There are only two theories which try to explain the origin of the Iberian speaking peoples: one considers the Iberian language to be a “lingua franca” expanding from south to north; the other one considers it as a relatively recent linguistic layer which came from France or even West Germany. One major difference between both theories is their opinion on the relation between the Basque and the Iberian languages: the first one is better explained is there is no relation between them; the second one considers the relation as almost sure and uses it as important evidence.

THE LINGUA FRANCA THEORY.

    The lingua franca theory has been developed by prof. J. de Hoz. He considers that the really Iberian nucleus (something as its true native country or its cradle) was Alicante in South-East Spain (the Contestania), as only in this area we can find the three Iberian scripts (that is, Levantine, Meridional and Greek-Iberian). It’s also interesting to state that the cultural remains of this area are much richer that the northern ones (especially, the princely and monumental necropolis) and sometimes has suggested that this rich culture was the true Iberian one, but that the poor northern one was of non-Iberian iberisated peoples.

    De Hoz also has drawn the attention to the existence in North Catalonia of a series of probable Personal Names that don’t look like Iberian, and hence he considers them as evidence of a non Iberian native substratum.

    It has been attested that Iberian persons played an important part in the trade, as Iberian personal names appear two economic Greek inscriptions (found in North Catalonia and South France). Hence De Hoz considers that the Iberian language expanded as a language used in economic transactions between peoples which didn’t speak the same language; that is, as a lingua franca, and by an economic and cultural Iberian influence. He explains the presence of Iberian Personal Names in those allegedly non Iberian-speaking countries asserting that the native aristocrats adopted the Iberian names by its social prestige.

THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN THEORY.

    I’ve proposed a different interpretation of the data. One correction is my discovery that the use of the Levantine Iberian script in South-East Spain is very late; only after the Roman conquest. In fact, the oldest Levantine inscriptions have been found in the North, in the Pyrenean coast, and it’s a very innovative system not a minor variant of the Meridional system.

    Some other questions are arguable. The rich archaeological cultures were first Tartessian /Turdetanian (that is, non Iberian) and this rich culture and economic development expands from south to north, and hence the southern rich Iberian culture is only a historical consequence (and geographical, as miner resources are much more important in the South-East than in the North-East), there is no need for an ethnical explanation. It can be also stated a non-Iberian substratum in the South-East, as there are many place and tribal names difficult to explain as Iberian (for instance, Contestani!). Even if I am strongly in favour of an important Iberian role in trade, I find hard to accept such a so great linguistic influence (personal names, tribal names, city names) which from 500 km. far imposed the Iberian language even beside the Greek towns. I think it would have been much easier if there was some kind of common linguistic Iberian substratum.

    But the main point is the relation between Basque, Aquitanian and Iberian (which I consider almost sure, but De Hoz denies). We must explain a linguistic unity between Spanish Mediterranean coast and South West France (and probably also the North of the Ebro basin). No one of these regions can be considered as an inaccessible zone and its geographical distribution suggest a north to South expansion. Also, historically it would be very hard to explain an expansion from Alicante to Gascogne.

    On the other hand there do is a historical and archaeological factor that allows to explain this geographical dispersion from the north: the Urn-Field culture. As a matter of fact, it has been repeatedly stated the coincidence between the area of the Iberian culture and that of the immediately previous Urn-Field culture in Spain, that there is no interruption between both and, in fact, Iberian funerary ritual is a kind of evolved Urn-Field. That doesn’t mean that all the European Urn-Field people were Iberian speaking, but that a proto-Iberian speaking people was part of the Urn-Field culture and expanded into Spain and South-France. According to the archaeological parallels this people could have come from South-West Germany.