# Iron Age and Iberian Culture (c. 5th century BCE)

URL: https://allhistories.com/andorra/timeline/-500-iron-age-and-iberian-culture
Location: Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra
Themes: Key Events

From around the eighth century BC Greek and Phoenician traders founded colonies on the Iberian coast, and in the north-east the Greek ports of Emporion (Empúries) and Massalia (Marseille) stimulated the rise of the Iberian culture among the native peoples. Iberian-speaking tribes eventually occupied the Mediterranean littoral from Andalusia to Languedoc, with mountain peoples such as the Cerretani of Cerdanya on their northern edge. In Andorra, Iron Age material has been found at four main sites: the Roc d'Enclar near Santa Coloma, the Estacions del Cedre, the Roc de l'Oral at Encamp and L'Antuix in Escaldes-Engordany. L'Antuix, an open-air settlement discovered in 1985, yielded a large quantity of Iberian material, and a grave was found in the nearby Grau de l'Antuix. At El Cedre archaeologists uncovered a circular domestic oven and wheel-turned pottery, while a small bronze foot, interpreted as a votive offering of the second century BC, came from the Roc de l'Oral. About seventeen bronze and silver coins, possibly Iberian, have also been found. The adoption of iron and Iberian goods was slow and late. Linguists note that many Andorran place names, such as Arans, Erts, Juberri and Aixovall, seem to derive from a pre-Roman language related to Basque or Aquitanian, a hypothesis still debated. At this point in the timeline (c. 5th century BCE), no ruler of the Andorran valleys is recorded in this dataset; the region was home to prehistoric and Iberian communities and later ruled from Rome and by the Visigoths.

## Why it matters
The Iron Age sites show Andorra's integration into the Iberian world and leave a linguistic legacy in the pre-Roman place names of the valleys.

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Iberians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberians)
- [Viquipèdia (Catalan Wikipedia) — Andorra durant la prehistòria](https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra_durant_la_prehist%C3%B2ria)
- [Govern d'Andorra — Patrimoni Cultural](https://www.cultura.ad/)
- [Wikipedia — Prehistory, Iberians And Rome (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Andorra)