The Celtiberians were a group of people living in the central-northeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula during the last few centuries before the Common Era. Classical writers, such as Strabo, described them as Celts. These people spoke the Celtiberian language, which they wrote using a version of the Iberian alphabet called the Celtiberian script. Many inscriptions found by scholars have helped identify the Celtiberian language as a type of Celtic language spoken in pre-Roman and early Roman Iberia. Archaeological evidence connects the Celtiberians to Celts in Central Europe, but also shows differences between them and the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures.
Scholars and classical authors do not fully agree on the exact definition of the Celtiberians. The Ebro River clearly separates Celtiberian regions from areas where people spoke non-Indo-European languages. In other directions, the boundaries are less clear. Most scholars include tribes such as the Arevaci, Pellendones, Belli, Titti, and Lusones as Celtiberian. Some also include the Berones, Vaccaei, Carpetani, Olcades, or Lobetani.
In 195 BC, part of Celtiberia was conquered by the Romans. By 72 BC, the entire region became part of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior. The Celtiberians resisted Roman rule for many years, fighting in uprisings between 195–193 BC, 181–179 BC, 153–151 BC, and 143–133 BC. In 105 BC, Celtiberian warriors helped drive the Germanic Cimbri from Spain during the Cimbrian War (113–101 BC). They also played a key role in the Sertorian War (80–72 BC).
Etymology
The term Celtiberi is mentioned in writings by Diodorus Siculus, Appian, and Martial, who noted that people from the Celtic and Iberian groups married after a long period of fighting. However, Barry Cunliffe questioned if this was based on solid evidence. Strabo viewed the Celtiberians as part of the larger Celti group. Pliny the Elder believed the original homeland of the Celts in Iberia was the area of the Celtici in the south-west, because of similar sacred rituals, languages, and city names.
History
Strabo mentions that Ephorus believed Celts lived in the Iberian Peninsula as far as Cádiz. Evidence suggests that Celts may have been in Iberia as early as the 6th century BC. During this time, hill forts called castros showed new features, like stone walls and protective ditches. Archaeologists Martín Almagro Gorbea and Alberto José Lorrio Alvarado note that the iron tools and family structures of the developed Celtiberian culture came from an earlier, simpler castro culture they call "proto-Celtic."
Archaeological discoveries show that the Celtiberian culture continued the traditions described by ancient Greek and Roman writers from the late 3rd century BC onward. However, the Celtiberian people were not a single group. Instead, they were made up of many different tribes and nations in the 3rd century BC. These groups lived in fortified cities called oppida and had mixed Celtic and Iberian backgrounds.
The main area of the Celtiberians was in the northern part of the central meseta, near the upper valleys of the Tagus and Douro rivers, east of the Ebro river. This area includes parts of modern-day Soria, Guadalajara, Zaragoza, and Teruel. When Greek and Roman writers described the Celtiberians, they noted that a military aristocracy had become a powerful, hereditary ruling class. The Arevaci tribe was the strongest, controlling other tribes from strongholds like Okilis (Medinaceli). Other tribes included the Belli and Titti in the Jalón valley and the Lusones to the east.
Excavations at Celtiberian sites like Kontebakom-Bel Botorrita, Sekaisa Segeda, and Termantia, along with findings from cemeteries, show changes in burial practices. Aristocratic tombs from the 6th to 5th centuries BC were replaced by warrior tombs. By the 3rd century BC, weapons were no longer placed in graves, possibly because they were needed by living warriors or because Celtiberian society became more urbanized. Many ancient Celtiberian cities are now modern towns, making further archaeology difficult.
Metal items, especially weapons, are common in Celtiberian finds. This is partly because metal lasts a long time and highlights their use in warfare, like swords, horse gear, and weapons. The two-edged sword later used by the Romans was already in use among the Celtiberians. The word for a thrown spear, "lancea," came from the Iberian language, according to the Roman writer Varro. Over time, Celtiberian culture became more influenced by Rome.
By the 3rd century BC, the clan became less important as the basic political unit. Instead, fortified cities called oppida became centers of power, with smaller hill forts called castros as part of their territory. These cities, called civitates by Roman writers, could form alliances and even make their own coins. However, armies were still organized along clan lines, which made it harder for leaders to control strategy and tactics.
The Celtiberians were the most powerful group in Iberia when Carthage and Rome began conquering the region. In 220 BC, a Punic army preparing to cross the Tagus was attacked by a group of Celtiberian tribes. During the Second Punic War, many Celtiberians fought for Carthage against Rome, including in Hannibal’s forces crossing the Alps. Later, the Romans, led by Scipio Africanus, won over many Celtiberian tribes, using them against Carthage. After the war, Rome took control of Spain, and some Celtiberians resisted. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus destroyed over 300 Celtiberian settlements during his campaign from 182 to 179 BC.
In 155 BC, the Lusitani attacked Roman forces in Hispania Ulterior, and the town of Segeda in Hispania Citerior rebelled. Segeda refused to pay taxes or send soldiers to Rome and formed a defensive alliance with nearby towns. In 153 BC, Quintus Fulvius Nobilior led a Roman army of nearly 30,000 men to fight the Celtiberians. However, his forces were delayed and suffered heavy losses, including 6,000 soldiers killed in an ambush. A failed siege of Numantia, where Segedans had taken refuge, ended in disaster for the Romans. Nobilior’s campaign cost over 10,000 Roman lives. In 137 BC, the Celtiberians defeated a Roman army of 20,000 men led by Gaius Hostilius Mancinus. By 134 BC, the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus took command of the struggling Roman forces in Spain and began the siege of Numantia.
To surround Numantia, the Romans built a ditch and wooden wall around the city, with towers and weapons like catapults and ballistae. They blocked the nearby river with logs and sharpened weapons. Allies, including Jugurtha of Numidia with war elephants, helped the siege. The Roman army grew to 60,000 soldiers, arranged in seven camps around the city. The Numantians, determined to fight for their freedom, made several failed attempts to break out. When starvation forced them to surrender, many chose to die rather than give up. Families poisoned themselves, weapons were destroyed, and the city was burned. Only about 4,000 of the original 8,000 fighting men survived to be taken as prisoners. Fewer than a few hundred survived to be displayed in Scipio’s victory parade. The rest were sold into slavery.
Genetics
In a genetic study published in the journal Science in March 2019, scientists examined three Celtiberians buried in La Hoya, Alava, which was part of the Beron territory, between 400 BC and 195 BC. These individuals had a high amount of genetic traits similar to people from north-central Europe, compared to other groups in Iberia who were not Celtic. One of the males studied was found to carry a specific type of genetic marker known as the paternal haplogroup I2a1a1a.