From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Iberians were a set of peoples that Greek and Roman sources (among others, Hecataeus of Miletus, Avienus, Herodot and Strabo) identified with that name in the eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula at least from the 6th century BC: Elisices, Sordones, Ceretani, Airenosi, Andosini, Bergistani, Ausetani, Indigetes, Castellani, Lacetani, Laietani, Cessetani, Ilergetes, Iacetani, Suessetani, Sedetani, Ilercavones, Edetani, Contestani, Oretani, Bastetani and Turdetani. The Roman and Greek sources often diverge about the precise location of each Iberian people and also about the list of Iberian peoples.

The Iberian culture concept is not a uniform pattern that every people identified as Iberian repeat. In fact the Iberian culture is an addition of each individual culture that often present common characteristics, but that diverge clearly in others and also often share with other peoples not considered Iberians.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Origins 1.2 External influences 2 Iberian culture 2.1 Iberian language 2.2 Iberian scripts 3 Further reading 4 Gallery 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

The Iberians lived in isolated communities based on a tribal organization. They also had a knowledge of metalworking, including bronze, and agricultural techniques. In later years, the Iberians evolved into a more complex civilization with urbanized communities and social stratification. They traded metals with the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians.

Greek colonists made the first historical reference to the Iberians in the 6th century B.C. They also dubbed as Iberians another people who estabslished a goody empire, currently known as Caucasian Iberians. It is not known whether they had any connection or if it was just a coincidence of names. The Iberians most likely made contact with other cultures long before this, however. The Phoenicians established their first colony on the Iberian Peninsula in 1100 B.C. (Gadir, Gades, modern Cádiz) and probably made contact with Iberians then or shortly thereafter.

The origin of the Iberians is not known. There is no proof about a hypothetical origin in North Africa, today an obsolete theory.

The Iberians traded extensively with other Mediterranean cultures. Iberian pottery has been found in France, Italy, and North Africa. The Iberians also had extensive contact with Greek colonists who shared their cultural knowledge. The Iberians may have adopted some of the Greeks' artistic skill. Statues such as the Lady of Baza and the Lady of Elx are thought to have been made by Iberians relatively well studied in art. One of the three original tribes of Sicily; the Sicanians are thought to have been of Iberian origin.^[1]

The Iberians were placed under Carthaginian rule for a short time between the Second and Third Punic Wars. They supplied troops to Hannibal's army. The Romans subsequently conquered the Iberian Peninsula and slowly repressed the local culture and language.

Main article: Iberian language

The Iberian language, like the rest of paleohispanic languages became extinct by the 1st to 2nd centuries AD, after being gradually replaced by Latin. Iberian seems to be a language isolate. It is certainly not an Indo-European language. Links with other languages have been claimed, but they have not been demonstrated. One such proposed link was with the Basque language (Basque-Iberism), but this theory is also disputed.

Main article: Iberian scripts

The Iberians use three different scripts to represent the Iberian language.

• Northeastern Iberian script
  • Dual variant (4th century BC and 3rd century BC)
  • Non-dual variant (2nd century BC and 1st century BC)
• Southeastern Iberian script
• Greco-Iberian alphabet

Northeastern Iberian script and southeastern Iberian script share a common distinctive typological characteristic, also present in other paleohispanic scripts: they present signs with syllabic value, for the occlusives and signs with monofonematic value for the rest of consonants and vowels. From the writing systems point of view they aren’t neither alphabets nor syllabaries, they are mixed scripts that normally are identified as semi-syllabaries. About his common origin, there is no agreement between researchers: for some his origin is only linked to the Phoenician alphabet while for others the Greek alphabet had participated too.

• Beltrán, Miguel (1996): Los iberos en Aragón, Zaragoza.
• Ruiz, Arturo; Molinos, Manuel (1993): Los iberos, Barcelona.
• Sanmartí, Joan; Santacana, Joan (2005): Els ibers del nord, Barcelona.
• Sanmartí, Joan (2005): «La conformación del mundo ibérico septentrional», Palaeohispanica 5, pp. 333-358.

Funerary vase from the necropolis of Lucentum (the Roman name for Alacant, València, Spain)[2].

Iberian lion of Bujalance, in Andalusia, Spain.

Iberian tomb in an ancient Iberian village, near Azaila, in Aragón, Spain.

Modern peoples of Iberian ancestry:

• Azorean people
• Basque people
• Catalan people
• Portuguese people
• Spanish people

Ancient cultures of Iberia:

• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
• Tartessos
• Celts
• Celtiberians
• Phoenicia
• Greeks
• Carthage
• Roman Empire
• Visigoths
• Moors
• Basques

Archeological sites:

• Lucentum

Related to Iberian culture:

• Iberian language
• Iberian scripts

• Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)