A wealthy town

During the second Iron Age (V century BC -III AD) the inhabitants of the fortifications dominated the techniques for the casting and transformation of metals, fundamentally iron. A forge stone, a fragment of bellows, as well as other foundry tools are some of the evidence of the metallurgical work on the part of a few craftsmen of Troña specialized in this trade. Also in one of the oval huts excavated by Cuevillas and Pericot between 1927 and 1930, multiple iron foundry slags and blacksmith tongs were found that led them to believe that this artisanal activity must have been very important during the time when the village was busy.

But at the forts they also worked precious metals such as gold and silver, especially in the fortified towns of northern Gallaecia, where sumptuous metallic objects of great technical quality were fused (ceremonial neck rings, necklaces, bracelets, brooches), most of them being for men. That jewellery allowed men to acquire large amounts of power and social control, be it within families or in the whole village.

A gold ingot

In this sector of the town an amalgam ingot was also documented 435 grams of gold that probably indicates the work of goldsmiths in this prehistoric village. This gold ingot was found during the campaign in the year 1989 under a slab dating to the end of the 1st century BC and it constitutes an evidence of the exploitation of deposits of gold in charge of the culture of the settlements before their Romanization. Until now Troña is one of the five Galician forts in which this type of ingot was found.

A fragment of necklace

In the archaeological campaign carried out in the summer of 1991, a fragment of a rigid necklace or neck ring partially fused in gold was discovered in this section of the fort. It is not a complete piece, but a central module of a shaft that was documented on the outside of a grouping of structures of domestic character dating from the 1st century BC. This sumptuary piece appeared on a filling level next to decorated indigenous ceramics.

It is a solid rod fused in a metal to possibly produce silver or lead of almost circular section that is covered by gold plates. The neck rings were masculine jewels worn by warriors around their necks. These jewels are more common at the forts in the north of Galicia and Asturias than in the south. This example from Troña is of Ártabro style, a territory that includes the estuaries of Ferrol, Betanzos and O Burgo, and evidence that, at the time that was hidden, was considered as an amass, that is, a full economic resource, not cultural.