by ancient sources (Strabo, Geog. III,
3, 6; Diodorus of Sicily, Library V, 34, 5) and the weaponry shown on statues of Galaico-
Lusitanian warriors (with additional information provided by Quesada 2003, 104–5). All of this
may be dated to between the mid-second century BC and the mid-first century AD – dates that
coincide with the dating established for these statues by Schattner (2004, 48–9), based on a study
of their stylistic features, of between the fourth and third centuries BC for the oldest examples,
and the first century AD for the most recent.
The panoply of these warriors comprised a small circular shield (caetra), a helmet,
dagger and a pair of spears, a linen tunic tied at the waist, and decorative elements such as torcs,
bracelets or viriae. Individuals equipped in this way would have belonged to the new warrior
aristocracy, since the equipment carried by ordinary fighters, as in the Bronze Age, was much
more modest.
In the north-western Iberian Peninsula, from the Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age, a
process involving the appearance and disappearance of warrior elites seems to have existed that
corresponded to a series of structural transformations occurring within the communities living in
the area. Following Clastres, we may structure this process in this way: during the Bronze Age,
societies with warriors appeared, a process which reached its climax in the Late Bronze Age with
the appearance of the warrior champion as the pre-eminent representative of aristocratic groups
specializing in warfare. During the transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age, and particularly
during the first Iron Age, these specialized groups were obscured by the warlike activity of
societies that were more egalitarian and which we characterize as warrior societies. Finally,

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during the Late Iron Age, aristocratic groups based on the activity of warfare reappeared, and
with them, the creation of societies with warriors. This means that war and warfare played a
fundamental role in the social configuration of human groups during the later prehistory of the
north-western Iberian Peninsula.
individual combat: warfare and social configuration

By way of conclusion, I would like to clarify a series of issues related to individual
combat and the mainstream interpretation offered for this type of warfare, based on the analysis
of the archaeological record. It is necessary to place the archaeological data within the cultural
context to which they correspond. Here I am referring to the attempt to interpret the record in
terms of Indo-European ideology, as proposed some time ago by Parcero (1997, 38) for the Iron
Age, and which could be dated back to the Late Bronze Age, on the basis of linguistic clues that
might suggest that these regions were occupied by Indo-Europeans at an earlier date (Moralejo
2006, 218–21).
In the north-western Iberian Peninsula, we find types of combat that were typical of the
Indo-European cultural sphere: on the one hand, types of communal combat, such as the razzia,
aimed at obtaining booty, mainly livestock, and which is referred to extensively in the Indo-
European myths concerning the raid in search of livestock (Lincoln 1991, 117–56); on the other,
the appearance of warrior elites and the subsequent development of the ideological importance
of warfare (Dumézil 1990), with the appearance of individual combat, as duels between
champions. This type of combat is seen in mythical epic traditions and historical sources (Blaive
1991; 1993) in many Indo-European populations, such as the Greeks (in Homer: Van Wees 1988;
1992; 1994; Archaic Period: Fernández Nieto 1975), the Romans (Oakley 1985; Lendon 2006,
231–2), the Celts (Brunaux 2004, 63–4; Rawlings 1996, 86–9) or the Germans (Osgood 1998,
82–3; Kristiansen 2002, 329).
However, individual combat does not represent a total transformation of previous forms
of warfare. The development of this type of combat did not cause the disappearance of other
types of warlike practices, such as raids. I believe that the Greek instance is a perfect example of
this situation; in Homeric society and in Archaic Greece, individual combat was a resource used
to resolve conflicts between groups or communities (Fernández Nieto 1975, 37–69). It served as
a substitute for a battle (Van Wees 1992, 200–1), a way of minimizing the possibly disastrous
consequences of warfare, or of a duel that occurred during a war.
However, in contrast to the implications of the Greek case, individual combat did not
become a mere replacement for war or a battle, as argued by Blaive (1991, 110; 1993, 57–8) in
defending the arbitrary nature of these duels. Meulder (1996, 99) has indicated that amongst the
Indo-Europeans, combat between champions served many other purposes, such as a prelude to
a more generalized confrontation, or as a preview of the results of a battle. In fact, in the case of
Celtic Hispania, we have literary testimonies to the practice of individual combat (Valerius
Maximus III, 2, 21; Apianus, Iber. LIII–LIV; Polybius XXXV, 5) which co-existed alongside
other types of combat, demonstrating that the duel ‘is a bloody game, but not war itself’ (Sopeña
Genzor 1995, 120).
This practice exists in other cultural contexts, and often serves to minimize the losses
caused by a more generalized conflict. Amongst the Yanomamö of the Amazon basin, individual
combat is characterized as offering an alternative to death, and is governed by a series of strict
rules to ensure that damage is kept to a minimum (Chagnon 2006, 322). Solutions of this kind

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include types of individual combat or ritual warfare seen in very different cultural spheres, such
as the ‘flowery wars’ of the Aztecs (hand-to-hand combat between a minimum number of
combatants representing each side: Hassig 1992, 86; Hicks 1979), the duels based on fist and
cudgel fights of the Yanomamö (Chagnon 2006, 312–19, 322–8) or the individual combat
between the great Baruya warriors of Papua New Guinea (Godelier 1986, 130–1).
The practice of individual combat, amongst the Indo-Europeans or in other cultural
areas, is usually linked with societies that were characterized by the predominance of a warlike
ethic and ideology and monopolized by a warrior elite, which used them as a mechanism to gain
prestige. Amongst the Yanomamö, individual combat allows the men to demonstrate their status
as warriors, as ‘fierce’ men (waiteri), a role that culminates when they are able to prove that they
have made a kill, giving them entry to the unokai group (men who have killed), and who
thereafter have more opportunities of finding a wife and achieving greater prestige (Chagnon
2006, 357). Amongst the Baruya, this type of combat identified the aulatta (great warriors),
armed with a head-splitting cudgel, who challenged the enemy face to face, obtaining prestige,
renown, glory and admiration in their group and amongst their neighbours and rivals (Godelier
1986, 131–7). Within the Indo-European area, we may refer to the example of the Romans. In
Rome, individual combat was the means by which young aristocrats achieved uirtus, the
typically masculine quality of military bravery (Lendon 2006, 236); the desire by young men to
exceed the uirtus of their equals led them to seek individual combat, a type of behaviour we may
consider as typically Roman (Wiedemann 1996, 97–8).
These represent a series of values that are reminiscent of the same structures we may
perceive on analysing the archaeological record and which, judging by the study of the epic hero
described by Miller (2000, 215–16), are a typical feature of Indo-European populations, with
hand-to-hand combat with an opponent as one of the ways that allowed a male to gain prestige.
All of this indicates that individual combat represents a type of society which, according to the
typology defined by Clastres, we may define as a ‘society with warriors’.
Comparisons with other Indo-European areas, such as the Roman Empire, also allow us
to reject the idea that warfare conducted in close formation was practised in the north-western
Iberian Peninsula, either in the Late Bronze Age, or in the Iron Age. The case of Rome reveals
the opposition that exists between the practice of individual combat and fighting in close
formation. In this instance, it is important to consider the information offered, amongst other
ancient sources, by Livy on the different consequences for Titus Manlius Torquatus and his son
Titus Manlius of their respective individual combats. While the first, as a result of his individual
combat with a Gaul in 367 or 361 BC, led to his being showered with fame and prestige, adopting
the cognomen of torquatus in memory of the torc he captured from his defeated enemy (T. Liv.
VII, 10.1–14), the second was condemned to death by his father for breaking ranks to challenge
Geminus Maecius to a duel (T. Liv. VIII, 7.1–22). Leaving to one side the historical veracity of
these tales, what stands out is that, according to Roman logic, individual combat was rejected in
favour of fighting as a formation of legionaries. This comparison, together with the data derived
from the archaeological record of the north-western Iberian Peninsula, which we have analysed
and which indicates an alternation and survival amongst types of combat based on personal
challenges between champions and raids by groups of warriors in enemy territory, allows us to
suggest that combat in close formation never played a role in the tactics of warfare in societies
from recent prehistory in the north-western Iberian Peninsula.
***

© 2009 The Author
It seems clear, therefore, that the populations in the north-western Iberian Peninsula
were characterized, from the Bronze Age and throughout the entire Iron Age, as possessing
a distinctively warlike character. However, this characterization is too generic, and is open
to greater clarification. The concepts coined by Clastres of ‘warrior societies’ or ‘societies
with warriors’ are useful for characterizing the different stages of the social history of the
period in question. The first stage, the Late Bronze Age, would correspond to a ‘society
with warriors’, followed in the Early Iron Age by a ‘warrior society’, whose transformation
throughout the Late Iron Age would lead to the renaissance of a ‘society with warriors’. This
social process was interrupted by the Roman conquest, completed during the reign of
Augustus. A complement to this research is the proper evaluation of the social role of
individual combat, characteristic of societies with warriors, which supplements the previous
diachronic analysis.
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

Laboratorio de Patrimonio, Paleoambiente y Paisaxe
Edificio Monte da Condesa
Campus Universitario Sur
E15782 Santiago de Compostela
SPAIN
e-mail: franciscojavier.gonzalez@usc.es
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Warrior Champions in Late Prehistoric Iberia Gonzalez Garcia

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FRANCISCO JAVIER GONZÁLEZ GARCÍA

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