The Turduli (Greek Tourduloi) or Turtuli were an ancient pre-Roman people of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula.
The Turduli (Greek Tourduloi) or Turtuli were an ancient pre-Roman people of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula.
The Turduli tribes lived mainly in the south and centre of modern Portugal – in the east of the provinces of Beira Litoral, coastal Estremadura and Alentejo along the Guadiana valley, and in Extremadura and Andalusia in Spain. Their capital was the old oppidum of Ibolca (sometimes transliterated as Ipolka), known as Obulco in Roman times, and which currently corresponds to the city of Porcuna, currently located between the provinces of Córdoba and Jaén. Apart from Ibolca, the pre-Roman towns most strongly associated with the Turdulli include Budua (Badajoz), Dipo (Guadajira), Mirobriga (Capilla), and Sisapo (Almadén).
While they are sometimes described, in the available ancient sources, as being related ethnically to the neighboring Turdetani of Baetica (modern Andalusia), the exact ethnic origins remain obscure. [1] The only evidence regarding the original Turdulian language are a few funerary inscriptions. Linguistic studies of these texts suggest that the early Turduli spoke an Indo-European language. [2] Some scholars in the past, have put forward evidence that the language belonged to the Anatolian branch of Indo-European and was similar, in particular, to Paeonian-Mysian. [2] There may also have been cultural links to the Ligurians and Illyrians (who were native to the western Balkans). [2]
According to the 4th century BC Greek geographer and explorer Pytheas, quoted by Strabo [3] in the 1st century AD, their ancestral homeland was located north of Turdetania (the region where was located the semi-legendary Kingdom of Tartessos, in the Baetis River valley, the present-day Guadalquivir), [4] [5] in the modern Spanish eastern Extremadura region, where their ancient capital Regina Tourdulorum (Reina – Badajoz) once stood.
The collapse of Tartessos in around 530 BC, [6] and migrations by the Celtici in the 6th-5th centuries BC appear to have also caused mass migrations by the Turduli. [7] The majority settled the middle Anas (Guadiana) basin, a region known as Beturia or Baeturia Turdulorum roughly corresponding to parts of eastern Alentejo, and the western half of the modern Badajoz and southeastern Huelva provinces, hence the name Baetici Turduli. Others went west, colonizing the central coastal Portuguese region of Estremadura and became known as Turduli Oppidani . Some went south, where they settled the present Setubal peninsula along the Tagus river mouth and the lower Sardum (Sado; Kallipos in the Greek sources [8] ) river valley as the Bardili . [9] The remnants, designated Turduli Veteres in the ancient sources, [10] [11] migrated northwards in conjunction with the Celtici [12] [13] [14] and ended settling the Beira Litoral, a coastal region situated along the lower Douro and Vacca (Vouga) river basins.
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 Lusitanians were a people living in the far west of the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding roughly to Central Portugal and some areas of modern-day Extremadura and Castilla y Leon, in Spain. After its conquest by the Roman Republic the land was subsequently incorporated as a Roman province named after them (Lusitania).
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 Celtici were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian peninsula, inhabiting three definite areas: in what today are the regions of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal; in the Province of Badajoz and north of Province of Huelva in Spain, in the ancient Baeturia; and along the coastal areas of Galicia. Classical authors give various accounts of the Celtici's relationships with the Gallaeci, Celtiberians and Turdetani.
The Coelerni were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia in Hispania, part of Calaician or Gallaeci people, living in what was to become the Roman Province of Hispania Tarraconensis, in what is now the southern part of the province of Ourense.
The Paesuri or Paesures were an ancient pre-Roman people of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitani, to whom they were a dependent tribe.
The Tapoli or Tapori were an ancient Celtic tribe of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitanians, to whom they were a dependent tribe, living just north of the river Tagus, around the border area of modern-day Portugal and Spain.
The Turduli Veteres, translated as "Ancient Turduli" or "Old Turduli" were an ancient pre-Roman tribe of present day Portugal, akin to the Calaicians or Gallaeci and Lusitanians.
The Turduli Oppidani or Turdulorum Oppida, were a pre-Roman coastal people in present-day Portugal, related to the Turduli Veteres and akin to the Lusitanians.
The Cantabri or Ancient Cantabrians, were a pre-Roman people and large tribal federation that lived in the northern coastal region of ancient Iberia in the second half of the first millennium BC. These peoples and their territories were incorporated into the Roman Province of Hispania Tarraconensis in 19 BC, following the Cantabrian Wars.
The Turdetani were an ancient pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula, living in the valley of the Guadalquivir, in what was to become the Roman Province of Hispania Baetica. Strabo considers them to have been the successors to the people of Tartessos and to have spoken a language closely related to the Tartessian language.
The Carpetani were one of the Celtic peoples inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula prior to the Roman conquest. Their core domain was constituted by the lands between the Tagus and the Anas, in the southern Meseta. Agriculture is thought to have had a greater importance in the Carpetanian economy than other neighboring peoples'.
The Germani were an obscure pre-Roman ancient people of the Iberian Peninsula which settled around the 4th century BC in western Oretania, an ancient region corresponding to the south of Ciudad Real and the eastern tip of Badajoz provinces.
The Berones were a pre-Roman Celtic people of ancient Spain, although they were not part of the Celtiberians, they lived north of the Celtiberians and close to the Cantabrian Conisci in the middle Ebro region between the Tirón and Alhama rivers.
The Pellendones were an ancient pre-Roman Celtic people living on the Iberian Peninsula. From the early 4th century BC they inhabited the region near the source of the river Duero in what today is north-central Spain. The area comprises the north of Soria, the southeast of Burgos and the southwest of La Rioja provinces.
The Bardili were a small, pre-Roman tribe of the Iberian Peninsula, and an offshoot of the widespread Turduli people, who lived in what is now southwestern Portugal in the 5th-1st centuries BC.
This section of the timeline of Iberian history concerns events from before the Carthaginian conquests.