Celtiberians

The term Celtiberians groups together a series of Celtic or Celtized pre-Roman peoples who lived from the late Bronze Age (approx. 13th century BC) until the Romanization of Hispania (13th century BC). II BC to I century), the area of the Iberian Peninsula called Celtiberia by classical sources. It is difficult to assign specific territories and borders to this amalgam of peoples due to the scarce existing historical documentation and the number of hypotheses suggested by the archaeological remains found. The definition of Celtiberian has changed throughout history, but currently the Arevacos, Titos, Bellos, Lusones and Pelendones are usually considered Celtiberians, and more occasionally Vacceos, Carpetanos, Olcades and Lobetanos.

It is difficult to pinpoint how Celtic influences reached the indigenous people during the Bronze Age. The resulting material culture is clearly distinguishable from Central European Celtic models (Hallstatt and La Tène culture). Around the III century B.C. C., begins a process of formation of larger urban centers, to the detriment of the small fortified settlements that the Celtiberians inhabited until then. Shortly after, they adopted the Iberian syllabary, leaving inscriptions on coins and documents in Celtiberian writing. Both the inscriptions found in Celtiberian script and Latin script document the Celtiberian language as a Celtic language.

At the beginning of the II century a. C. came into contact with the Mediterranean powers, and were described by historians such as Ptolemy, Strabo, Martial or Livio among others. The Romans considered them a mixture of Celts and Iberians, thus differentiating themselves from their neighbors, both from the Celts of the plateau and from the Iberians of the coast. Pliny the Elder affirms that the Celts of Iberia have emigrated from the territory of Celtici Lusitania, which he seems to consider as the original seat of the entire Celtic population of the Iberian Peninsula, which includes the Celtiberians, on the ground of the identity of sacred rites., the language and the names of the cities.

After organizing a tough resistance (Celtiberian Wars), the Celtiberian peoples were Romanized during the II century and the I a. C. Within the framework of the Sertorian Wars, the last formal episodes of rebellion occurred. The Celts did not practice writing. The Celtiberians if using the alphabet of the Iberians. Their religious beliefs were linked to the deities and Celtic funeral rituals, such as burials in cremation necropolises.^{[citation needed]}

Celtic origins and migrations to the Iberian Peninsula

About the origin of these Celtic peoples and the degree of involvement with the native population, there are controversies among scholars.

Classical hypothesis

The classical hypothesis, for example defended by P. Bosch Gimpera, establishes the formation of the Celtiberian culture with the arrival of different Celtic invasions from Central Europe:

• A first wave of Celts pressed by the Ilirios, by the Eastern Pyrenees between the years 900 and 650 BC.
• A second wave by the Western Pyrenees, in three moments:
  • Westphalia Celtic Groups: Celsius, Census or cempsispressured by other peoples towards 650 B.C., dividing into three large groups, one settling down the Ebro line, the other passing the Pancorbo parade into the plateau (culture of Numancia I) and the other occupying the lower valley of the Tagus, Portugal and even Extremadura (the vetons), embedded in the Tartesia culture ^{[chuckles]required]}.
  • The Sefes, pressured by Germanic peoples around 600 a. C. towards the western Pyrenees, marching towards the western plains of the North Plateau. But in the face of the push of the Belgians, part of these sefes are directed towards Galicia and others towards the areas of Salamanca, Extremadura (betons) and Teruel (turons)^{[chuckles]required]}.
  • The Belgians (Caltas del Bajo Rin and Mosela) towards 600 a. C. depart and arrive to the peninsula towards 570 B.C., settling between the Ebro, the Pyrenees and the Cantabrian Sea: vesions, autorigones, caristios, nerviones, vacceos, etc. Then according to this hypothesis the belos and titos descend the river Jalon and celebrate the lusons, which were not Celts. Pokorny admits with this theory that after the Belgians came new Celtic elements in the centuryIIIa. C. to Iberia ^{[chuckles]required]}.

Hypothesis according to linguistics

Part of the Celtiberian population comes from central Europe, since Celtiberian is a language phylogenetically derived from Proto-Celtic, although influenced by other languages. In addition to the Celtic element and the Hispanic native element, the Celtiberians could receive contributions from other European populations.

There are various possibilities and many of these hypotheses have been largely abandoned due to the difficulty of ethnically or linguistically identifying the speakers of hypothetical languages such as Old Ligurian, Sorotaptic, Illyrian or even Old European (all of these languages have been tentatively identified to explain reasonably localized sets of place names, but it is arguable that they corresponded to defined ethnic groups). Among these Indo-European elements that are frequently mentioned in relation to the origin of the Celtiberians are:

• A smooth hypothesis, for some the ancient ligurine would be the oldest indo-European substrate in the West, for others would be the sorotaptic hypothetical. The ligurine was able to proceed from the Swiss Alps and spread through the modern Liguria. The identification of the ancient ligurine (as with the sorotaptic or the former European) is hypothetical and is based on toponyms. So the finished toponyms in - Hi. they are attributed to the ancient Libyan people whose origin is unknown (some even doubt their indouricity). The very name of the different Celtic villages that make up the Iron Age on the Iberian peninsula seems to have ligur origin (bombrones, autrigones...).
• Another iliria hypothesis proposed by Pokorny, which states that the iliries would have been one of the first Indo-European peoples in the West and that this implies a vast colonization that follows the river courses instead of the orographic elements that follow the Celts. Within this scenario, three waves of colonization have been proposed:
  • a iliria about 1100 a. C.
  • a cell at 500 a. C.
  • another Celtic in the centuryIIIa. C.

In situ formation hypothesis

Invasion hypotheses do not have sufficient support in archaeological data. More recent studies date back to the Bronze Age the Celtic presence in Western Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula. The most archaic Celts of the Peninsula would already inhabit the north, the west and the Plateau in the II millennium BC. C. They lived in small villages of cabins, with a transhumant agricultural and livestock economy. From the I millennium a. C., these Celts would live in fortified towns (castros), each one defending a small territory. This "proto-Celtic" Atlantic would give rise to the Lusitanos, Galicians, Astures, Vacceos, Vettones, Carpetanos and Pelendones.

Displacing this substratum, the Celtiberians themselves would expand from the VII-VI centuries BC. C. The arrival of large human groups bringing the already formed Celtiberian culture is not documented, so it would surely have formed locally, influenced by the Culture of the Urn Fields, originating from Central Europe, which would penetrate the Northeast of the peninsula in the Late bronze (1200 BC). The relationship of this Culture with the Celts is complex, since they also gave rise to Iberian peoples. Its settlement, during the I millennium BC. C. in the future Celtiberia on a proto-Celtic substratum, could explain the origin of the Celtiberian language. The formation of the Celtiberian culture would be the result of a long process in situ since the first millennium BC. C. up to the V century BC. C., without excluding European invasions that the sources mention.

Fonts

The first written references to the Celtiberians are due to Greco-Latin geographers and historians (Strabo, Livy, Pliny the Elder and others), although their study, which starts in the 15th century XV, does not acquire scientific status until the beginning of the XX century > (Marquis de Cerralbo, Schulten, Taracena, Caro Baroja, etc.), gaining renewed momentum in recent years. Despite this exceptional literary heritage, key aspects for its definition are still discussed today: the confines of its land, its true personality or its own genealogy.

The classical sources are very imprecise regarding their territory, although we can consider that the historical Celtiberians spread safely through the provinces of Soria and Guadalajara, a good part of La Rioja, eastern Burgos, western Zaragoza and Teruel, perhaps northern Cuenca and Asturias; different interpretations extend this framework to the east and west. Given the heterogeneous nature of the literary information and the archaeological evidence of the Celtiberian culture, it is difficult to define them based on a single feature; However, we know that they spoke the same language, Celtiberian, whose written testimonies (using the Iberian alphabet), although late, extend over a territory that basically coincides with the one described.

Archaeological data

Judging by the archaeological record, the Celts arrived on the Iberian Peninsula in the 13th century BCE. C. with the great expansion of the peoples of the culture of the urn fields, then occupying the northeast region. In the VII century B.C. C., during the Hallstatt culture they spread over large areas of the plateau and Portugal, some groups reaching Galicia. However, after the Greek founding of Masalia (now Marseille), the Iberians reoccupied the middle valley of the Ebro river and the northeast of the peninsula from the Celts, giving rise to new Greek settlements (Ampurias). The Celtiberians and the other Celts of the peninsula were thus cut off from their continental kin, so that neither the Celtic culture of La Tène nor the religious phenomenon of Druidism would ever reach them.

Celtiberian peoples

At the beginning, the sources are hesitant in the delimitation of what was understood by Celtiberia and the peoples considered Celtiberians. At first, classical authors used this term to refer to all the Celtic peoples of Iberia. Later, as the conquest progressed territorially, the term Celtiberians was used to group certain Celtic peoples, but excluding others, such as For example, the Berones. The classical authors of this stage confined the term Celtiberian to two large main areas. The first, formed by the Arévacos, and perhaps the Pelendones, controlled Celtiberia Ulterior (Soria province, most of Guadalajara, up to the source of the Tagus River, the eastern half of Segovia and the southeast of Burgos.). Among its cities are Secontia (Sigüenza), Numantia (Numancia), Uxama, Termes and Clunia. The second area is the land of the tittos, beautiful and lusones or Celtiberia Citerior (inhabitants of the lands around the rivers Jalón, Alto Tajuña, Jiloca and Huerva), with cities such as Segeda, Bílbilis (Calatayud), Tierga, Botorrita or complete.

The confusion of the classical sources was shared by modern researchers, who have used the term Celtiberian with different meanings. At present, the Arevacos, Titos, Bellos, Lusones and Pelendones are usually considered Celtiberians, and more occasionally, Vacceos, Carpetanos, Olcades and Lobetanos.

Gestation of the Celtiberian society

Reconstruction of a cellular house of Numance.

During the centuries VII century a. C.-century VI a. C., in the nuclear area, high Tajuña and high Henares, of Celtiberia, a series of novelties in the pattern of settlement, in the funerary ritual and in technology, which indicate the evolution towards a society with a strong warrior component.. In cemeteries, since its inception, a strong social hierarchy is demonstrated, where the panoply of weapons appears as a sign of prestige. The documentation on the burial mounds or alignments of tombs, which will be generalized in the following centuries, are abundant. These elites are verified by the panoply of burials, which could be a consequence of the evolution in situ of the culture of Las Cogotas, but with important cultural contributions from the culture of the urn fields, which « they celtized” the culture of the Cogotas. Otherwise, it would not be possible to explain that these peoples spoke a language with Celtic roots. Also of great importance, due to its proximity, was the Mediterranean influence which, hand in hand with the Iberians, transmitted such significant advances as currency or writing.

This new organization fueled demographic growth and led to a growing concentration of wealth and power through control of natural resources (pastures, salt flats, etc.) and the production of iron in the outcrops of the Iberian System, which allowed the rapid appearance of a hierarchical society of the warrior type, taking advantage of the privileged situation of natural passage between the Ebro valley and the Meseta.

The Warrior Aristocrats

Celtish shield of V or centuryIVa. C.

Since the late V century or early IV a. C., the necropolises of the eastern plateau present rich military trousseau, with the presence of swords and a great accumulation of sumptuary objects in bronze, helmets, disks-cuirass, umbos, sometimes embossed. The necropolis, with the characteristic arrangement in parallel streets, with grave goods that show a highly hierarchical society and that would be linked to aristocratic groups.

The eastern plateau is revealed in this phase as an important focus of development, in funerary trousseaus, incorporating into its orbit of influence areas of the south of the province of Soria, finding fibulas, brooches, pectorals, weapons and harness horse, which shows us that a small number of people owned horses, which must have been used in small raids against neighboring towns, although their symbolic value as prestigious objects must have prevailed in weapons.

The Warrior Society

Since the turn of the century V a. C.y during the following two centuries, the focus of development located in the upper basins of the Tajuña, Henares and Jalón gradually shifted towards the Alto Duero, with the increase in the preponderance that will play, from this moment, one of the populi celtiberians, with more vigor in the period of the fights against Rome, the arevaci, whose predominance would be situated in this phase. To this ethnic group, according to Alberto J. Lorrio, the burials on the right bank of the upper Duero are linked, where the tombs with military panoply multiply and which allow us to attest to a society with a majority military class.

While in the nuclear zone of Celtiberia, the tombs with military panoply diminish until they almost disappear, which does not indicate a disappearance of the warrior society, when the Celtiberian wars were taking place, but rather an evolution towards an urban social organization, with a dissolution of social ties based on kinship.

From the 2nd-1st centuries B.C. C., the superior political and legal criterion of the Celtiberians was the city of origin, understood as the center of a space or territory, with a rural population, articulated around it. This evolved society was found by the Romans at the beginning of the conquest of the interior of Hispania.

Sociopolitical organization

The basic social organizations, which survived until imperial times, were the gens or gentes and gentilates. Relations were based on kinship; these constituted groups of consanguineous descendants of a common ancestor, who received the name of gens ('gentes, family') the broader group, and gentilates the minor divisions of the gens.

Gentle life was manifested in common meals and by the fact that all the relatives slept together, as archaeologically attested by the houses of Numancia and Tiermes, where they ate in community, sitting on benches, attached to the walls, around a central hearth, where the group also slept. From the epigraphic studies on the Celtiberians, as well as other peoples of the Meseta and the north of the Iberian Peninsula, it can be deduced that the belonging of individuals to the gens or gentilates was stronger than the restricted family. In other words, when it came to expressing their name, it was more important to belong to a broad kinship group, which would include other subgroups, within which the family would be the smallest. In the mid-century I a. C., other factors begin to be important, mentions are found of the city to which the individual belongs, and paternal affiliation appears due to Roman influence.

Northeast of Iberia.

City Life

The Celtiberians lived in different types of settlements, which ancient sources call polis or urbes, civitates, vici and castella.

• The urbes they were the type of ancient city-state; with a more or less developed urban center and an agrarian environment dependent on it.
• The civitates They were autonomous indigenous political organizations that could have an urban configuration.
• Them vici and castella were the smaller settlements and correspond to the towns and castros characteristic of these villages that document archaeology.

Archaeological findings confirm that urban settlements were located preferably in Carpetania, although Carpetania is not generally understood as belonging to Celtiberia, the Jalón and Ebro valleys, that is, in the richest regions, more civilized and where later the urban life of Roman type had greater diffusion. Although the majority of the population lived basically dispersed, in villages or towns or around defense towers, which are mentioned as vici or castella. The process of building cities had already begun around the IV century BCE. C., when the Romans arrived, in the first half of the II century B.C. C. These cities were formed by the sum of different tribal communities around the same urban center.

The political organization of these cities had a popular assembly, a council of elders or an aristocratic senate, and presumably elective magistrates. This organization of the Celtiberian "cities" was directly based on their social organization, in which the gentile and military aristocracy constituted the dominant group. This aristocracy was made up of the owners of large herds of cattle and important clienteles that formed the basis of their social prestige. The political body of this class was the council of elders, which at this time no longer corresponded to an old body. This council had the main political role in the city and presented proposals that were approved by the Assembly. Although the Assembly was the one that chose the military chief, whose term of office was limited, among the Arevaci, to one year.

Other civil magistracies were also elected, which in Latin are called magistratus, praetor and in the indigenous language viros or we'll see. These magistrates exercised the administration of the cities or acted as their representatives.

Celtiberian coalitions

The Celtiberians can be considered as an ethnic group, since they incorporate minor entities (Arévacos, Titos, Bellos, Lusones and Pelendones, the inclusion of Vacceos, Carpetanos, Olcades and Lobetanos being controversial), without this meaning the existence of a centralized power and not even of a political unit. However, there is considerable evidence of the existence of political structures that went beyond gens and cities. Throughout the century III and the II century a. C., Carthage first and Rome later they faced a series of Celtiberian armies, too numerous to come from a single city or even tribe, but which acted in an organized way and with a centralized command. During the Second Celtiberian War, Apiano mentions a confederation of Arevaca, Titas and Belas cities.

The sources do not explain how these coalitions or confederations functioned, but they do give some indications. For example, it is possible that the armies had collegial commands, or double chiefdoms, with leaders from different tribes sharing command. The coalition had little coercive power over the tribes or cities that comprised it, since they could adopt different attitudes in the fight against the Romans, depending on the circumstances. The decision to go to war or not seemed to be a decision made by each city. So was signing peace, although the Celtiberian embassy to Rome that put an end to the Second Celtiberian War negotiated an agreement on behalf of the entire coalition.

Federations were not necessarily between equals. Thus, for example, the Arevaci were the dominant tribe due to their military superiority. The Numantines had their own garrisons in Malia and Lagni, to reinforce the defense of the city and preserve their fidelity to the Arevaci. The inequalities and different interests of the members of the coalition were frequently exploited by the Romans.

Hospitium, clientele and devotion

Reproduction of celebrity teasera of unknown origin.

According to ancient authors, among the Celtiberian tribes and cities there were specific ways of relating to each other, which would be:

Hospital

The hospitium ('hospice') or hospitality agreement allowed other groups or individuals to acquire the rights of a gentile group. It was not an act of adoption; the acting parties contracted mutual rights without losing their own personality. The contracting parties of the hospitium became mutual guests (hospites ) and the hospitality pact was usually agreed in a document called “hospitality tesserae”. These tesserae are cut-out metal sheets, many of them depicting two clasped hands or the silhouette of animals, which perhaps had religious significance. It is supposed that the hospitium, initially, was agreed on a level of equality, but when economic differences arose, it would go on to a state of dependency. Among the hospitality pacts discovered, the most famous is the Bronze of Luzaga, which records a hospitium between the cities of Arecoratas and Lutia, to which the gentilitates Belaiocum were probably added. > and Caricon.

Tésera de hospitium.

Clientele

Clienteles consist of retinues built around the most important individuals in a tribal community. The relationship between these individuals, generally aristocrats, and their followers, was a contractual relationship based on the inequality of wealth and social position of both parties; the chief normally owed his followers food and clothing, while they owed him unconditional support. These clienteles frequently had a military character.

Devotional

The devotio was a special class of clientele. To the contractual element of the clientele was added a religious bond, by which the clients of a chief had the obligation to follow him into battle and not to survive him in case he died in combat. Such clients were called devotio and their parallels in Celtic and Germanic society, soldurios and comitatus.

Celtish torch.

With the clientele and the devotio, ties of consanguinity no longer play any role. Social inequalities push the poorest individuals to put themselves in the clientele of an aristocrat. As the bond that united him with the boss was stronger, sometimes through religious ties, than the blood link. These institutions contributed to breaking up the ties of the tribal gentile organization.

The greatest development of military clienteles in Celtiberia seems to have occurred during the period of the civil wars of the late Republic, when the various politicians involved such as Sertorius, Pompey, Julius Caesar, etc. They carved out important indigenous clienteles. The proliferation of these institutional practices, together with the development of the aristocratic class and urban structures, were the main elements that contributed to the evolution of the gentile system, its transformation and, already under Roman rule, its progressive disappearance.

Ethnopolitical organization

One of the most conflictive aspects, essential for the delimitation of Celtiberia, is that of the ethnic groups or populi, which according to classical authors would integrate the Celtiberian collective. Various are the towns mentioned. Strabo considers Arevacos and Lusones as two of the four towns of Celtiberia; although he does not cite the other two, at least by their ethnonyms, which from the narrations of the Celtiberian and Lusitanian wars, it is known that they would have been the bellos and tittos, which did not They are cited again for after the year 143 B.C. C. It is more difficult to fill a fifth part, to which Strabo refers, without any detail. Pliny the Elder clearly points to the pelendones as a Celtiberian people, although, following Apiano, he also points to the Vacceos, the Berones^{[citation required]} or even the aforementioned Celtiberians independently from arevaci and pelendones by Ptolemy.

Religion

The so-called Necklace of the Priestess of the Sun (sixteenth century)IVa. C.), a work of Celtish religious symbolism.

Very little is known about the religion of these peoples. The only direct mention in the classical texts is that of Strabo, who wrote that the Celtiberians worshiped a god to whom they did not assign a name.

We can divide the indigenous pantheon into three categories of divinities, which are not exclusive:

• Divinities of astral character (e.g. the Sun and the Moon). They form the substrate of the Indo-European religions.
• Great Celtic gods. Just as in other areas of the peninsula and outside it, as in Gaul and Britannia.
• Minor divinities. With a probably local cult, whose character appears to indicate a substrate or origin of animist or tothemic type and which are linked, either to natural accidents (mounts, forests, etc.) or of territorial type (casters, villages, cities, etc.).

The Celtiberian pantheon would possibly include several of the Celtic gods:

• The most important Celtic god was Lug, a warrior god who with romanization was assimilated to Mercury. It appears mentioned inscriptions found in Uxama (Osma, Soria), and in Peñalba de Villastar (Teruel).
• From Cernunnos, god of fertility and regeneration, popular in Galia, some representations have been found.
• The nameless god mentioned by Estrabon has traditionally been associated well with the Moon, or the Irish god Dagda.
• The Matres, goddess of fruitfulness, the nutritious land and the waters, whose cult was spread among the Celts and Germans.
• The cult of Epona, the goddess of the horses, fits very well into the Celtiberia, being a breeding area of horses. Several inscriptions dedicated to Epona have been found in the Celtiberia.
• Several bronzes have also appeared with images of the infernal divinity Sucellus.

Gods with exclusively local worship were very abundant. All these local cults that could be linked to a certain gentile community or a locality are the most abundantly represented.

The existence of temples within Celtiberian cities or towns is currently unknown. The general norm seems that the sanctuaries were outside the towns, like the natural enclosures with steps excavated in the rock, located under the acropolis of Tiermes, with a set of sacrificial stones with wells and channels.

Despite what has been traditionally defended, it is very likely that there was a section of society specialized in the religious sphere, perhaps with characteristics common to the druids of other Celtic peoples. It is possible that military leaders performed religious ceremonies in the presence of their army and that the chiefs or the heads of the lineage carried out, in the ambit of the city or the family, certain cults.

The festive dances were described by Strabo as an important element of the Celtiberian religion, as he mentions that they were executed as if they were simulated combats. Blas Taracena and other archaeologists suggest that the paloteo dances of Casarejos and San Leonardo are adaptations of these Celtiberian dances.

Language and writing

Bronzes of Botorrita, centuryI

The language of the Celtiberians exists today only in ancient inscriptions. The language was brought to the peninsula by Celtic immigrants from Gaul and was spoken in the central and northern parts. It is possible that Celtiberian was not the only Celtic language of Iberia, as there is evidence from place names in northern Catalonia that Gaulish was spoken there. For this reason, and due to the fact that other ancient Indo-European languages may have been spoken in Iberia, it is difficult to accurately define the Celtiberian area.

To the west of the Celtiberian area, Lusitanian was spoken in what is now Portugal. It is possible that Lusitanian was a dialect of Celtiberian, or a separate Celtic language. Others believe that the few remains of the language suggest that Lusitanian was a distinct Indo-European language.

Celtiberian was spoken from the IV century B.C. C. when Herodotus mentioned that the keltoi lived on the other side of the Pillars of Hercules, and the Celtiberians were mentioned in Roman and Greek documents from the III a. C. The Celtiberians were finally dominated by the Romans after 49 B.C. C., and of course their language quickly yielded to Latin. However, it would survive until the beginning of the Christian era.

Basque is the only pre-Celtic language in Europe. As a curiosity, the current Basque Autonomous Community, archaeologically, was an area with certain Celtic settlements in the western part of Vizcaya, the eastern part of Cantabria and northern Burgos, while that in Navarra, north of La Rioja and north of Aragon up to Andorra it would be a completely Basque area, extending in turn throughout the whole of Gascony up to the Garona river. There are some Celtic words in Basque, borrowed from Celtiberian. Some Celtiberian words were also borrowed from Latin, and still survive in modern Spanish, for example, Celtiberian camanom (Irish céimm, Welsh cam, 'step') was borrowed as camminum, giving camino in Spanish, which in Basque would be bide and chemin in French.

The Celtiberian belonged to a parallel branch of the Celtic family. It shows very old features, and like the Goidelic, it had preserved the original kw. This, together with the Celtic legends that tell us of ancient contacts between Ireland and the Celtiberians, have led to the claim that the Goidelic took Ireland from Iberia. By the way, there were contacts between the Celts of Iberia and those of Ireland, but the existing evidence ^{[citation needed]} better supports the interpretation that the Celtiberian and the Goidelic are two similar but distinct branches of Celtic, both of which had separated very early as two Celtic languages and were not very closely related to each other. The Celtiberian did not have some very distinctive features of the Goidelic, for example, the initial position of the verb or the conjugated prepositions. Linguists consider two languages to have a close affinity if they show common innovations. This was not exactly the case with the Celtiberian and Goidelic.

Celtiberian was written in an alphabet that was also used to write the other pre-Roman languages of the peninsula (see: Ogam). The alphabet was first used to write the language of the Iberians, which we do not know well. The alphabet does not combine well with the phonology of an Indo-European language, and this makes the interpretation of Celtiberian inscriptions even more difficult. There is a large number of Celtiberian inscriptions, most of them words or simple names written on ceramics. There are also two short inscriptions, most likely dedications, from Peñalba de Villastar and from Luzaga. The most important inscription, without a doubt, is the long inscription of Botorrita, near Zaragoza.

The extinction of Celtiberian did not put an end to the history of Celtic languages in the Peninsula. In the fifth and sixth centuries, after the fall of the Roman Empire, some British Celtic speakers fled from southern Britain to escape Anglo-Saxon invaders. Most of these settled in Armorica in Gaul (modern Britain), and a few others may have reached Galicia, where their language survived and transformed in various ways over several generations.

The necropolises

The necropolises located throughout the XX century in the highlands of the Eastern Plateau offered one of the themes more attractive for researchers who approached, at the beginning of their study, the Celtiberian world.

Despite the high number of necropolises identified at the beginning of the century, the exact location is often unknown. Although they are usually located in flat areas (low plains or gently sloping plains, which are currently exploited for agriculture), in proximity to watercourses (rivers and permanent streams) or in former habitation places, abroad and in and around habitats and visible from them.

Ideal reconstruction of a tomb with stella.

The funeral space

One of the aspects that has attracted the most attention is the peculiar internal organization of the funeral space. Thus, some necropolises in the Alto Tajo-Alto Jalón and Alto Tajuña, and more rarely in the Alto Duero area, are characterized by the aligned deposition of the tombs forming parallel streets, sometimes paved, of variable lengths and made up of large stones as of stelae indicating the location of a tomb. However, what Cabré called "the Celtic cremation rite with aligned stelae" cannot be considered as a general practice in all Celtiberian necropolises, rather the contrary, most of the necropolises with tombs with stelae are characterized by lacking of any internal order, being common in this type of cemeteries that the graves appear grouped, locating areas with less density of graves and even spaces free of burials.

The number of burials varies markedly; Thus, some necropolises, such as the one in Aguilar de Anguita, reach five thousand graves, and others only reach one hundred.

The funeral ritual

Information panel of the necropolis of Herrería.

The archeologically documented ritual in Celtiberian cemeteries is that of cremation, but knowing only the final result of this process, all evidence is reduced to trousseau and the treatment it was subjected to or to the funerary structures related to it. Although the cremation rite was the most widespread among the Celtiberians, the literary sources, the Numantine painted representations and the absence of funerary evidence in certain times and areas of Celtiberia suggest that it was not the only one used. It is possible to assume the use of rituals such as the descarnation or the exhibition of the corpses, whose practice among the Celtiberian tribes is known thanks to the classical sources. This custom has its iconographic confirmation in two Numantine vascular representations, in one of them a vulture pounces on a recumbent warrior, while in the other the vulture is perched on the corpse. This iconography appears reproduced on a stela of Lara de los Infantes and on the giant stele of Zurita. Finally, it is worth referring to the burials children documented inside the villages, a characteristic ritual of the Iberian sphere, which exceeds and of which some examples are known in the Celtiberian and Vacceo world. Some human remains have been located in the city of Numancia, not necessarily from the Celtiberian period, among which it is worth highlighting a group of four skulls found inside a house, which have been related to the Celtic rite of trophy heads. In addition, the documented burials in one of the towers of the wall of Bilbilis Itálica, interpreted as foundational sacrifices.

Funeral structures

Within the extension of the necropolis, two structures can be distinguished, the places where the cremations would take place, the ustrina, surely collective spaces and generally poorly known, and the places where the final deposition took place of the remains of the deceased, which offer great structural variability.

Types of burial.

Ustrines them

They are located and identified within the funerary space, as Cerralbo already did, to whom most of the information available on this type of structure is owed, due to the presence of abundant ash, ceramic and metal remains, which They may or may not be located in marginal areas of the necropolis (in the Aguilar de Anguita necropolis they were located in the most remote streets). The most recent excavation works have offered some evidence of places reserved for cremation in some necropolises.

Types of burials

View of the Portillo necropolis (Aguilar de Anguita), necropolis with stales.

There is a great variety regarding the type of burial, from the deposition of the remains of the cremation in a hole, with or without a funerary urn and sometimes accompanied by stelae of various sizes or burial mounds. This variability, which is manifested among the tombs of the same cemetery, could imply, depending on the greater constructive complexity, a differentiation of a social type, and also evident between the different necropolises.

The stelae can vary considerably in size, being generally made of materials from the region. They are usually rough or rough cut stones.

The presence of burial mounds, although it is a minority element in Celtiberian necropolises, also offers a certain diversity, being usually found quite altered, sometimes leaving only an accumulation of stones without a defined shape.

The grave goods

Celtish bronze breast.

The objects that accompany the corpse in the burial, called grave goods, can be of different types: those made of metal, generally bronze, iron or also silver, which include weapons, ornamental elements and tools; ceramic materials, which range from the funerary urn itself to the vases that sometimes accompany it, fusayolas or balls; objects made of bone, glass paste, stone, etc., and those made of perishable materials, never preserved, but known from ancient sources, such as wooden containers or the deceased's own clothing.

Although most of the objects deposited in the tombs must have had a practical function in the world of the living, some of them present a social and symbolic value added to the purely functional value, indicating, with it, the status of their holder. The role played by weapons and particularly by the sword stands out. The prestige of the sword, with the rich decorations that the hilts and scabbards often present and as a fighting weapon, led it to become an indicator of the warrior status and privileged position, within Celtiberian society, of its owner, emphasizing the military character of society.

A first analysis allows us to verify the existence of tombs with many objects, compared to others that have none and that, at least, implies an intentional different treatment. The trousseau deposited maintains a constant and that is that the small pieces were introduced inside the urn and the large pieces were placed outside; in the case of burials without an urn, the remains had to be wrapped in some skin, cloth or perishable material that has not been preserved and the grave goods were arranged around it.

Weaponry

The military equipment documented in the Celtiberian necropolises is basically made up of the sword, the dagger (sometimes it replaces the sword itself), and polearms, which would include spears, javelins, pilums and solifera, made in iron in one piece. It is common to find knives with curved backs, as well as shields, of which only the metal pieces have been preserved: the umbos, the handles and the elements for holding them. Likewise, the panoply of some tombs included defensive elements such as helmets and armor discs, mainly made of bronze, although given the small number of finds, their use would be restricted to the most privileged sector of society.

Fronton sword.

Possible origin of the Celts in Spain

According to a study carried out by the professor of genetics and molecular medicine at the University of Oxford, Bryan Sykes, the Celts who inhabited the United Kingdom before the arrival of the Saxons, Vikings and Normans, descended from populations from the Iberian Peninsula They crossed the Bay of Biscay more than 4,000 years ago. To reach this conclusion, the team led by Sykes took DNA samples from more than 10,000 people in the United Kingdom and Ireland, in order to develop a complete genetic map, resulting in the peoples traditionally called Celts ; Scottish, Welsh and Irish, would have a close relationship with the northern populations of Iberia, curiously from a haplogroup that has its source of emission in the Bay of Biscay. Analysis of the Y-chromosome composition of the DNA revealed that the Celts' fingerprints were virtually identical to those of the inhabitants of northern Spain.

Daniel G. Bradley, professor of genetics at Trinity College Dublin, arrived at the same genetic results published by Sykes. It must be clarified that when Bradley speaks of the "Atlantic façade" he does not do so as is common in Spain, to refer to Galicia and Portugal, but limits it to the Pyrenean Atlantic: "The similarity between the Atlantic coastal areas is more evident and shows that in fact, western Ireland and Great Britain have a greater affinity with the Basque region". Thus, genetic affinities are highest between Irish and Cantabrian-Pyrenean, and descend towards the western populations of northern Spain.

This research contradicts traditional theories that the British Celts came from central Europe. However, it is very likely that the Iberian genetic heritage present in the British Isles is related to the megalithic expansion, prior to the existence of the Celts. There is knowledge of commercial contacts and of an ancient, prehistoric navigation route that linked the Gulf of Cádiz with what is now Ireland and Great Britain.^{[citation required]} To this we must add the evidence that in 10,000 B.C. C. Europe was suffering a mini ice age and the Iberian Peninsula was one of the few places in Europe where man could live. Much of the European continent, including the British Isles, was covered in ice. As the ice receded, there was a migration to the north. All this happened long before the birth of any Celtic culture.