Prehistoric Iberia

Around 10,000 BC, an interstadial

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 11,760 BP).^[14] Full Azilian in the same site is dated to 8,150 BP, 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

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.

Geometrical microlithism

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 .^[14]

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.

Neolithic

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In the 6th millennium BC,

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.^[14]

C. 5700 BC 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 Neolithic began on the Iberian Peninsula in 5700/5600 cal. BC according to radiocarbon datings of several sites in the Levant area of the Peninsula. On the Northern Iberian Plateau, domestic agrotypes of wheat and barley, ovicaprid livestock, Neolithic pottery, shaped and polished tools are all present in the karst records and the open air sites from the last third of the VI millennium cal. BC.^[4][5][6]

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.

The location of Perdigões, in

• 
  Almendres Cromlech, Portugal, 6000-4000 BC
• 
  Dolmen de Soto, Spain, c. 3000 BC
• 
  Cardium pottery, Spain, c.5500 BC
• 
  Cardium pottery fragment
• 
  Callaïs jewellery from southwest Iberia, found at Carnac in northwest France. c. 4500 BC
• 
  Venus de Gavà, Sepulcres de Fossa culture

Chalcolithic

The

The Bell Beaker culture was present in Iberia during the Chalcolithic.^[24]

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.

A significant Chalcolithic archeological site in Portugal is the

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:

Eventually, c. 2600 BC, urban communities began to appear, again especially in the south. The most important ones are

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.^[14]

Since c. 2150 BC, 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. 1900 BC, 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.^[14]

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]}

• 
  Ceramic vessels and tools
• 
  Stone idols, c. 3500-2700 BC.^[27]
• 
  Albaster idol, c. 3500-2700 BC
• 
  Copper javelins, Dolmen de la Pastora
• 
  Gold discs, Bell Beaker culture
• 
  Bell Beaker artefacts
• 
  Gold wristguard from Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal.^[28]
• 
  Tholos tomb, Los Millares

Bronze Age

Early Bronze

According to radiocarbon datings, the Early Bronze Age began on the Northern Iberian Plateau in 2100 cal. BC.^[4][5][6] The center of Bronze Age technology is in the southeast since c. 1800 BC.^[14] 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.

According to radiocarbon datings, the Middle Bronze Age began on the Northern Iberian Plateau in 1550 cal. BC.[4]^[5][6] In the three phases of the Iberian Bronze Age, different cultures emerged, which have been defined by regions with typical names: e.g. El Argar, Las Motillas, Bronce Atlántico, Bronze of Levante, Montelavar, (Las Cogotas, Proto-Cogotas y Cogotas I) and others.^[4][5]

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.^[14] 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.^[14]

Late Bronze

According to radiocarbon dating, the Late Bronze Age began on the Northern Iberian Plateau in 1350 cal. BC.^[4][5][6]

C. 1300 BC 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.^[29] 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 Motillas are abandoned.
• The Cogotas I Culture begins on the Northern Iberian Plateau in 1350 cal. BC after the Proto-Cogotas phase (Middle Bronze Age).^[4][5][6]
• Valencian Community
  .
• The proto-Celtic Urnfield 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.^[14]

• 
  Gold diadem, El Argar, Spain, c. 1600 BC
• 
  Sword, El Argar, c. 1600 BC
• 
  El Argar pottery
• 
  La Bastida de Totana, El Argar, Spain, c. 1600 BC
• 
  La Almoloya, El Argar, Spain, c. 1700 BC
• 
  Tholos of El Romeral, Spain, c. 1800 BC
• 
  Tholos of El Romeral, interior
• 
  Treasure of Villena, 1300-1000 BC
• 
  Motilla del Azuer, Spain, c. 2200-1500 BC
• 
  Gold hats or bowls from Axtroki, Basque Country, Spain, c. 1000 BC.
• 
  Bronze pendant with sun ship motif, Urnfield culture, Spain
• 
  Gold treasure from Caldas, Spain. Atlantic Bronze Age
• 
  Bronze weapons, Spain. Atlantic Bronze Age.
• 
  Casco de Leiro, Galicia, Spain. Atlantic Bronze Age, c. 1000 BC
• 
  Sintra collar, Portugal, c. 10th century BC
• 
  Cauldron from Cantabria, Spain. Atlantic Bronze Age

Iron Age

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Iron Age Iberia has two focuses: the Hallstatt-related Urnfields of the North-East and the Phoenician colonies of the South. According to radiocarbon datings, the Iron Age began on the Iberian Peninsula in 850/800 cal. BC with the arrival of the Phoenicians, while on the Northern Iberian Plateau the Iron Age began a little later (ca. 800/700 cal. BC).^[4][5][6]

During the Iron Age, considered the protohistory of the territory, Celts came, in several waves, possibly starting before 600 BC.^[24]

.

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:[14]

• The Bernorio-Miraveche group (northern
  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.^[31]
  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.

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.[14] 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.

Phoenician colonies and influence

The

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 centuries BC) before Phoenician influence can be seen clearly.

The full Tartessian culture, beginning c.720 BC, 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

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.^[33][31] 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.^[34]

Iberian culture

In the

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.^[14] 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).^[14]

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

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.[14]

Post-Tartessos Iron Age

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.

Arrival of Romans and Punic Wars

In the 4th century BC,

• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
• Timeline of Portuguese history
• Timeline of Spanish history
• Prehistory of the Valencian Community

References

Further reading

• Mattoso, José (dir.), História de Portugal. Primeiro Volume: Antes de Portugal, Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1992. (in Portuguese)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prehistoric Iberia.

• Detailed map of the pre-Roman peoples of Iberia in the Iron Age (National Geographic Institute of Spain, in spanish)
• Atapuerca Foundation

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