- Chapter Twenty-Eight -
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Gallaeci lucense •
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Nemetobriga",~ :
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Gallaeci bracariFigure 28.1 Distribution of place names of different languages in Iberia. After Untermann
1965> map 34, and Untermann 1984. Key:. the placename element: 'briga'; 0 personal name
'Celtius'; ... Celtiberian settlements; boundary between Indo-European and non-Indo-
European language areas; boundary between Hispano-Celtic and Lusitanian divinity names and
family names.
in Andalusia and the Mediterranean coastal region. Within the area of the briga-
inscriptions, further subdivision is possible: this provides us with information on the
social structure of the pre-Roman population (Albertos Firmat 1966): a type of name
formula disseminated in the centre of the peninsula, which consists of the personal
name, the name of the father and that of the clan. The west lacks such clan names.
Votive inscriptions for local gods are to be found there, quite a few of which can
readily be identified as Celtic deities. These inscriptions also contain information
about social structure whereby the group identity of an individual is defined by
worship of a particular tutelary god (Untermann 1985). These sources indicate that
Celtic groups must have played an important role in the Iberian peninsula during the
Iron Age. However, in settlement, burial customs, costume, weapons and pottery, a
distinction can be made between the Celtiberian culture and the other iron age
cultures of central Spain, on the one hand, and the late Hallstatt and La Tene cultures
of central Europe, on the other (Lenerz-de Wilde 1991).
In the territory of the Meseta cultures of central Spain, several groups can be
distinguished (Figure 28.2). In the earlier Iron Age, the process of settlement of the