The Iberians

This talk takes us all the way back in time to the days of the Iberians. Who were the ancient people that settled the eastern and southern coast of the Iberian peninsula beginning in the 6th century BC? It seems obvious that they were valiant, and well-organized enough to have been described in both Greek and Roman by prominent authors such as Miletus, Herodotus and Strabo. Romans called them 'Hispani', which makes it seem that they were our direct ancestors. Iberians soaked up cultural influences from evolved Mediterranean cultures such as the Phoenicians and the Greeks. These pre-IndoEuropean settlers had their own language and lived in fortified settlements or “oppida” and their communities were based on a tribal organization. The Iberians living in what today are Valencian lands were more urbanized than their counterparts in the central and northwest regions, e.g., the Celts. With writing, metalworking, ceramics, the us…