Analysis of factors influencing Castro Culture settlement locations : a fairly puzzling arrangement

The Castro Culture of Northwest Iberia is an Iron Age archaeological culture, of which hillforts, known locally as castros, are the only known type of settlement. In this dissertation, I use a variety of geospatial analytic methods to examine several topographic and environmental characteristics to identify those that the people of the Castro Culture found preferential at the local scale for the establishment of new settlements, and to understand how these factors may have played a role in the unequal distribution of settlements across Northwest Iberia. Through this research, I suggest that the following characteristics were preferential for the establishment of settlements: 1) regions with landforms classified as “high hills” and “scattered low mountains,” 2) locations near a stream, but no closer than 100 meters, 3) intervisibility with one or more settlements, and 4) positions that are topographically prominent, possibly to limit access to the settlement. I further suggest that the greater density of settlements within thirty kilometers of the coast may be linked to climatic factors that allowed for greater agricultural productivity and increased access to maritime trade, though an in-depth study of the role socio-political ties played in settlement proliferation and clustering should be performed in the future.Anthropolog