Prehistory in the Iberian peninsula begins with the arrival of the first Homogenus representatives from Africa, which may range from c. 1.5 million years (Ma) ago to c. 1.25 Ma ago, depending on the dating technique employed, so it is set at c. 1.3 Ma ago for convenience.[1]
The end of Iberian prehistory coincides with the first entrance of the Roman army into the peninsula, in 218 BC, which led to the progressive dissolution of pre-Roman peoples in Roman culture. This end date is also conventional, since pre-Roman writing systems can be traced to as early as 5th century BC.[2]
Overview
Prehistory in Iberia spans around 60% of Quaternary, with written history occupying just 0.08%. For the rest 40%, it was uninhabited by humans.[1]Pleistocene, first epoch of Quaternary, was characterized by climate oscillations between ice ages and interglacials that produced significant changes in Iberia's orography. The first and biggest period in Iberia's prehistory is the Paleolithic, which starts c. 1.3 Ma and ends almost coinciding with Pleistocene's ending, c. 11.500 years or 11.5 ka ago. Significant evidence of an extended occupation of Iberia during this period by Homo neanderthalensis has been discovered. The first remains of Homo sapiens have been dated from towards the end of the Paleolithic. For a short time, around 5 ka, both species coexisted, until the former was finally driven to extinction.[3]
Holocene followed Pleistocene with a more homogeneous and humid climate, and the exclusive presence of Homo sapiens. It includes Mesolithic (c. 11.5 ka ago - 5.6 ka BC), Neolithic (c. 5.6 - 3.2 ka BC) and the Metal Ages: Chalcolithic or Copper Age (c. 3.2 - 1.9 ka BC), Bronze Age (c. 1.9 ka - 750 BC) and Iron Age (c. 750 - 218 BC). Mesolithic and Chalcolithic are transition periods, were characteristics of both the preceding and following ages can be found. Holocene hosted several progressive transformations: territorial and cultural differentiation among Homo sapiens groups, birth of new social organizations and economies, transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture and animal husbandry, and arrival of new peoples from the Mediterranean Sea and central Europe, with foundation of colonies.[1]
Lower Paleolithic begins in Iberia with the first human habitation c.1.3 Ma ago, and ends conventionally 128 ka ago,[1] making it the longest period of Iberia's Paleolithic. It is mainly studied from the human fossils and stone tools found at archaeological sites, of which Atapuerca is of significant importance. It contains many animal and Homo antecessor fossils showing signs of stone tool manipulation for reaching the spinal cord, which constitute the first evidence of cannibalism among Homo.[5]
At Sima de los Huesos archaeologists have found Homo heidelbergensis fossils, dated c. 430 ka ago, corresponding to around 30 individuals and with neither evidence of habitation nor of a catastrophic event, thus being hypothesized as the first evidence of Homo burial.[5]DNA analysis from these fossils also suggest a process of continuous hybridization among Homospecies throughout this period, until the final arrival of Homo neanderthalensis.[5]
Middle Paleolithic
Middle Paleolithic (c. 128 – 40 ka ago) is dominated by an extended occupation of Iberia by Homo neanderthalensis or, more popularly, Neanderthals, who had a heavier body, higher lung volume and a bigger brain than Homo sapiens. Gorham's cave (Gibraltar) contains Neanderthal rock art, suggesting they had higher symbolic thought abilities than it was previously supposed. This period, like the previous one, is mainly studied from fossils and stone tools, which evolve into Mode 3 or Mousterian. There is no extended usage of bone or antlers for tool fabrication, and very little wood usage evidence remains because of decomposition.
By contrast with lower Paleolithic, when habitation was usually in open air and caves were used circumstantially (burial, tool fabrication, butchering), throughout this period caves are increasingly used for habitation, with remains of archaic home conditioning.[6] The Châtelperronian culture, mostly found in southern France, is contemporaneous to the period of time when both Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens coexisted in Europe, and thus at first it was attributed to the latter, but the discovery of a full skeleton from the former changed its attribution to Homo neanderthalensis.[7] Some academics prefer to call it late Mousterian, and there is a debate on whether to consider it either a proper or a transitional industry, since chronologically it belongs to middle Paleolithic but it shows characteristics of upper Paleolithic industries.[7]
Upper Paleolithic
Paleolithic cave art
Upper Paleolithic (c. 40 - 11.5 ka ago) starts with the Aurignacian culture, which is mostly found in northern Iberia (current Asturias, Cantabria, Basque Country and Catalonia) in the beginning, and is the work of Homo sapiens. It later expands throughout all of the Iberian peninsula and is followed by the Gravettian. In Cantabria most Gravettian remains are found mixed with Aurignacian technology, thus it is considered "intrusive", in contrast with the Mediterranean area, where it probably means a real colonization.[8] The first indications of modern human colonization of the interior and the west of the peninsula are found only in this cultural phase.
Because of the last glacial maximum, western Europe was isolated and developed the Solutrean culture, which shows its earliest appearances in Les Mallaetes (Valencia), with radiocarbon date 20,890BP.[8] In northern Iberia there are two markedly different tendencies in Asturias and the Vasco-Cantabrian area. Important sites are Altamira and Santimamiñe. The next phase is Magdalenian, even if in the Mediterranean area the Gravettian influence is still persistent.[8] In Portugal there have been some findings north of Lisbon (Casa da Moura, Lapa do Suão).[8]
Iberia is host of impressive Paleolithic cave and rock art. Altamira cave is the most well-known example of the former, being a world heritage site since 1985.[9]Côa Valley, in Portugal, and Siega Verde, in Spain, formed around tributaries into Douro, contain the best preserved rock art, forming together another world heritage site since 1998.[10] Artistic manifestation is found most importantly in the northern Cantabrian area, where the earliest manifestations, for example the Caves of Monte Castillo are as old as Aurignacian times. The practice of this mural art increases in frequency in the Solutrean period, when the first animals are drawn, but it is not until the Magdalenian cultural phase when it becomes truly widespread, being found in almost every cave.
Most of the representations are of animals (bison, horse, deer, bull, reindeer, goat, bear, mammoth, moose) and are painted in ochre and black colors but there are exceptions and human-like forms as well as abstract drawings also appear in some sites. In the Mediterranean and interior areas, the presence of mural art is not so abundant but exists as well since the Solutrean. The monumental Côa Valley has petroglyphs dating up to 22,000 years ago. These document continuous human occupation from the end of the Paleolithic Age. Other examples include Chimachias, Los Casares or La Pasiega, or, in general, the caves principally in Cantabria (in Spain).
Around 10,000BC, an interstadial deglaciation called the Allerød Oscillation occurred, weakening the rigorous conditions of the last ice age. This climatic change also represents the end of the Upper Palaeolithic period, beginning the Epipaleolithic. Depending on the terminology preferred by any particular source, the Mesolithic begins after the Epipaleolithic, or includes it. If the Epipaleolithic is not included in it, the Mesolithic is a relatively brief period in Iberia.
As the climate became warmer, the late Magdalenian peoples of Iberia modified their technology and culture. The main techno-cultural change is the process of microlithization: the reduction of size of stone and bone tools, also found in other parts of the World. Also the cave sanctuaries seem to be abandoned and art becomes rarer and mostly done on portable objects, such as pebbles or tools.
It also implies changes in diet, as the megafauna virtually disappears when the steppe becomes woodlands. In this period, hunted animals are of smaller size, typically deer or wild goats, and seafood becomes an important part of the diet where available.
Azilian and Asturian
The first Epipaleolithic culture is the Azilian, also known as microlaminar microlithism in the Mediterranean. This culture is the local evolution of Magdalenian, parallel to other regional derivatives found in Central and Northern Europe. Originally found in the old Magdalenian territory of Vasco-Cantabria and the wider Franco-Cantabrian region, Azilian-style culture eventually expanded to parts of Mediterranean Iberia as well. It reflected a much warmer climate, leading to thick woodlands, and the replacement of large herd animals with smaller and more elusive forest-dwellers.
An archetypical Azilian site in the Iberian peninsula is Zatoya (Navarre), where it is difficult to discern the early Azilian elements from those of late Magdalenian (this transition dated to 11,760BP).[8] Full Azilian in the same site is dated to 8,150BP, followed by appearance of geometric elements at a later date, that continue until the arrival of pottery (subneolithic stage).
In the Mediterranean area, virtually this same material culture is often named microlaminar microlithism because it lacks of the bone industry typical of Franco-Cantabrian Azilian. It is found in parts of Catalonia, Valencian Community, Murcia and Mediterranean Andalusia. It has been dated in Les Mallaetes at 10,370BP.[8]
The Asturian culture was a successor to the Azilian, moved slightly to the west, whose distinctive tool was a pick-axe for picking limpets off rocks.
In the late phases of the Epipaleolithic a new trend arrives from the north: the geometrical microlithism, directly related to Sauveterrian and Tardenoisian cultures of the Rhine-Danube region.
While in the Franco-Cantabrian region it has a minor impact, not altering the Azilian culture substantially, in Mediterranean Iberia and Portugal its arrival is more noticeable. The Mediterranean geometrical microlithism has two facies:
The Filador facies is directly related to French Sauveterrian and is found in Catalonia, north of the Ebro river.
The Cocina facies is more widespread and, in many sites (Málaga, Spain), shows a strong dependence of fishing and seafood gathering. The Portuguese sites (south of the Tagus, Muge group) have given dates of c.7350.[8]
The rock art found at over 700 sites along the eastern side of Iberia is the most advanced and widespread surviving from this period, certainly in Europe, and arguably in the world. It is strikingly different from the Upper Palaeolithic art found along the northern coast, with narrative scenes with large numbers of small sketchily painted human figures, rather than the superbly observed individual animal figures that characterise the earlier period.
When it appears in the same scene as animals, the human figure runs towards them. The most common scenes by far are of hunting, and there are scenes of battle and dancing, and possibly agricultural tasks and managing domesticated animals. In some scenes gathering honey is shown, most famously at Cuevas de la Araña en Bicorp (illustrated below). Humans are naked from the waist up, but women have skirts and men sometimes skirts or gaiters or trousers of some sort, and headdresses and masks are sometimes seen, which may indicate rank or status.
In the 6th millennium BC, Andalusia experiences the arrival of the first agriculturalists. Their origin is uncertain (though the mediterranean Africa is a serious candidate) but they arrive with already developed crops (cereals and legumes). The presence of domestic animals instead is unlikely, as only pig and rabbit remains have been found and these could belong to wild animals. They also consumed large amounts of olives but it's uncertain too whether this tree was cultivated or merely harvested in its wild form. Their typical artifact is the La Almagra style pottery, quite variegated.[8]
The Andalusian Neolithic also influenced other areas, notably Southern Portugal, where, soon after the arrival of agriculture, the first dolmen tombs begin to be built c. 4800 BC, being possibly the oldest of their kind anywhere.[8]
C. 5700BC Cardium pottery Neolithic culture (also known as Mediterranean Neolithic) arrives to Eastern Iberia. While some remains of this culture have been found as far west as Portugal, its distribution is basically Mediterranean (Catalonia, Valencian region, Ebro valley, Balearic islands).
The interior and the northern coastal areas remain largely marginal in this process of spread of agriculture. In most cases it would only arrive in a very late phase or even already in the Chalcolithic age, together with Megalithism.
An interpretation of the development of the European Megalithic Culture
A model of the prehistoric town of Los Millares, with its walls. (Andalusia, Spain)
The Chalcolithic or Copper Age is the earliest phase of metallurgy. Copper, silver and gold started to be worked then, though these soft metals could hardly replace stone tools for most purposes. The Chalcolithic is also a period of increased social complexity and stratification and, in the case of Iberia, that of the rise of the first civilizations and of extensive exchange networks that would reach to the Baltic and Africa. The conventional date for the beginning of Chalcolithic in Iberia is c. 3200 BC. In the following centuries, especially in the south of the peninsula, metal goods, often decorative or ritual, become increasingly common. Additionally there is an increased evidence of exchanges with areas far away: amber from the Baltic and ivory and ostrich-egg products from Northern Africa.[8] A notable example in that regard is the Ivory Lady from Tholos de Montelirio.
The Bell Beaker culture was present in Iberia during the Chalcolithic.[18]Gordon Childe interpreted the presence of its characteristic artefact as the intrusion of "missionaries" expanding from Iberia along the Atlantic coast, spreading knowledge of Mediterranean copper metallurgy. Stephen Shennan interpreted their artefacts as belonging to a mobile cultural elite imposing itself over the indigenous substrate populations. Similarly, Sangmeister (1972) interpreted the "Beaker folk" (Glockenbecherleute) as small groups of highly mobile traders and artisans. Christian Strahm (1995) used the term "Bell Beaker phenomenon" (Glockenbecher-Phänomen) as a compromise in order to avoid the term "culture".
The Bell Beaker artefacts at least in their early phase are not distributed across a contiguous areal as is usual for archaeological cultures, but are found in insular concentrations scattered across Europe. Their presence is not associated with a characteristic type of architecture or of burial customs. However, the Bell Beaker culture does appear to coalesce into a coherent archaeological culture in its later phase.
More recent analyses of the "Beaker phenomenon", published since the 2000s, have persisted in describing the origin of the "Beaker phenomenon" as arising from a synthesis of elements, representing "an idea and style uniting different regions with different cultural traditions and background.
"Archaeogenetics studies of the 2010s have been able to resolve the "migrationist vs. diffusionist" question to some extent. The study by Olalde et al. (2017) found only "limited genetic affinity" between individuals associated with the Beaker complex in Iberia and in Central Europe, suggesting that migration played a limited role in its early spread from Iberia. However, the same study found that the further dissemination of the mature Beaker complex was very strongly linked to migration. The spread and fluidity of the Beaker culture back and forth between the Rhine and its origin source in the peninsula may have introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry, resulting in a near-complete transformation of the local gene pool within a few centuries, to the point of replacement of about 90% of the local Mesolithic-Neolithic patrilineal lineages.
The origin of the "Bell Beaker" artefact itself has been traced to the early 3rd millennium. The earliest examples of the "maritime" Bell Beaker design have been found at the Tagus estuary in Portugal, radiocarbon dated to c. the 28th century BC. The inspiration for the Maritime Bell Beaker is argued to have been the small and earlier Copoz beakers that have impressed decoration and which are found widely around the Tagus estuary in Portugal. Turek has recorded late Neolithic precursors in northern Africa, arguing the Maritime style emerged as a result of seaborne contacts between Iberia and Morocco in the first half of the third millennium BCE. In only a few centuries of their maritime spread, by 2600 BC. they had reached the rich lower Rhine estuary and further upstream into Bohemia and beyond the Elbe where they merged with Corded Ware culture, as also in the French coast of Provence and upstream the Rhone into the Alps and Danube.
It is also the period of the great expansion of megalithism, with its associated collective burial practices. In the early Chalcolithic period this cultural phenomenon, maybe of religious undertones, expands along the Atlantic regions and also through the south of the peninsula (additionally it's also found in virtually all European Atlantic regions). In contrast, most of the interior and the Mediterranean regions remain refractary to this phenomenon.
Another phenomenon found in the early chalcolithic is the development of new types of funerary monuments: tholoi and artificial caves. These are only found in the more developed areas: southern Iberia, from the Tagus estuary to Almería, and SE France.
Eventually, c. 2600 BC, urban communities began to appear, again especially in the south. The most important ones are Los Millares in SE Spain and Zambujal (belonging to Vila Nova de São Pedro culture) in Portuguese Estremadura, that can well be called civilizations, even if they lack of the literary component.
It is very unclear if any cultural influence originated in the Eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus?) could have sparked these civilizations. On one side the tholos does have a precedent in that area (even if not used yet as tomb) but on the other there is no material evidence of any exchange between the Eastern and Western Mediterranean, in contrast with the abundance of goods imported from Northern Europe and Africa.[8]
Since c. 2150BC, the Bell Beaker culture intrudes in Chalcolithic Iberia. After the early Corded style beaker, of quite clear Central European origin, the peninsula begins producing its own types of Bell Beaker pottery. Most important is the Maritime or International style that, associated especially with Megalithism, is for some centuries abundant in all the peninsula and southern France.
Since c. 1900BC, the Bell Beaker phenomenon in Iberia shows a regionalization, with different styles being produced in the various regions: Palmela type in Portugal, Continental type in the plateau and Almerian type in Los Millares, among others.[8]
Like in other parts of Europe, the Bell Beaker phenomenon (speculated to be of trading or maybe religious nature) does not significantly alter the cultures it inserts itself in. Instead the cultural contexts that existed previously continue basically unchanged by its presence.[citation needed]
Map: Middle Bronze Age Iberia c. 1500BC. Shows the main cultures, the two main cities and the location of strategic tin minesMap of Iberian Late Bronze Age since c. 1300BC, showing the main cultural areas. Dots show isolated remains of these cultures outside their main area
Early Bronze
The center of Bronze Age technology is in the southeast since c. 1800 BC.[8] There the civilization of Los Millares was followed by that of El Argar, initially with no other discontinuity than the displacement of the main urban center some kilometers to the north, the gradual appearance of true bronze and arsenical bronze tools and some greater geographical extension. The Argarian people lived in rather large fortified towns or cities.
From this center, bronze technology spread to other areas. Most notable are:
South-Western Iberian Bronze: in southern Portugal and SW Spain. These poorly defined archaeological horizons show bronze daggers and an expansive trend northward.
Cogotas I culture (Cogotas II is Iron Age Celtic): the pastoral peoples of the plateau become for the first time culturally unified. Their typical artifact is a rough troncoconic pottery.
Some areas like the civilization of Vila Nova seem to have remained apart from the spread of bronze metallurgy remaining technically in the Chalcolithic period for centuries.
Middle Bronze
Basically a continuation of the previous period. The most noticeable change happens in the El Argar civilization, which adopts the Aegean custom of burial in pithoi.[8] This phase is known as El Argar B, beginning c. 1500 BC.
The Northwest (Galicia and northern Portugal), a region that held some of the largest reserves of tin (needed to make true bronze) in Western Eurasia, became a focus for mining, incorporating bronze technology. Their typical artifacts are bronze axes (Group of Montelavar).
The semi-desert region of La Mancha shows its first signs of colonization with the fortified scheme of the Motillas (hillforts). This group is clearly related to the Bronze of Levante, showing the same material culture.[8]
Late Bronze
C. 1300BC several major changes happen in Iberia, among them:
The Chalcolithic culture of Vila Nova vanishes, possibly in direct relation to the silting of the canal connecting the main city Zambujal with the sea.[23] It is replaced by a non-urban culture, whose main artifact is an externally burnished pottery.
El Argar also disappears as such, what had been a very homogeneous culture, a centralized state for some, becomes an array of many post-Argaric fortified cities.
The proto-CelticUrnfield culture appears in the North-East, conquering all Catalonia and some neighbouring areas.
The Lower Guadalquivir valley shows its first clearly differentiated culture, defined by internally burnished pottery. This group might have some relation with Tartessos.
Western Iberian Bronze cultures show some degree of interaction, not just among them but also with other Atlantic cultures in Britain, France and elsewhere. This has been called the Atlantic Bronze complex.[8]
Tempered steel tools were already in use on the Iberian peninsula in late 8th century BC.[24]
Since the late 8th century BC, the Urnfield culture of North-East Iberia began to develop iron metallurgy, and eventually elements of Hallstatt culture. The earliest elements of this culture were found along the lower Ebro river, then gradually expanded upstream to La Rioja and in a hybrid local form to Alava. There was also expansion southward into Castelló, with less marked influences reaching further south. Some offshoots have been detected along the Iberian Mountains, possibly a prelude to the formation of the Celtiberi.[8]
In this period, the social differentiation became more visible with evidence of local chiefdoms and a horse-riding elite. These transformations may represent the arrival of a new wave of cultures from central Europe.
From these outposts in the Upper Ebro and the Iberian mountains, Celtic culture expanded into the plateau and the Atlantic coast. Several groups can be described:[8]
The Bernorio-Miraveche group (northern Burgos and Palencia provinces), that would influence the peoples of the northern fringe.
The northwest Castro culture, in Galicia and northern Portugal, a Celtic culture with peculiarities, due to persistence of aspects of an earlier Atlantic Bronze Age culture.
The Duero group, possibly the precursor of the Celtic Vaccei.
The Cogotas II culture, likely precursor of the Celtic or Celtiberian Vettones (or a pre-Celtic culture with substantial Celtic influences), a markedly cattle-herder culture that gradually expanded southward into Extremadura.
The Lusitanian culture, the precursor of the Lusitani tribe, in central Portugal and Extremadura in western Spain. Generally not considered Celtic since Lusitanian does not meet some the accepted definitions of a Celtic language.[25] Its relationship with the surrounding Celtic culture is unclear. Some believe it was essentially a pre-Celtic Iberian culture with substantial Celtic influences, while others argue that it was an essentially Celtic culture with strong indigenous pre-Celtic influences. There have been arguments for classifying its language as either Italic, a form of archaic Celtic, or proto-Celtic.
All these Indo-European groups have some common elements, like combed pottery since the 6th century and uniform weaponry.
After c. 600 BC, the Urnfields of the North-East were replaced by the Iberian culture, a process that wasn't completed until the 4th century BC.[8] This physical separation from their continental relatives would mean that the Celts of the Iberian peninsula never received the cultural influences of La Tène culture, including Druidism.
The Phoenicians of the Levant, Greeks of Europe, and Carthaginians of Africa all colonized parts of Iberia to facilitate trade. In the 10th century BC, the first contacts between Phoenicians and Iberia (along the Mediterranean coast) were made. This century also saw the emergence of towns and cities in the southern littoral areas of eastern Iberia.
The Phoenicians founded the colony of Gadir (now Cádiz) near Tartessos. The foundation of Cádiz, the oldest continuously inhabited city in western Europe, is traditionally dated to 1104BC, though, as of 2004, no archaeological discoveries date back further than the 9th century BC. The Phoenicians continued to use Cádiz as a trading post for several centuries leaving a variety of artifacts, most notably a pair of sarcophaguses from around the 4th or 3rd century BC. Contrary to myth, there is no record of Phoenician colonies west of Algarve (namely Tavira), though there might have been some voyages of discovery. Phoenician influence in what is now Portugal was essentially through cultural and commercial exchange with Tartessos.
In the 9th century BC, the Phoenicians, from the city-state of Tyre founded the colony of Malaka (now Málaga)[26] and Carthage (in North Africa). During this century, Phoenicians also had great influence on Iberia with the introduction the use of Iron, of the Potter's wheel, the production of olive oil and wine. They were also responsible for the first forms of Iberian writing, had great religious influence and accelerated urban development. However, there is no real evidence to support the myth of a Phoenician foundation of the city of Lisbon as far back as 1300 BC, under the name Alis Ubbo ("Safe Harbour"), even if in this period there are organized settlements in Olissipona (modern Lisbon, in PortugueseEstremadura) with Mediterranean influences.
There was strong Phoenician influence and settlement in the city of Balsa (modern Tavira, Algarve), in the 8th century BC. Phoenician-influenced Tavira was destroyed by violence in the 6th century BC. With the decadence of Phoenician colonization of the Mediterranean coast of Iberia in the 6th century BC many of the colonies are deserted. The 6th century BC also saw the rise of the colonial might of Carthage, which slowly replaced the Phoenicians in their former areas of dominion.
Greek colonies
The Greek colony at what now is Marseilles began trading with the Iberians on the eastern coast around the 8th century BC. The Greeks finally founded their own colony at Ampurias, in the eastern Mediterranean shore (modern Catalonia), during the 6th century BC beginning their settlement in the Iberian peninsula. There are no Greek colonies west of the Strait of Gibraltar, only voyages of discovery. There is no evidence to support the myth of an ancient Greek founding of Olissipo (modern Lisbon) by Odysseus.
The name Tartessian, when applied in archaeology and linguistics, does not necessarily correlate with the semi-mythical city of Tartessos but only roughly with the area where it is typically assumed it should have been.
The Tartessian culture of southern Iberia is actually the local culture as modified by the increasing influence of eastern Mediterranean elements, especially Phoenician. Its core area is Western Andalusia, but soon extends to Eastern Andalusia, Extremadura and the lands of Murcia and Valencia, where a Tartessian complex, rooted in the local Bronze cultures, is in the last stages of the Bronze Age (9th-8th centuriesBC) before Phoenician influence can be seen clearly.
The full Tartessian culture, beginning c.720BC, also extends to southern Portugal, where is eventually replaced by Lusitanian culture. One of the most significant elements of this culture is the introduction of the potter's wheel, that, along with other related technical developments, causes a major improvement in quality of pottery. There are other major advances in craftsmanship, affecting jewelry, weaving and architecture.[8] This latter aspects is especially important, as the traditional circular huts were then gradually replaced by well finished rectangular buildings. It also allowed for the construction of the tower-like burial monuments that are so typical of this culture.
Agriculture also seems to have experienced major advances with the introduction of steel tools and, presumably, of the yoke and animal traction for the plow. In this period it's noticeable the increase of cattle accompanied by some decrease of sheep and goat types.[8]
Another noticeable element is the major increase in economical specialization and social stratification. This is very noticeable in burials; some show off great wealth (chariots, gold, ivory), while the vast majority are much more modest. There is much diversity in burial rituals in this period but the elites seem to converge in one single style: a chambered mound. Some of the most affluent burials are generally attributed to local monarchs.
One of the developments of this period is writing, a skill which was probably acquired through contact with the Phoenicians. John T. Koch controversially claimed to have deciphered the extant Tartessian inscriptions and to have tentatively identified the language as an earlier form of the Celtic languages now spoken in the British Isles and Brittany in the book 'Celtic from the West', published in 2010.[27][25] However, the linguistic mainstream continues to treat Tartessian as an unclassified, possibly pre-Indo-European language, and Koch's decipherment of the Tartessian script and his theory for the evolution of Celtic has been strongly criticized.[28]
In the Iberian culture people were organized in chiefdoms and states. Three phases can be identified: the Ancient, the Middle and the Late Iberian period.
With the arrival of Greek influence, not limited to their few colonies, the Tartessian culture begins to transform itself, especially in the South East. This late period is known as the Iberian culture, that in Western Andalusia and the non-Celtic areas of Extremadura is called Ibero-Turdetanian because of its stronger links with the Tartessian substrate.
Greek influence is visible in the gradual change of the style of their monuments that approach more and more the models arrived from the Greek world.[8] Thus the obelisk-like funerary monuments of the previous period now adopt a column like form, totally in line with Greek architecture.
By mid 5th century, aristocratic power was increased and resulted in the abandonment and transformation of the orientalizing model. The oppidum appeared and became the socio-economic model of the aristocratic class. The commerce was also one of the principal sources of aristocratic control and power. In the southeast, between the end of the 5th and the end of the 4th century BC, appeared a highly hierarchical aristocratic society. There were different forms of political control. The power and control seemed to be in the hand of kings or reguli.
Iberian funerary customs are dominated by cremation necropolis, that are partly due to the persistent influences of the Urnfield culture, but they also include burial customs imported from the Greek cultural area (mudbrick rectangular mound).[8]
Remains of the walls of Ullastret, Catalonia, c. 250 BC
Urbanism was important in the Iberian cultural area, especially in the south, where Roman accounts mention hundreds of oppida (fortified towns). In these towns (some quite large, some mere fortified villages) the houses were typically arranged in contiguous blocks, in what seems to be another Urnfield cultural influx.
The Iberian script evolved from the Tartessian one with Greek influences that are noticeable in the transformation of some characters. In a few cases a variant of Greek alphabet (Ibero-Ionian script) was used to write Iberian as well.
The transformation from Tartessian to Iberian culture was not sudden but gradual and was more marked in the East, where it begins in the 6th century BC, than in the south-west, where it is only noticeable since the 5th century BC and much more tenuous. A special case is the northeast where the Urnfield culture was Iberized but keeping some elements from the Indo-European substrate.[8]
Post-Tartessos Iron Age
Main language areas of pre-Roman Iberia, according to epigraphy and toponymy.
Also in the 6th century BC there was a cultural shift in southwest Iberia (southern Portugal and nearby parts of Andalusia) after Tartessos fell; with a strong Mediterranean character that prolonged and modified Tartessian culture. This occurred mainly in Low Alentejo and Algarve, but had littoral extensions up to the Sado mouth (namely the important city of Bevipo, modern Alcácer do Sal). The first form of writing in western Iberia (south of Portugal), the Southwest Paleohispanic script (still to be translated), dated to the 6th century BC, denotes strong Tartessian influence in its use of a modified Phoenician alphabet. In these writings the word "Conii" (similar to Cunetes or Cynetes, the people of Algarve) appears frequently.
In the 4th century BC, the Celtici appear, a late expansion of Celtic culture into the southwest (southern Extremadura, Alentejo and northern Algarve). The Turduli and Turdetani, probably descendants of the Tartessians, though Celticized, became established in the area of the Guadiana river, in southern Portugal. A series of cities in Algarve, such as Balsa (Tavira), Baesuris (Castro Marim), Ossonoba (Faro) and Cilpes (Silves), became inhabited by the Cynetes.
In the 4th century BC, Rome began to rise as a Mediterranean power rival to the North African based Carthage. After suffering defeat to the Romans in the First Punic War (264–241BC), the Carthaginians began to extend their power into the interior of Iberia from their south eastern coastal settlements but this empire was to be short lived. In 218 BC the Second Punic War started and the Carthaginian general Hannibal marched his armies, which included Iberians, from Iberia, across the Pyrenees and the Alps and attacked the Romans in Italy. Starting in the north-east, Rome began its conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Iberian Peninsula, also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of Peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprising most of the region, as well as the tiny adjuncts of Andorra, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, and, pursuant to the traditional definition of the Pyrenees as the peninsula's northeastern boundary, a small part of France. With an area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi), and a population of roughly 53 million, it is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after the Scandinavian Peninsula.
Tartessos is, as defined by archaeological discoveries, a historical civilization settled in the southern Iberian Peninsula characterized by its mixture of local Paleohispanic and Phoenician traits. It had a writing system, identified as Tartessian, that includes some 97 inscriptions in a Tartessian language.
The Bell Beaker culture, also known as the Bell Beaker complex or Bell Beaker phenomenon, is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age, arising from around 2800 BC.
The Iberians were an ancient people settled in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, at least from the 6th century BCE. They are described in Greek and Roman sources. Roman sources also use the term Hispani to refer to the Iberians.
Prehistoric Europe refers to Europe before the start of written records, beginning in the Lower Paleolithic. As history progresses, considerable regional unevenness in cultural development emerges and grows. The region of the eastern Mediterranean is, due to its geographic proximity, greatly influenced and inspired by the classical Middle Eastern civilizations, and adopts and develops the earliest systems of communal organization and writing. The Histories of Herodotus is the oldest known European text that seeks to systematically record traditions, public affairs and notable events.
The Cynetes or Conii were one of the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, living in today's Algarve and Lower Alentejo regions of southern Portugal, and the southern part of Badajoz and the northwestern portions of Córdoba and Ciudad Real provinces in Spain before the 6th century BC. According to Justin's epitome, the mythical Gargoris and Habis were their founding kings.
The Castro of Vila Nova de São Pedro is a Chalcolithic archaeological site in the civil parish of Vila Nova de São Pedro, municipality of Azambuja, in the Portuguese Estremadura area of Lezíria do Tejo. It is important for the discovery of thousands of arrowheads within its fortified settlement, associated with the Chalcolithic period of human settlement, and in particular with the long-lived fortified town, or castro, of Zambujal, near the municipality of Torres Vedras. This period of "urban" settlement lasted from 2600 to 1300 BCE, and during this time the Castro of Vila Nova was a contemporary of the southeastern Spanish settlements of Los Millares and El Argar.
Tartessian is an extinct Paleo-Hispanic language found in the Southwestern inscriptions of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly located in the south of Portugal, and the southwest of Spain. There are 95 such inscriptions, the longest having 82 readable signs. Around one third of them were found in Early Iron Age necropolises or other Iron Age burial sites associated with rich complex burials. It is usual to date them to the 7th century BC and to consider the southwestern script to be the most ancient Paleo-Hispanic script, with characters most closely resembling specific Phoenician letter forms found in inscriptions dated to c. 825 BC. Five of the inscriptions occur on stelae that have been interpreted as Late Bronze Age carved warrior gear from the Urnfield culture.
The Argaric culture, named from the type site El Argar near the town of Antas, in what is now the province of Almería in southeastern Spain, is an Early Bronze Age culture which flourished between c. 2200 BC and 1550 BC.
Prehistoric France is the period in the human occupation of the geographical area covered by present-day France which extended through prehistory and ended in the Iron Age with the Roman conquest, when the territory enters the domain of written history.
The South-Western Iberian Bronze is a loosely defined Bronze Age culture of Southern Portugal and nearby areas of SW Spain. It replaced the earlier urban and Megalithic existing in that same region in the Chalcolithic age.
The European Bronze Age is characterized by bronze artifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regional Bronze Age succeeds the Neolithic and Copper Age and is followed by the Iron Age. It starts with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC and spans the entire 2nd millennium BC, lasting until c. 800 BC in central Europe.
Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c. 2500–2000 BC until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as the Bronze Age, it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, who used such metals to fashion tools. Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture.
The paleo-Hispanic languages are the languages of the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, excluding languages of foreign colonies, such as Greek in Emporion and Phoenician in Qart Hadast. After the Roman conquest of Hispania the Paleohispanic languages, with the exception of Proto-Basque, were replaced by Latin, the ancestor of the modern Iberian Romance languages.
The European Chalcolithic, the Chalcolithic period of Prehistoric Europe, lasted roughly from 5000 to 2000 BC, developing from the preceding Neolithic period and followed by the Bronze Age.
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, initially as Hispania Nova, which was later renamed "Callaecia". From Diocletian's Tetrarchy onwards, the south of the remainder of Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis, and all of the mainland Hispanic provinces, along with the Balearic Islands and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana, were later grouped into a civil diocese headed by a vicarius. The name Hispania was also used in the period of Visigothic rule. The modern place names of Spain and Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania.
John Thomas Koch is an American academic, historian, and linguist who specializes in Celtic studies, especially prehistory, and the early Middle Ages. He is the editor of the five-volume Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. He is perhaps best known as the leading proponent of the Celtic from the West hypothesis.
This section of the timeline of Iberian history concerns events from before the Carthaginian conquests.
El Argar is an Early Bronze Age culture developed in the southeastern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It is believed to have been active from about 2200 BC to 1500 BC The people developed sophisticated pottery and ceramic techniques that they traded with other Mediterranean tribes.
↑ Lina Marques (1995). "Anta da Cunha Baixa / Casa da Orca". Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico (SIPA) (in Portuguese). Instituto da Habitação e da Reabilitação Urbana. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
↑ Koch, John T (2010). Celtic from the West Chapter 9: Paradigm Shift? Interpreting Tartessian as Celtic. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK. pp.187–295. ISBN978-1-84217-410-4.
↑ Broderick, George (2010). "Die vorrömischen Sprachen auf der iberischen Halbinsel". In Hinrichs, Uwe (ed.). Das Handbuch der Eurolinguistik (in German) (1sted.). Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. pp.304–305. ISBN978-3-447-05928-2.
Further reading
Mattoso, José (dir.), História de Portugal. Primeiro Volume: Antes de Portugal, Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1992. (in Portuguese)
The Madeira, Azores, and Canary Islands were not occupied by the Romans. The Madeira and Azores islands were unoccupied until the Portuguese in the 15th century; the Canary islands, the Guanches occupied the territory until the Castilians.
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