Iberians in Malaga: A Review of the Historiography of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Iberians in Malaga: Review of the Historiography of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Once the first foundations of archaeology are established in Spain and national works begin to emerge, the concept of Iberians and their culture starts to develop with the aim of creating a national identity. However, depending on each researcher's ideology, the Iberian world has been presented differently, whether the archaeologist was paniberist, panceltist, or simply advocated for Phoenician and Roman cultures. Following this archaeological trail of the Iberians in some points of the Iberian Peninsula can be a daunting and even impossible task as is the case with Malaga. It is therefore essential to review works by various Malagan authors to seek traces of this civilization that has been silenced throughout the second half of the 20th century.

In Antonio Cánovas del Castillo's General History of Spain, published in 1891, the term «paniberist» appears for the first time dedicated to the Copper Age and coined by Juan Vilanova and Juan de Dios de la Rada y Delgado (Bellón Ruiz, 2017, p.17).

Prior to this publication, in 1879, History of Antequera, written by Trinidad de Rojas, a historian and archaeologist from Antequera at the end of the 19th century, was published. This work speaks about the primitive peoples of the region that existed before the arrival of the Phoenicians, in other words, the Iberians. Finally, it wasn't until the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Pierre Paris and José Ramón Mélida developed the initial studies of Iberism.

Thus, Spanish and foreign scholars became fascinated with Iberian culture due to recent discoveries made in the Levantine coast and other parts of Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. Works, essays, and articles were dedicated to them where they were given a chronology and certain visibility within the scientific world. However, other archaeologists like Rodríguez de Berlanga considered Iberians an inferior race incapable compared to other Mediterranean civilizations.

Therefore, Berlanga's proposal for writing the history of the province did not include dedicating a section to the Iberians despite archaeological findings such as coins at the foot of the Alcazaba, the figure of the bear and the goat from Cártama, or weapons found in the Abdalajís Valley and Cauche, Antequera (Ríos y Fernández-Villalta, 1907, p. 40). His intention was to establish a historiography that he deemed more realistic than what he derogatorily called «Iberolatras».

In a more relaxed tone, Amador de los Ríos considered Berlanga had too many prejudices in attributing little intelligence to the Iberian race. In fact, the opinion of this Malagan archaeologist can be seen in the following statement: «The barbaric Bástulos do not understand, nor are they interested at all in the functioning of the baths» (Ríos y Fernández-Villalta, 1907, p. 20). Far from this judgment, Amador de los Ríos believes that the lack of archaeological data due to looting or destruction of sites makes it difficult to establish Iberian studies in the province.

The confrontation continued with the appearance of several indigenous figures in the city on the Costa del Sol, such as a terracotta figure of a woman, found at the Alcazaba and described as a crude image made by «inexperienced hands» that cannot be definitively dated (Ríos y Fernández-Villalta, 1907, pp. 40-42). Rodríguez de Berlanga (1908, p. 38), in contrast, responds to his contemporary by arguing that the dating of this figure is Phoenician and considers Iberian ex-votos as «crude dolls».

The bear and the goat from Cártama, unlike the previously mentioned sculpture, are carved in stone and depict a bear holding the head of a goat with its jaws. This sculptural group was not free from controversy as Pierre Paris included it within the Iberian art imaginary (Rodríguez Oliva, 2002, p.17) while Rodríguez Berlanga (1908, p. 561) determined that this model statue was made by a sculptor who «was trying to innovate in new techniques and is therefore not a beginner», and furthermore, «the head of the lamb and the one held by the animal are vastly different in technique from the so-called rudimentary Iberian dolls.» Thus distancing himself from Iberian culture while also attacking defenders of Iberians and the pre-Roman civilization based on criteria of ancient Greek and Roman historians who described them as barbaric and fierce among other epithets.

This anti-Iberist sentiment was countered by ideas from other authors who advocated for a past beyond Phoenicians or Romans reflecting an intellectual society divided between those who only despised other civilizations and those who supported Punic and Roman culture. Over time, this ideological opposition marked many historical-cultural investigations of Malagan sites where archaeologists fixed the Phoenician period on the southern coast while contemporaneous historians and archaeologists began establishing chronologies for Iberians highlighting a new concept in archaeology: Iberian art.

Conclusions

The ideological division among Spanish and foreign archaeologists over the Iberian culture, along with the scarcity of sites, Orientalist currents, destruction or looting of archaeological materials, marked during the 19th and 20th centuries the methodology of excavations and subsequent scientific publications. In the case of Malaga, Rodríguez de Berlanga favored an Eastern and Roman tradition over a native one which had its own artistic discipline while on the other hand, Amador de los Ríos or Pierre Paris rejected prejudices about the Iberian world.

Thus, we cannot establish an Iberian archaeology in Malaga until the second half of the 20th century when Malagan archaeologists and historians began researching the Iberian world with various archaeological projects in territories traditionally considered Orientalist.

Bibliography

Amador de los Ríos y Fernández de Villalta, R. (1907). Catalog of the Historical and Artistic Monuments of the Province of Malaga signed pursuant to RO of January 22, 1907 [Manuscript]. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. M-CCHS, old fund, RECS 1190-1193 http://biblioteca.cchs.csic.es/digitalizacion_tnt/buscar.html 

Bellón Ruiz, J. P. (2017). The other exiles of Francoism: the Iberians. In F.J. Moreno Martín (coord.), Francoism and the Appropriation of the Past: The Use of History, Archaeology, and Art History for the Legitimization of the Dictatorship (pp. 13-44). Editorial Pablo Iglesias.

Rojas de Rojas, T. (1879). History of Antequera I. Imprenta de M. Pérez de la Manga.

Rodríguez Oliva, P. (2002). On the sculptures from Iberian and iberoroman territories in Malaga. Anales Arq. Murcia, 16-17, p. 301-320. https://revistas.um.es/apa/article/view/60111 

Rodríguez de Berlanga y Rosado, M. (1903). Catalog of the Loringian Museum. Facsímiles Universidad.

Rodríguez de Berlanga y Rosado, M. (1908). Note on some discoveries made from late December 1904 to mid-June 1906 at the demolition of the last stretch of the sea wall of the Alcazaba in Malaga which has been examined almost always in the same place where it was found. Imprenta de D. Jaime Vives 1905 – 1908.