The Golden Code of the Bird‐Men: Iconographic and Social Interpretation of the Moñes I Diadem‐Belt (Asturias,North‐west Iberian Peninsula,First Century BC)

If there is one piece of the Castro culture goldwork that stands out above the rest, it is the set of figurative gold diadem‐belt fragments from Moñes (Piloña, Asturias, Spain). Its uniqueness lies in its combination of local technological tradition with exogenous practices, like figurative representation. The figures that appear are armed characters, occasionally on horseback, and sometimes zoomorphic in appearance (especially as bird‐men), together with different kinds of animals, especially those from an aquatic environment. This iconography has been interpreted as emphasizing the warlike character of Celtic symbolism as expressed through an aquatic funerary ritual. My argument here, however, provides an alternative interpretation based on a context of dramatic social change, which warranted the reformulation of creation mythology such as that depicted on the diadem‐belt. This context must be viewed in relation to different social responses which developed during the first century BC, both before and immediately after the Roman conquest.