Who were the Iberians, Celts and Celtiberians of ancient Spain?

Iberians, Celts and Celtiberians

Íberos, celtas y celtíberos

c. 5th century BC. In the centuries before Rome the peninsula was a patchwork of peoples.

Draft: not yet checked against its sources.

Where: Spain, Valencia, Castile

What happened

In the centuries before Rome the peninsula was a patchwork of peoples. Along the east and south coasts lived the Iberians, who built walled towns, minted coins and carved stone sculptures such as the Lady of Elche, a limestone bust of the fifth or fourth century BC that is now the most famous object in Spain's National Archaeological Museum. Inland lived Celtic-speaking peoples, and where the two worlds met, around the upper Ebro and Duero, the Celtiberians, whose hill towns Rome would find so hard to take. Their languages, written in scripts of their own, died out under Roman rule; only Basque, spoken in the western Pyrenees, survived. A few words and many place names are all they left in Spanish.

Say it

La Dama de Elche es una escultura íbera muy famosa.

The Lady of Elche is a very famous Iberian sculpture.

Why it matters

These are the people Rome conquered and Latinised; their disappearance explains why Spain's languages all descend from Latin, except Basque, and why words like Iberia and Celtiberia still name the land.

Connected

• Tartessos, the kingdom of silver (c. 8th century BC–550 BC)
• Tartessos, the kingdom of silver (c. 8th century BC–550 BC)
• From Vulgar Latin to Castilian (c. 218 BC–1250)
• The fall of Numantia (133 BC)
• The fall of Numantia (133 BC)

• Before: Greeks settle at Emporion
• After: Hannibal takes Saguntum

Sources

1. Lady of Elche — Museo Arqueológico Nacional
2. Protohistory – chronological catalogue — Museo Arqueológico Nacional