CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
THE CELTS IN SPAIN
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Majolie Lenerz-de Wilde
The Danube rises in the land of the Celts near the town of Pyrene and flows
through the middle of Europe, which it divides. The Celts live beyond the
Pillars of Hercules and are neighbours of the Kynesii who, among the peoples
of Europe, live furthest to the West.
(Herodotus 1I.33.3)This account is one of the earliest in which Celtic people are mentioned; it leads us
to the Iberian peninsula. These Celts are said to have lived beyond the Straits of
Gibraltar. Herodotus obviously used a report of seafarers, who described the journey
to the tin isles of Great Britain. For historical reasons, the report must be dated to
the late sixth century Be (Fischer 1972; Koch 1979; Arribas (n.d.): Appendix, 190ff.).
The model for the 'Ora Maritima' of Rufus Festus Avienus, a description of coastal
travel, also dates to the late sixth century Be. In this document, reference is made to
Celts - the tribe of the Beribraci - who probably lived inland from the northern
Mediterranean coast.
The journeys of Pytheas in the fourth century Be considerably extended know-
ledge of western Europe. In the following period, the written sources refer to
Celtic tribes in the north-west and south-west of the Iberian peninsula, and to the
Celtiberians in the centre.
We know of the settlement of Celtic tribes in the Iberian peninsula not only from
classical writers but also through linguistic research which supplies us with a rich
body of evidence (Tovar 1961; Untermann 1961, 1965). Inscriptions, dedications,
contracts, etc., which date from the last three centuries Be, are written in two
different languages: a non-Indo-European one on the Mediterranean coast and in the
Pyrenees, and an Indo-European one in the interior (Figure 28.1). The latter is
mainly concentrated in Castillia and Lusitania. The Castillian inscriptions have
been classed as Celtiberian, because the idg.-p fades away in the initial sound and
between vowels, which is a characteristic feature of Celtic languages. The Lusitanian
inscriptions appear to be in a related language. The Celtiberian, or Iberian, place-
names which, for the most part reflect the situation in the Roman Imperial period,
also divide the peninsula into two parts. Those names with the component -briga-
(Celtic 'fortified hill') are distributed in the west and the centre, while they are absent
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