“A Country of Immigrants”: Spain’s Early History The people of the Iberian Peninsula joined European history as the rivalry between the Greeks and the Phoenicians, two nations blessed with a high degree of cultural development, played itself out on Spanish soil. This rivalry was eventually brought to an end when Rome es- tablished superior forms of urban living and civilization in Hispania - the Latin name of the peninsula - and tied it forevermore to the known western world. The Most Ancient Peoples: Assuming the authenticity and dating of the human fossil discovered in Orce in the province of Granada is correct, the most ancient human in Europe walked this land around one and a half million years ago. Other proof of human habitation exists all over Spain, such as the marvellous caverns of Altamira in Cantabria, which were only discovered in 1879, and are of- ten compared to the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome. The paintings in these deep caves are naturalistic and polychrome and depict many of the animals found in this northern part of Spain at this time. The function of the paintings, beyond their aesthetic value, may have been religious or served some other symbolic purpose. Other sites of prehistoric art also exist in Spain such as the black and ochre stick figure drawings found at the mouth of other caves in south-eastern Spain. Unlike the Altamira paint- ings, these drawings include human figures and are narrative in nature. Again, their function is unknown. The Catalan drawings, such as these from the cave of Cogull, belong to the Palaeolithic era. The clothed female figures appear to be part of a religious dance. The Iberian peninsula was attractive to many other prehistoric peoples because of its agricultural and mineral resources. By the middle of the fourth millennia BC, agriculturalists from the East brought sedentary agriculture to the Mediterranean coastlines of Spain. Their ex- ample was followed a thousand years later by metalworkers who worked in brass and silver. They established their colonies around Almeria, one of the first urban centres in Spain. From the beginning of the first millennia BCE, groups of Celtic peoples who knew how to work steel established themselves in the north of the peninsula. It is believed that they were the first to domesticate horses. By 800 BCE, they occupied a large portion of the land. At the same time, Phoenicians and Greeks came into contact along the eastern and southern coasts. Cadiz, founded by the Phoenicians in 1100 BCE, is the longest inhabited city in Spain. The Dama de Baza (seen here) and the Dama de Elche, both now found in the Museum of Archaeology in Madrid, are examples of Iberian art. The function of these life-size statues is unknown. The Phoenicians and the Greeks had originally come to the Peninsula for commercial reasons, and were also attracted by her mineral wealth, especially tin, from which brass is made. Neither group came to Spain as settlers. Both peoples established commercial areas along the coasts, such as the emporium town of Ampurias. Their presence was not felt in the interior of the Peninsula. Pre-Roman Peoples in Iberia: The native Iberian peoples were divided by geography, religious beliefs, culture and language. This division made them susceptible to foreign invasion and occupation. Classical authors refer to their war-like spirit and their individualism which may be at- tributed to poverty and the need to survive by banditry and war. These qualities lead them to value heroism and loyalty to a single warlord. Such hero-worship might explain the tragic end of the 8000 inhabitants of the walled city of Numancia (near modern day Soria) where all the men of the city, after 3 lengthy sieges over a 20 year period, murdered their wives and children and committed suicide, some 4000 people in total, rather than submit to the Romans. This trag- edy was commemorated by Cervantes in his play, La Numancia. Iberian people believed in many deities and in an afterlife. Their gods included a war- rior god, a heavenly “lord of the horses” and a female deity who was not only a symbol of fer- tility but ruled over life and death. Their art owes a great deal to Greek and Phoenician influ- ences and is especially obvious in their sculpture. The most notable examples are the Dama de Elche whose solemnity and serenity seems idealized, the Dama Ofrente from Cerro de los San- tos who appears to have held a ritual offering in her hands and the seated Dama de Baza who is richly clothed and naturalistic. Other human and animal figurines are not so imposing but equally beautiful. They were usually left as offerings in places of worship that were common to many different Iberian tribes, such as the Cerro de los Santos. Their artists were also well- known as ceramicists and metalworkers. The Iberians - whose name may derive from the basque word iber meaning river - had a form of writing which was derived from the Greek and Phoenician alphabets but which has yet to be deciphered. They were responsible for the irrigation system that would later be improved upon by the Romans and the Muslims. The Iberians occupied most of southern Spain (Andalucia) and the coastal regions. They managed to cross the Pyrenees and spread well into southern France. The rest of the Peninsula was inhabited by the culturally underdeveloped Celts. The only proof of their art are the bull shaped figures (Los toros de Guisando) found in the modern province of Ávila. Contact be- tween the two peoples can be found in Celtiberia - the central regions between the two areas of habitation. The Carthaginians, who came from Carthage in North Africa, displaced both the Celts and the Iberians and established their own towns, such as Cartagena. As agriculturalists and in- ternational merchants, they brought Iberia - the Greek name of the Peninsula - into the mone- tary world of the time. The Greek and Phoenician presence in the Peninsula is responsible for the many ad- vances they brought with them: the alphabet, methods of mineral extraction, dyes, salt preserva- tion of fish, new plants and trees, especially grapes and olive trees and a monetary economy. Most importantly, they prepared the Peninsula for the arrival of Roman culture. The Greek his- torian Herodotus gave the name Hesperos to Spain, meaning the west. Some ancient classical sources refer to a mysterious and far away civilization that was said to exist beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Straights of Gibraltar). Archaeological remains found in the valley of the Guadalquivir river prove that a culture did exist in this area. It was probably the first example of the mixing of native peoples with Greek and Phoenician peoples into a political organization, probably based on their monopoly of the trade in tin. These people may have disappeared around the end of the fourth century BCE, when the Carthaginians began to establish themselves. Funereal stella belonging to a Hispano- Roman tavern keeper. The realism is self evident. Now in the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida Romanization: The rivalry begun between the Phoenicians and the Greeks over the control of the mineral wealth of Spain spread to the Carthaginians and the Romans in the Punic wars. In 219 BC, the Carthaginian general Hannibal destroyed the Iberian city of Sagunto (near modern-day Valen- cia), which had allied itself to Rome. As a result of this attack, the Romans decided to under- take the final conquest of the Peninsula which would take some two hundred years. The con- quest of Hispania was successful thanks to famous war strategists such as Caesar Augustus, who personally directed the last battles against native resistance. Due to a decisive process of cultural transformation, Hispania - or ancient Iberia - would quickly be incorporated into the Roman world and would be part of its historical destiny, despite some eight hundred years of Muslim presence in the Peninsula. The Iberians, now called “Hispanos”, were aware that they belonged to a world that was larger than their own small territory. From Rome, besides a sense of self-importance, they acquired a universal lan- guage, religion, and system of laws. Hispano-Roman Society: Hispano-Roman society was organized along hierarchical lines. The “seniores” or “potentiores” were owners of large properties called “latifundios”, and held political and eco- nomic power. Civil servants formed local administrative and municipal elites. Free citizens who did not own land, the “humiliores”, and the slaves formed the under classes. After 197 BCE, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Citerior and Ulterior. For ad- ministrative reasons and so as to exploit natural resources more efficiently, the Peninsula was further subdivided into Betica and Lusitania (modern day Portugal). Imperial and indigenous administrations coexisted for centuries until Vespasian brought Roman law to the Peninsula in 70 CE and, especially in 212 CE, when citizenship was awarded to all freemen living in the Ro- man empire. Basic economic activities in Hispano-Roman society consisted of agriculture, livestock and mining. Wheat, grapes and olives were the greatest crops and the largest exports. By the use of large hydraulic works, the Romans further developed the irrigation system that favoured cit- rus and other fruit and vegetable crops. The latifundio was the most used agricultural system and consisted of large tracts of land that were worked by slave labour. After the economic and social crisis in the third century AD which greatly increased the price of slave labour, work was performed more and more by free labourers who were paid with small parcels of land. They also received protection from their lords in return for their services.