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Communities across northern Iberia did not all abandon their hillforts in one sudden catastrophe. Around the fifth-to-fourth-century BCE transition, many small Early Iron Age fortified settlements were emptied or destroyed. People then tested open and lightly defended sites in valleys, coastal zones and productive farmland before larger, more unequal fortified centres emerged from the mid-fourth century BCE onward.
A staggered break, not a single collapse
Early Iron Age settlement in north-western and wider northern Iberia was dominated by small fortified sites, often less than one hectare in area. These communities chose prominent, difficult-to-reach locations that provided both defence and visibility. Archaeological evidence from places including Neixón Pequeno, Alto do Castro, Castrovite, Penalba and Penarrubia shows destruction or abrupt abandonment around the fifth-to-fourth-century BCE transition.
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The timing is not precise enough to prove that every old settlement emptied before a replacement was founded. In some regions, dating cannot establish whether new occupations began while older sites were still occupied or only after they were abandoned. That uncertainty matters: the evidence describes a drawn-out reorganisation rather than a synchronized evacuation.
What changed after the hillforts emptied?
| Phase | Typical location and defence | Scale and social pattern | Chronology |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Iron Age | Prominent uplands; substantial walls or ramparts | Small communities, usually under one hectare | Before the fifth-to-fourth-century BCE transition |
| Transition and experiments | Valleys, coasts and productive lowlands; open or lightly defended places | Short-lived occupations, ritual areas, pits and burials appear | From the fourth century BCE |
| Rebuilt fortified centres | Fortified settlements return in strategically connected settings | Larger, more complex and more socially differentiated communities | Especially from the mid-fourth century BCE |
| Later oppida | Large defended centres linked to routes and exchange | Specialised production and wider regional networks | Later Iron Age, before Roman conquest |
The temporary move into lower ground changed how communities used farmland, routes and shared social space. Archaeologists find open or only lightly defended settlements, ritual spaces, pits, burials and other short-lived occupations. These were not simply smaller versions of the old hillforts; they were experiments with different ways of organising people and resources.
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Why move from hilltops into valleys?
Valleys and lowlands offered easier access to arable land, water and communication routes. A prominent hill could be valuable for defence and surveillance, but it could also be inconvenient for farming, transport and everyday exchange. The shift therefore may reflect practical economic choices as well as changing political relationships.
No single cause has been demonstrated. Conflict, population growth, changing inequalities, altered social structures and the advantages of lower agricultural zones could have interacted differently from one region to another. The 2026 chronology study leaves the trigger open and identifies the early decline in Asturias as a particular unresolved problem. It is safer to describe the episode as instability and social reorganisation than as a proven invasion, famine or universal war.
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Did everyone leave at the same time?
No. A synthesis by Samuel Nión-Álvarez and INCIPIT-CSIC, published in 2026, modelled 272 radiocarbon dates from 109 archaeological sites. Its sequence places the earliest regional abandonment in the western Cantabrian area, followed by changes in Atlantic and Northern Plateau regions. New settlements began appearing in the early fourth century BCE, but the rebuilding process spread much more slowly; it reached the far eastern study regions around the beginning of the third century BCE.
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How did fortified life return?
By the mid-fourth century BCE, fortified settlements were again becoming prominent. The surviving centres were generally larger and more complex than the earlier small hillforts, with clearer signs of social differentiation and unequal access to resources. In this sense, the abandonment episode did not restore the old order. It helped redefine urbanism and social relations in a process that the detailed study places at less than a century in duration.
The rebuilding was also uneven. In some places, communities may have relocated; elsewhere, they rebuilt or expanded older sites. The archaeological record supports continuity, relocation and experimentation rather than one universal replacement model.
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Monte Bernorio shows where the long-term trajectory led
Later oppida could be dramatically larger and more connected than the Early Iron Age settlements that preceded them. At Monte Bernorio, a multivallate defensive system enclosed about 90 hectares. Excavated pottery, animal remains, metal objects and glass beads indicate local production alongside long-distance exchange.
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That development did not make these centres immune to outside power. Archaeological evidence points to a Roman siege and conquest at Monte Bernorio during Augustus’s Cantabrian Wars in the 20s BCE. The site therefore illustrates both sides of the longer story: northern Iberian communities built substantial, networked centres, but those centres eventually faced Rome’s military expansion.
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What the evidence can—and cannot—establish
- Established: many Early Iron Age fortified settlements were abandoned or destroyed around the fifth-to-fourth-century BCE transition.
- Established: fourth-century BCE occupations increasingly appear in valleys, coastal areas and productive, well-connected lowlands, including open or lightly defended sites.
- Established: larger and more socially differentiated fortified settlements became common again from the mid-fourth century BCE, with the process reaching eastern regions later.
- Not established: a single trigger, a single invader or a simultaneous departure across northern Iberia.
- Still debated: how conflict, demographic pressure, inequality, social change and agricultural advantage combined in each region.
The strongest conclusion is chronological and social. Old hillforts emptied relatively quickly, while new settlement forms appeared experimentally and only later consolidated into larger fortified centres. What came next was not a return to the past, but a reorganisation that produced the more hierarchical and connected communities encountered by Rome.
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