Old religions of the pre-roman iberic peninsula feature - Polytheism

Before the romans, the Iberic peninsula was populated by four main ethnic groups that were divided between indo-europeans, non-indo-europeans and mixed: Iberians and Basques being non-indopeuropean, the Celts being indo-european and the Celt-Iberians being a mix of both. The Iberians was an ethnic group that populated the entire mediterranean coast of Iberia (from here their name), they were segregated by tribes and also they were divided by the colonial influence of greeks or phoenicians. The basques, who are still existning now at days, were also divided in numerous tribes, but they were primitive and isolated, they lived mostly in the areas of the pyrenees, in both northen Spain and southern-France. In the X century BC the celts migrated into the Iberic peninsula, settling into the inner peninsula and the atlantic coast, a small minority of them would mix up with the local iberians, giving birth to the celt-iberians the offspring of both ethnicities and cultures.

(^ Map of the different tribes, the area in orange being Iberians, the yellow one the Celt-Iberians and the green one both Basques and Celts)

Each culture had its different religion, some being extremly close, others being different.

Let's start with the three less known: Iberians, Celt-Iberians and Basques.

The three ethnicities, were very closet to each other and archology has shown that there was obvious influence over each other. Both the Celt-Iberian and Iberian religion was a mixture of a polytheistic and animalistic religion, is little known about the symbology of the animals, archeologists speculate that animals represents directly the gods or that animals are messengers of the gods or beings linked with the afterlife.

(^The bull of Osuna is one of the most famous sculptures of the Iberian art, that was heavily influenciated by both the phoenician and the greek art stype)

But now let's go on the differences between both Iberians and Celt-Iberians: Starting by the iconography. Coast-line Iberians workshipped heavily the bull, as the main focus of their society was the agriculture and trade. Celt-Iberians, how ever, workshipped more the horse, as their society was less centralized on trade and more on war, compared to coast-line Iberians, the celt-iberians mostly lived inside fortified cities.

(^The bronze figures of horse-men is one of the most common archeological objects of the celt-Iberian culture that has been found)

One of the few things that we know about the Iberian and Celt-Iberian religion was their funerary rithuals. Funerals inside Iberian culture had a heavy weight. The funeral was practiced by relatives and close people of the defuncted one, depending of the job and the social status of the dead one, unique objects were placed next to the lost one as an offering to the uknown gods. Food was one of the most common offerings, weapons were also given if the dead one had ties inside the world of the war, coins and jewelry were more also common. Both the defuncted one and the assistants of the funeral had to wear uniform or fancy colorful clothing, men usually weared their work uniforms (or armor in case of warriors, while having their weapons in hand) while women used to wear expensive clothing with jewels. Burying was the most common way of funeral, but cremation was frequent too, specially on greek-influenciated areas.

(^The lady of Elche is the most iconic sculpture of the Iberian art, which shows a woman wearing jewels probably for an iberian funeral)

But now let's talk about the basque religion.
The basques, compared to the Iberians, were polytheistic, and there was an obvious influence of indo-european religions (specially Celthic). The basques had a short list of dieties, most of their mythology is populated by monsters, witches, fantastic creatures, goblins, etc. Their two most iconic gods are Mari and Sugaar; with Mari, being the most important of them.

Mari is the main diety of the basque paganism, being a female diety, she is the incarnation of nature and the earth, she's being described as a hybrid being between a human and a tree. She's the wife of Sugaar, the male diety, and she'ves witches as assistants; She's also mother of different mythological figures, but none are heavily predominant. According to the myth, she lives inside the Anboto mountain, in Bizkaia, inside a cave. Mari's nature is valued as benevolent.

(^ Graphical representation of Mari )

(^The entrance to Mari's cave in the Anboto mountain, in the region of Bizkaia, Basque Country, Spain)

Sugaar is the second most important god of the basque mythology. He's also known as Maju, Suarra Sughar or Maiu. He is represented as both as a human, a serpent or a dragon; The origin of his name is still on discussion, as some say it comes from "Suge - Ar " that means "Male snake" others claim that is from "Sua - Gar", that means "Fire's flame". Compared to Mari, there's several places that are valued as his residence, the most famous one being on Ataun, a town of Guipuzcoa. Sugar's nature is often valued as malevolent.

(^ Representation of Sugaar )


Well, about the celths, they were not different from the celths of Gallia, northen Italy, Pannonia and the British isles, so, I think I won't cover them as most likely some else has already done it. There was also Greeks and Phoenicians living in the iberic peninsula, but they only lived in colonies that substained themselves by trading with the locals.

Well, I hope you liked this post!