The Secret Celtic History of Spain and Portugal: Celtic Iberia Explained
Channel: Celtic History Decoded
Date: 2021-08-08

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The Secret Celtic History of Spain and Portugal: Celtic Iberia Explained - When one thinks of Spain and Portugal, incredible food, great weather and passionate people are usually the first things that come to mind. The Celtic history of these places does not usually enter the picture. 

In a previous video, I focused on the Celtic origins of the region of Galicia in Spain, the most famous Celtic connection to Spain. However, the influence of Celtic civilization extends far beyond Galicia, with a large part of the Iberian Peninsula having Celtic roots.

Thousands of years ago, vast parts of lands we know as Spain and Portugal today were home to Celtic tribes. One of the most notable Celtic groups were the Celtiberians, who occupied the central-eastern region of what we call Spain today. Various Celtic tribes made up the Celtiberians, including the Arevaci, Pellendones and the Titti. These people spoke the Celtiberian language, a now extinct Indo-European Celtic language, which was related to the Gallaecian language spoken in the north-west corner of the Iberian Peninsula. 

Interestingly, there are over 200 inscriptions that have been found that contain the Celtiberian script, usually dating from the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The Celtiberian script was an adaptation of the northeastern Iberian script, and was used for writing. The Botorrita bronze plaques contain the Celtiberian script, which were found near the city of Zaragoza in Spain, and are dated to the 2nd century BC. 

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The Celtiberian also invented a type of sword that the Romans then adopted after conquering them. Prior to the switch, the Romans tended to use a sword that was used mainly for thrusting, and was possibly based on a Greek design. After witnessing how effective the Celtiberian swords were at slashing and thrusting, the Romans decided to adopt a similarly designed Gladius, with Gladius being the Latin word for sword.  

Other ancient Celtic groups in the Iberian Peninsula include the Vaccaei, Carpetani and the Celtici, with the Celtici occupying various regions of modern-day Portugal, include the Algarve region. The Celtici are thought to have strong links with the Galicians, with many Celtici migrating north into Galicia thousands of years ago. There were also many pre-Celtic and mixed Celtic groups, including the Lusitanians, which probably deserve a video of their own at some point in the future. 

The word Portugal itself may also be half-Celtic. Portugal derives its name from an ancient town that the Romans called Portus Cale. Portus was the Roman word for Port, but Cale is thought to be either Celtic or Greek. In the Celtic version of the word, Cale could be derived from the Celtic Callaeci of ancient Galicia, or perhaps from the Celtic deity of the weather, known as Cailleach or Cala. 

It is though that these Celtic words meant port or harbour, with similar words still used in Irish and Scottish Gaelic for port or harbour today. Therefore, strangely enough, Portus Cale could have literally meant Port Port. Over time, Portus Cale became Portus Gale, and eventually, Portugal. 

As we have seen, the history of both Spain and Portugal have strong Celtic influences. Please let me know in the comments of any other Iberian Celtic connections you know of…

Sources:

Wikipedia – Celtiberians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtiberians 

Celtiberian language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtiberian_language 

Celtiberian script https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtiberian_script 

Gladius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladius 

Wikipedia – Cailleach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cailleach 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Celtiberia https://www.britannica.com/place/Celtiberia 

Creative Commons Imagery:

The Ogre https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethnographic_Iberia_200_BCE.PNG GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Free_Documentation_License  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ 

AdelfunsCastellae https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Detalle_de_una_reconstrucci%C3%B3n_de_inscripciones_celt%C3%ADberas.jpg Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en 

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