European Kingdoms

Early Iberia (Iron Age)

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The system which has evolved to catalogue the various archaeological expressions of human progress is one which involves cultures. For well over a century, archaeological cultures have remained the framework for global prehistory. The earliest cultures which emerge from Africa and the Near East are perhaps the easiest to catalogue, right up until human expansion reaches the Americas. The task of cataloguing that vast range of human cultures is covered in the related feature (see feature link, right).

Iberia is the largely sun-drenched south-western peninsula of Europe. It comprises the modern countries of Portugal and Spain, plus the principality of Andorra and the British crown colony of Gibraltar. The peninsula has experienced a colourful history which is filled with conquest and re-conquest, and centuries of struggle.

Prior to the advent of the Iron Age in Iberia, the peninsula experienced a sequence of Early Cultures which culminated with the Iberian Bronze Age. Starting from about 24,000 BC, these serve to link the first appearance of anatomically modern humans to the beginnings of recorded history in the first millennium BC.

That early arrival took place immediately preceding the start of the Solutrean culture. Conditions on the southern side of the Pyrenees were harsh at the time, away from the coastal regions, but older theories which held this as a reason to count against a human presence have now been discounted.

Largely external sources recorded conflict between various prehistoric tribes in the peninsula (Iberians, Celtiberians, and others), Classical empires (Carthage and Rome), Germanic invaders (Suevi, Vandals, and Visigoths), and then the drawn-out struggle for superiority between Christianity and Islam.

At the start of that drawn-out story, the Castro culture dominated in the north, Cogotas II the upper central areas, and the Tartessian large swathes of the south. The nearby Early Balearic Islands experienced their own 'Early Iron Age' in the form of the Talaiotic culture.

That struggle ended in the formation of the late medieval states of Portugal and Spain, but that history has seen terrible loss in so many ways. Typically perhaps, Iberia has ensured that such loss can be evoked through music. In Spain this is by way of the flamenco which is not confined to dance (baile) but also song (cante) and toque (guitar), and in Portugal it is by way of fado from the Portuguese word for 'fate'.

(Information by Peter Kessler and Trish Wilson, with additional information from A Genetic Signal of Central European Celtic Ancestry, David K Faux, from Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission, Benjamin W Roberts & Marc Vander Linden (Eds), and from External Links: Mesolithic Culture of Europe (PDF, Vidya Mitra Integrated E-Content Portal), and The Mesolithic of Iberia (Encyclopaedia.com), and First modern human settlement recorded in the Iberian hinterland (Scientific Reports), and Celtiberia.net (in Spanish), and Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (in Spanish), and A misty history of Roman Portugal (The Portugal News), and Euskomedia (in Spanish).)