Celtic Gallaecia: Encyclopedia II - Celtic Gallaecia - The Gaedels arrive in Iberia

Celtic Gallaecia - The Gaedels arrive in Iberia

Following the Leabhar Gabhala, from Egypt and after a brief scale again in Scythia, the Gaedels reached Spain (Spaine) which they took by “force of the arms”. This journey, carried out mainly by the hero Breogan, Bregon or Bregan, according to versions (also called, otherwise, Golam) culminated with the well-known episode in which Ith, son of Breogan, descried Ireland from the high Tower of Brigantia and marched towards its conquest.

From a historical point of view, it is very little what we can deduce of the clues we can gather on these facts, aside from what is stated in the Leabhar Gabhala. The archaeological testimonies indicate that towards VII to V centuries B.C., cultural influences pertaining to the Hallstatt (old Celtic) began to arrive in Galicia and North of Portugal. Together with other elements identified as coming from Eastern Mediterranean as well as those surviving from the previous culture (known as the Atlantic bronze, surely carried out by Brythonic Celts, Brigantini, Albions was some of their tribal names) dominant in Galicia, they all ended up in the creation of a new culture of fusion of these portions, that is known as Castrexa, name that alludes to the main type of towns that were built -the hillforts-, that the Romans denominated castros (dùn, dùin -or don-; in Gallaic language).

The knowledge that we have today about the society of the hillforts is very limited; if we followed what the Roman historians said, the Galicians were a reunion of barbarians who spent the day fighting and the night eating, drinking and dancing to the moon. But today it seems absolutely clear that from the year 500 B.C. to the change of the era, they developed in an aristocratic and even perhaps a feudal social model. The division of the country -in concelhos, concept similar to the counties of the islands or Romania-, seems to be based on this class of social organization. Also, the structure based on hillforts, seems to be associated to a fortified occupation of the territory, resemblance to the one of the Central European classic Celtic habitat. The old Gallaecia could also, in certain way, be compared to a new Babylonia, in the sense of the multinational and multiracial origin of its inhabitants. On the other hand, this kind of occupation of the Country was likely associated to the fatal attraction that its mineral wealth provoked that was in a similar way, as a certain class of gold fever. Anyway, it is also clear that the interest of the Romans for this earth was mainly related to its gold mines. When the Muslims came, they also rejected to have no special hunger for this wet corner, very difficult in attracting southern folks, with its deficiency of oil, wine and bread (the Mediterranean trilogy).

The Latin sources inform us about the name of the tribes who inhabited Gallaecia when the Romans came. As was said, there was a previous domination of the Brythonic tribes, who were defeated (or had been defeated earlier) by the Gaedels. What it is very difficult here is to exactly determine the dates of the whole process. It seems quite sure for example, that the Egyptian facts (as they are described in the milesian legends) can introduce an inferior limit of the date of the process in the beginning of the second century B.C. But this can be confusing, because the continuous space of Gaedels could have been uninterrupted for centuries, as other experiences of colonization can suggest us. Think about America, for example; people continue arriving from Europe, 500 years after the conquest and initial colonization. These classes of processes are not instantaneous and cannot be valued this way. What is also sure, on the other hand, is that the absence of materials of la Tène (modern central Celtic culture) eliminates the possibility that recent immigration had come from the islands (that had been put under the influence of the la Tène culture by then) or of Central and Western Europe. On the other hand, there are no signs of this class of culture (culture of the hill forts or Castrexa as it is called) in the Iberian Peninsula, outside the corner of the Northwest, and this fact eliminates the possibility of a Celtiberian origin. The kind of Celts who took Galicia was, this way, a handful of peripheral people that came here by sea, from outside the centers of what by then constituted the European Celtic culture.

And, as we can know from archaeological research, the typical Gaedel decorations came to Galicia towards the change of era. These decorations can be related to the tradition of Hallstatt and have also a deep influence of Scythian, Greek and Egyptian adornments. This is extremely interesting as we cannot speak of true Gaedels without these decorations, because their other sign of singularity (their language) cannot be object of analysis by the archaeological finds.

Then, the (provisional) conclusion of all this sketch on how and when the Gaedels came is this: there would be a gradual immigration of Celtic people who came from the borders of the Black Sea, and the definitive process received its strongest momentum towards the change of era. Although there are no direct proofs of it, carrying out this type of colonization was not possible without the participation of the Phoenicians, who had the effective monopoly of navigation and lucrative commerce that was related to copper, tin, and bronze (coming from Galicia and the British Islands and destined to the markets of the Mediterranean) until Roman times. The Phoenician findings in Galicia corroborate this assertion, with some installations that, no matter how incredible it could seem, continue being functional after 2500 years after their construction (for example the port of Bares -hills, in Celtic language- in the most Northern point of all Iberian Peninsula). This way, the Gaedels probably came with the Phoenicians in order to assure the bases that they had built in the Galician coast, as the Phoenicians did not have terrestrial troops able to control the territory. The abundance in Galicia of old toponymy that alludes to ports (Ortegal -from portegal, pronounced in old Gallaic mouths-, Ortigueira -similar to the former-, Portugal, etc.) corroborates this assertion. Nevertheless, the (interested?) silence that the Leabhar Gabhala gives to this specific subject seems very strange.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Gaedels arrive in Iberia", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki