Culture or social rank? The 'celtic' affinities of the northern Iberians
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2015-10-15

Alexis Gorgues
UNIVERSITY OF BORDEAUX MONTAIGNE-UMR 5607 AUSONIUS

When dealing with South-West European Late Prehistory, it is usual to observe a mix between a linguistic taxonomy and an archaeological one. Celtiberians are for instance people from the “Indo-European” Hispania, while Iberians belong to a non Indo-European “substrate”. Relying on this paradigm, archaeologists have for a long time looked for the archaeological markers of continental “celticity” in areas where people were supposed to speak a Celtic language, i. e. in the central part of nowadays Spain, while they seem to be more numerous in Eastern Catalonia. In this area, where epigraphy refers only to the use of the Iberian language, swords of La Tène type are for instance to be found, along with shields similar to those known all over Central and Western Europe. Some of these weapons can be displayed together with skull fragments according to a scenography reminding observations made in various parts of Gaul. These elements are often interpreted as the proof of a cultural proximity between northern Iberians and Gauls, sharing the same symbolic practices.

In this paper, we will offer another interpretation of these discoveries. In our opinion, the “international” artefacts –as well as the symbolic practices- have in common to be associated with social elites. They can be thus interpreted as markers of rank, more than as markers of ethnicity or cultural identity. We will then raise a question: why did they choose these specific markers, and not those more usual in the remaining part of the Iberian world?