Iberians and Early People
The caves at Atapuerca, in the Sierras east of Burgos, Castile Leon, have
long been regarded as a key site for world palaeontology. At the Gran Dolina
site, especially, fossils and stone tools of the earliest known hominids in
Europe have been found. As recently as June, 2007, what scientists claim to be
‘the first European’ was unearthed, in the form of the jawbone and teeth of a
skeleton estimated at between 1.1 and 1.2 million years old.
It is known that modern humans in the form of Cro-Magnons began arriving in the
Iberian Peninsula around about 35,000 years ago. The Stone Age hunters at
Altamira, near Santander, painted some of Europe’s most sophisticated cave art –
colourful paintings of bisons, boars, horses and stags. Another popular
Cro-Magnon site still open for people to visit is the Cueva de Nerja, in
Andalucía.
The New Stone Age, the Neolithic era, which brought new technologies such as the
plough, pottery and textiles to Spain from Mesopotamia and Egypt, came at around
6000 BC and was followed some 3000 years later by a culture of metalworking;
Spain’s first site probably being near Almería at Los Millares, where local
copper was made into tools and weapons. It was around this time that the
impressive megalithic tombs known as dolmens were constructed – the best
preserved examples are those around Antequera, again in Andalucía.
The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along
the Mediterranean coastline over a period of centuries, founding various trading
colonies. Around 1100 BC, the Phoenicians founded the colony of Gadir – later to
become Cádiz, making this impressive and fascinating place probably the oldest
continually inhabited city in Europe. Somewhere near Cádiz, perhaps underneath
the marshes near the estuary of the Guadalquivir river, was the fabled,
immensely wealthy city of Tartessos – Spain’s own lost city of Atlantis. Other
colonies known to have been established at this time were the modern day cities
of Huelva, Málaga and Almuñécar. It was from the Punic language of the
Phoenicians that the modern word of España originates – coming from Isephanim,
or the island of the rabbits, which was what the Phoenicians called Andalucía.
At around the same time, fairer skinned Celts from northern Europe were starting
to settle in the north of Spain.
In the 9th century BC the first Greek colonies were founded along the eastern
Mediterranean coast, including the modern day Empúries. It was the Greeks who
were responsible for the name Iberia, after the river Iber – now known as the
Ebro.
In the 6th century, the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia, pushing out the Greeks
and establishing Carthago Nova (Cartagena) as their main city alongside Cádiz.
The Carthaginians struggled for control of the peninsula with Rome during the
Punic Wars of around 260 to 201 BC – which contained the famous, and futile,
march of Hannibal and his elephants over the Alps towards Rome.
Although the Romans defeated Carthage, and controlled Spain for 600 years, they
took much longer to overcome some of the native tribes. The Basques in northern
Spain were especially troublesome to the Romans, with the famous siege of
Numancia being just one of the many examples of their ferocious resistance.
Eventually, though, by around 50 BC, Hispania had become fairly Roman and was
enjoying what was known as the Pax Romana period of stability, during which time
Hispania provided Rome with food, olive oil, wine, grain, garum (a spicy sauce
seasoning) and metals – alongside such notable Spanish born Romans as the
emperors Martial and Theodosius I and the philosopher Seneca. Rome, in turn,
brought to Spain a road system, aqueducts, theatres, circuses, baths, temples, a
legal system and, of course, the basis of the modern Spanish language.
Because Rome organised the peninsula into various sections, there were several
distinct principal cities - Cartagena, Córdoba, Mérida and Tarragona. There are
Roman ruins worthy of exploration all over Spain – perhaps notably at Tarragona,
Segovia, Itálica and Mérida – arguably the greatest Roman city outside of Rome.
Pre-historic sightseeing
Avila: Los Toros de Guisando
(Celtic stone figures).
Antequera (Malaga): Menga and
Viera chambers and Romeral dolmen.
Benaojan (Malaga): La Pileta
Cave (Cave art).
Nerja (Malaga): Nerja Cave.
Puente Viesgo (Cantabria):
Iberian images at the Castillo Cave outdate Altamira.
Santillana del Mar (Cantabria):
Altamira Cave
Roman
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