pre-camino / a little bit of early Spanish history

[Sally Haden]

Galen, for your research....

Here are some points that a Galician friend send me when I asked him to dig
around in his 'archaeological brain' about this topic.  He isn't an
archaeologist or an historian, but likes both.

He starts out with the obvious point that the Christian Camino has little
direct connection with prehistory. (And he is a St James sceptic!)
Generally,  I don't know if it gives any further information for the
research, but it is quite comprehensive.

I don't think that the "Camino" was connected to Prehistory. It's just
the result of the finding of a tomb near Iria Flavia (which today is
Padrón), that somebody said that must be the Tomb of Saint James, with
very little evidence.
Well, it might have been a "political choice". In
those times when Christians were struggling to push out the Moslems from
their lands, in the beginning of the Reconquest, having the tomb of one
of the Apostles miraculously discovered in Christian lands somewhat
"boosted" the faith and courage of them. Even more, creating a
Pilgrimage Temple here brought a lot of European knights to Galicia, is
search for absolution for their sins, and many of them also fought
against the Moors to obtain that absolution. Even now, Santiago is one
of the three "Holy Places" for the Christians, along with Jerusalem and
Rome. No, there was no "Camino" in Pre-Roman times...

But if you want to know more about Pre-Roman Hispania, I'll search for
some good maps to send you. Of course, there were Neanderthals and
Cromagnon, and even older hominids. For example, near Burgos there's a
cave called Atapuerca, in which they found the oldest human remains in
Europe, the "Homo antecesor". But for example, according to Rock Art,
there were two main "cultures" in Hispania. One of them in the north,
being the most well-known example the cave of Altamira, in which
predominates the paintings of animals, very realistic animals. And the
other in the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in which human figures are
seen but very "abstract". Of course, there were also megalith builders,
later, all across the Peninsula, with some special features in the
Balearic Islands.

But perhaps we should come back to historic times. First, Phoenicians,
Carthaginians and Greeks explored the shores of Hispania. They found
mostly Iberian populations on the East, being the Iberians perhaps the
same kind of people than the Berebers of Northern Africa. In the north,
there were peoples that later were called "Celts", but perhaps were only
native populations with a strong Celtic influence, or perhaps with an
aristocracy of Celtic invaders. And in the middle, settled in the
Plateau, a lot of other tribes called "Celtiberians" because they had
something of both of them. Oh, yes, and in the South, near the river
Guadalquivir (called then Baits or Betis), there was a mysterious
kingdom of Tartessos.   Yes and of course, some tribes near the
border with France, in the mountains, which were the Basques. And which
nobody know who they are, although nowadays scholars can connect them to
the Bereber tribes of Northern Africa, and perhaps also with the
Iberians.
Well, all those explorers settled colonies and trade factories
all across the eastern and southern shores of Hispania. But first, the
Carthaginians drove off the Greeks from Spain, and later, the
Carthaginians were also displaced by the new emerging power of the
Mediterranean... Rome!
How was life in those times? Iberians were quite "civilized" and had big
cities and tribes. Same as Celtiberians. You can see the head of an
Iberian goddess or something like that if you search the web for "Dama
de Elche" or "Dama de Baza". But in the North, everything was much more
difficult, tribes were small and, if we believe Strabo, very warlike.
They had their hillforts and were always attacking their neighbours, or
joining them to attack the more prosperous tribes of the plateau to sack
some wine, wheat and cattle.
As the Romans said about Hispania, "we invaded them the first but
conquered them the last".

Okay, so that's all.
Good luck, and I hope to hear more.
Sally

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