Page 41 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Northern Spain

INTRODUCING NOR THERN SP AIN  39

THE HISTORY OF

NORTHERN SPAIN

Inhabited from remote times, the regions of Northern Spain have played
a significant role in the peninsula’s history. It was from here that the
Reconquest began, and from here that many of Spain’s great navigators
originated. The north was involved in the Carlist Wars, and was a Republican
stronghold during the Spanish Civil War.
Prehistory particularly in Galicia, the Celts built
Remains of some of our earliest pre-human distinctive hilltop settle ments – castros –
ances tors were discovered in caves at with round stone houses. The best-known
Atapuerca, in Burgos province, in 1976. Celtiberian tribe are the Arevacos, who
They are estimated to be 800,000 years famously defended Numantia against
old. About 20,000 years ago, humans of the Romans in 133 BC.
Cro-Magnon type (very similar to modern The peninsula’s north eastern coast
humans) appeared on the Iberian was colonized by Greeks, who established
Peninsula. Skilled artists, they decorated the colony of Emporion, near present-
the walls of caves with engravings and day Barcelona, in about 600 BC. The
polychrome paint ings of animals. The finest Phoenicians, who settled in the south,
of these caves is Altamira, in Cantabria, founded Cádiz, the oldest town in this
which was discovered in the 19th century. part of Europe. They coined the name
At the end of the Ice Age, several “Spain”, meaning “Island of Rabbits”, and
thousand years ago, people began to they also introduced the grapevine, the
abandon their nomadic lifestyle for a olive tree and the donkey. Both the
more settled existence. Instead of hunting Greeks and the Phoenicians were
animals they learnt to breed them, and interested in Spain’s deposits of ore.
to cultivate crops. They began to make Galicia, for example, yielded gold and
increasingly sophisticated tools and tin, which was needed to make bronze.
to smelt metals. In time, the Phoenicians were displaced
by the Carthaginians.
Celts, Phoenicians and Greeks The origins of the mysterious Basques,
In about 1200 BC Celts began to migrate who already inhabited the north, are not
south, settling in the penin sula. Over the clear, but it’s possible they are descended
following centuries they mixed with Iberian from the earliest inhabitants of Iberia (Cro-
tribes, laying the foundations of the Magnon). The earliest written reference
Celtiberian culture. In Northern Spain, to them appears in Roman writings.

c.800,000 BC Pre- c.5000 BC c.1200 BC Celts
human presence Beginning of the start to settle in the
in Atapuerca Neolithic Revolution Iberian Peninsula The golden helmet of
caves, Burgos a Celtiberian warrior
800,000 BC 200,000 BC 1000 BC 600 BC 228 BC

c.600 BC Greek
Painting of a c.18–12,000 BC Cave colony of Emporion 264–241 BC First
bison at Altamira paintings at Altamira. founded on the Punic War between
cave.
Cantabria coast of Girona Carthage and Rome
Arrival of the Body of Saint James in Galicia by School of Miguel Ximenez

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