A Roda is a Bronze Age stone circle located in the municipality of Barreiros, in Galicia, Spain. It is the first structure of its kind - a henge - to be discovered and investigated on the Iberian Peninsula. Although similar structures have since been identified in other parts of Galicia, it was discovered in 2006 during work on clearing a section of the Cantabrian highway between Barreiros and Reinante.
Despite the presence of an archaeological site at A Roda being known earlier, the structure was initially believed to be just a hillfort of the Castro culture. However, archaeologists supervising the work found that the pottery dated from well before the Castro culture period, and the structure was too small to be a hillfort. Following its discovery, the route of the highway was altered and the site is now preserved on land belonging to the Ministry of Public Works.
The stone circle is approximately 50 metres in diameter and was built around 3,700 years ago. It consists of an outer ditch three to four metres in diameter and one metre deep, with a circle formed by two stone walls between which the earth from the ditch was deposited. While the site has been threatened by overgrowth and erosion in recent years, it remains a significant example of a structure type that shares common features with other henge sites found on the slopes of Galicia.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
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