A CONTEXT AND A PLACE FOR THE GOLD DISKS FROM THE EARLY IRON AGE OF FORTIOS (PORTALEGRE, ALTO ALENTEJO, PORTUGAL)

Abstract

Having been known since the late thirties of the twentieth century, the so called “treasure of Fortios”, originally comprised of eighty-eight gold disks of which sixty-eight have been localized, every one identical, is studied in a perspective that addresses a variety of issues: historiographical, context related, typological, technological, functional, chronological, cultural and symbolic. Supported by yet unpublished or undervalued documentation, and complemented with field study, the authors identified the place and context of the find (in a ceramic container) belonging to this hoard, which can be associated to a high place of a probably habitational nature. Just as with the other comparable disks, the set is assigned to the Early Iron Age, revealing on a technological and stylistic level a new process of manufacture with mass production, the economization of time, and the use of filigree and soldering. It is believed that these delicate pieces were applied over prestigious and perhaps sacred clothing, of high value and related to solar symbolism.