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Spain’s Catalonians: Phoenician Descendants?

March 9th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

The story of the early settlement and colonization of Spain is a fascinating one, particularly because of the marks those early Spaniards left on the landscape, including numerous place names. One of the most prolific groups in this regard was the Phoenicians.

Some people believe that the people of the Catalonia region in northeast Spain may be largely descended from Phoenician traders and settlers. This was speculated about as early as the 19th century, when noted historian Edward Everett Hale wrote:

“The northeastern part of Spain is occupied by the Catalonians, a race with its own characteristics, as strongly marked as the races of Basques or Asturians.

“This part of the country seems to have been settled by the Phoenicians, a roving people who were dwelling on the sea-coast of Syria at the earliest dawn of history. Their reputation was that, having settled themselves in any country, they immediately undertook distant voyages, and carrying cargoes of goods, visited other places.

“They are the people called Canaanites in the Bible. They were pirates as well as merchants, for they did not hesitate to kidnap the crews of the ships they met, and to carry them off as their slaves. But although they made the nations suffer whom they visited, they also left behind them an improved civilization, and the trade they established in the ports they touched at was a benefit to these as well as to themselves.

“They sailed through the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and thus communicated with India and the eastern coast of Africa. They searched every inlet of the Mediterranean Sea, and, passing through the Straits of Gibraltar, visited the British Isles, where they found tin.

“All the sea-coast towns of Spain benefited by their commerce, and sometimes they left colonies behind them. The Catalonians are supposed to have sprung from some of these, but by the time when written history begins there is a mixture of other races in their blood. They have received additions from other nations, and their province is near enough
to Gaul to have been subject to invasions from there, as well as to Gallic influence.

“The Phoenicians, who were always on the look-out for trade, found Spain to be a country which promised great advantage to their commerce. Cadiz was their most powerful settlement. It is just outside the Straits of Gibraltar, and when the first enterprising Phoenician sailors reached it, they thought they had come to the very end of the world.

“They supplied the natives with things they had brought from the far East, and took in exchange gold, silver, and iron. A tradition says that they took away more silver than their ships could well carry, and that their anchors and all their common implements were made of it. It is said that  the Celts and Iberians did not know how to use their gold and silver until the newcomers taught them, but they had made themselves weapons of steel out of iron.

“The Phoenicians spread all over the country, looking for mines, which they prevailed upon the natives to open and work for their benefit. Almost everywhere in Spain coins and medals bearing the mark of Phoenician workmanship have been found, and ruins of their buildings.

“We can imagine that after people had learned how to make boats and to go sailing about over the sea on voyages of discovery, the news spread from country to country about what was to be found in each. The rumor that Spain was full of mines of gold and silver came back to the nations farther east, and excited the desire of adventurers there, just as
when later, in Spain itself, Columbus dreamed of more gold and silver far in the West, and sailed in search of it. Such a rich field of wealth was not left to the hands of the Phoenicians; other explorers came and took what they wanted.

“Their successful example led the Greeks to try their luck. About eight or nine hundred years before Christ, the Rhodians arrived on the coast of Catalonia, and founded a town which they called Rhodia; and other expeditions set out from different parts in Greece, and gave names to places which may still sometimes be recognised.

“It does not appear that these early colonists cared to take any control of the country; probably they never thought of such a thing, but each for himself sought to get what he could and what he cared for from the inhabitants, who, for their part, welcomed the new-comers, who brought objects of luxury, new ideas and customs, into their simple lives.

“These Greeks, Phoenicians, and others mingled with the population, founded their own towns, and established their own industries, all for the mutual good of themselves and the original inhabitants.”

Druids In Spain

February 27th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

One of the lesser known stories of Spanish history is that of the presence of Druids on the Iberian peninsula in long-ago times.

A 19th-century historian of some repute, Edward Everett Hale, described this group of early Spaniards, along with other tribes of northern Spain, such as the Galicians and the Lusitanians. Hale can be forgiven for following the trend of 19th century writers in creating a somewhat romanticized and perhaps not entirely accurate portrait of the Druids; his description still makes for fascinating reading.

“The Galicians possessed the sea-coast in the northwest corner of the peninsula. They were like their neighbors, bold and warlike, and were prosperous on account of the abundance of fish on their coasts, which attracted merchants from other nations.

“The Lusitanians occupied what is now Portugal, but their territory extended farther into Spain than that country does now. They had the reputation of being the most learned tribe on the peninsula. The Romans reported in their time that for six thousand years this race had possessed poems, and laws, and grammatical rules for their language, but there is nothing now left to show that they differed from the other races in the neighborhood.

“In Cantabria and Lusitania the religion of the Druids prevailed, for in these regions are found the monuments of their strange ceremonies; there are great blocks of stone standing alone, or set in circles, sometimes marked with coarse carvings or figures in relief. Such traces of the past are more frequent in other countries where the Celts lived, but there are enough in Spain to prove that this religion was practised there. It was a worship of the forces of nature, for though the Druids believed in one Supreme God, they adored also the stars, the ocean, thunder, and wind.

“Oak-forests were their sanctuaries. Druid means ‘men of oak,’ and in these forests they celebrated their rites. Every year, on the sixth day of the moon of Marel, the priests, dressed in a long white tunic, with their feet bare, and their heads crowned with ivy, marched with great ceremony into the forest, where they cut off mistletoe from the trees with a golden sickle.

“Mistletoe is an evergreen bush with white berries which attaches itself to the trunks and branches of trees, and grows by thrusting its roots into them. The Druids considered it sacred when they found it growing upon the oak.

“This part of their worship seems to us simple and graceful, but they believed in human sacrifice, and the stones which remain standing are known to be altars on which victims were killed to gratify their gods.

“It is well to know something about these early Northern tribes, because as we go on with the story we shall see their descendants, the men who led the same sort of lives they did, and grew up under similar influences, under a cool mountain climate, shut off from the rest of the world, exhibiting the same brave characteristics, with temperate habits, great love of country, and a superstitious faith in whatever form of religion they were led to accept by their priests.”

Spain’s Mixing Bowl: Basques and Others

February 18th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Writers and historians have long been trying to sort out the different peoples who have made Spain their home over the centuries. The Basques in particular have intrigued the historians, as well as the casual visitor.

One historian working in the 19th century attempted to catalog the various tribes who settled in Spain from prehistoric times onward. In one section of a history of Spain that he wrote, he discusses three groups: the Asturians, the Cantabrians, and the Basques.

“The Asturians lived in the mountain-gorges of the northwest, a region now romantic and picturesque, as it must have been in early days. It is full of steep ravines, through which foaming torrents come tumbling down on rocks from great heights. The hills are covered with great trees, oaks and beeches, for the most part. The streams come down leaping over precipices and running off into fertile valleys where fruit-trees grow, also chestnut and ash-trees.

“Next the Asturians, on the east, came the Cantabrians, in a territory abounding in the precious metals, above all in iron; and beside them dwelt the Vascones or Basques. These are thought to have been Iberians, strayed up from the south, and not Celts who came from the north into Spain. This belief is founded on the peculiarity of their language, which is entirely different from Spanish, or from any other known tongue. It is impossible to understand without learning it systematically, and it is hard to learn. Only those who were born and who have grown up among the Basques can really master it.

“The people are a hardy, honest, good-hearted race, steady and industrious. They wear the same picturesque costume their great-grandfathers did, and speak the dialect which prevailed in Spain six hundred years ago.

“They believe in ghosts and fairies, and fill up their simple lives, in which not many things happen during a whole year of extreme interest, with fancies and fears springing from their superstitions. The old women, as they sit spinning in the sun, tell long stories, over and over again, just the same as they heard them when they were little children, about the doings of the xanas, who are tiny fairies that come out of fountains and springs in the middle of the night, to dry their long damp hair in the moonbeams, and about the hucstcs, mischief-making imps who lurk about in the woods and marshes, only coming out when something sad or dreadful is going to happen, to foretell the misfortune.

“There are many legends about the strange, old Basque language, preserved unchanged since the beginning of knowledge. One legend calls it the language of the angels, with which Adam and Eve used to talk to each other. Another says that Tubal brought it into Spain, where he came, long before the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, so that it was not there mixed up with other languages. It is said that the devil tried to learn it, and studied it for seven years, but as he then only knew three words, he gave it up.

“The Andalusians say that in Basque ‘you spell Solomon and pronounce it Nebuchadnezzar.’ It is also prevalent in Navarre, and it is still spoken by 600,000 Spaniards and French. Its native name is Esquera. It cannot be classed with any Indo-European or Semitic tongue, and appears to be of earlier origin, presenting some grammatical analogies with Mongol, North American, and certain East African languages. The forms of ordinary grammar are therefore imperfectly applicable to it. … Foreign words are easily assimilated, but with such modifications as suit the Basque ear, and these vary according to local dialect.

“No written Basque is known of earlier date than the fifteenth century, and little genuine literature exists; the orthography is therefore arbitrary, and the earliest writings are difficult to interpret.

“The Basques are very proud of their ancient language and their long descent.”

Spain’s Celtic Heritage

January 21st, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

If you decide to move to warm, sunny Spain to enjoy the benefits of living in this amazing land, you will be following in the footsteps of settlers who came here over centuries and even millennia. Although not the first, the Celts were among the earliest to see the advantages of living in Spain.

It is helpful to know some of the story of the Celts in Spain.
In the 19th century, a famous historian named Edward Everett Hale wrote a book about Spain in which he described the Celts as well as their still-living descendants.  His description is still fairly accurate, though it must be said that the modern-day Celtic descendants are not the rustic bumpkins that Hale found them to be.  After all, Spain has become about as modern a country as you can find anywhere, and this modernization has touched all regions, including those where Celtic heritage remains strong.

With that said, here is Hale’s capsule history of Celtic Spain:

“The Celts who came over the Pyrenees into Spain were tall, with white skins and light hair. Some of them shaved their beards, leaving a long mustache growing down over the lip, and wore their hair in long braids. Their voices were rough and rude, but they had among them bards who sang to them songs of praise or blame, accompanying themselves on a sort of lyre.

“Their arms were simple, consisting of two lances about three feet long. A short sword, a pole hooked at the end to seize the reins of horses, and a sling, were some of the weapons of foot-soldiers. The horsemen had swords, or sharp weapons which answered the purpose, and lances six feet long. They had great skill in managing horses, of which they had in early times discovered the value.

“Their food was frugal, a few dried acorns or chestnuts, with mead or cider, satisfied the wants of several tribes; and they were temperate and sober in their habits of eating and drinking, even in those barbarous times. They had no tables, the guests at a feast sat on benches set against the wall. At these feasts there was music and dancing, but the
women were not allowed to be present.

“Their dress was simple. Soldiers wore garments of linen or leather belted around the waist, with caps on their heads ; in time of peace they had black woollen cloaks which fell down to their feet.

“These rough people were kind to their women, but allowed them a full amount of labor, for they left the cultivation of the fields entirely to them, as their reasonable share of the burden of living, while the men were away hunting, killing wild beasts, or keeping off enemies. The women guided the oxen, held the plough, and ground the corn, besides looking after all domestic concerns.

“These early tribes had a coast-trade with the countries near them, consisting in the exchange of their produce with that of the neighboring islands of the Mediterranean, especially for wine. They knew the properties of iron, and the swords and spears which they made of steel formed from it, were in demand wherever they were known.

“Bullfights appear to have been a favorite amusement from the earliest time in the Spanish peninsula. It is evident that this custom existed before the Romans entered Spain, for it is represented upon ancient medals of a period earlier than their arrival.

“These early tribes had different names, and their characters were affected by the situations they lived in. At the present time the descendants of these early races living in the north of Spain have strongly marked traits of character which may be traced even to these remote ancestors. There are at present but few railroads or means of communication with the modern world, so that these people do not learn new fashions, and they keep up the old traditions of their fathers from year to year, even from century to century, and talk an old language not modified by words from other languages, as has happened to the Spanish now spoken in other parts of Spain.”

Who Were the Earliest Spaniards?

January 9th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Many people who travel to Spain or who want to be living in Spain adopt the commendable goal of learning not only about the modern country that they intend to see or even to take up residence in, but also about the deep history of this ancient land.

When asked who the earliest Spaniards were, many people would say the Celts. But actually, there were inhabitants of this peninsual prior to the arrival of the Celts.  They were a mysterious people known as the Iberians.

A historian of the 19th century described what was then known of these Iberians.  Not a whole lot more has been learned of these people in the century-and-a-half since he wrote.  So, though somewhat simplified, his description for the most part still holds:

“A Castilian geographer, proud of his country, made a map of Europe representing a woman, with Spain for her head, the Pyrenees for her necklace, the Alps for her girdle. One arm was stretched out for Italy, while her feet ran off into Russia and Turkey.

“The necklace — the Pyrenees — form a barrier between the Spanish peninsula and the rest of Europe. On the northern or French side the descent from the summits is gradual, while on the Spanish side the valleys seem hollowed out like enormous chasms, with deep precipices and perpendicular cliffs thousands of feet high. The northern slope, exposed to the Atlantic, partakes of the European climate; the southern, influenced by Mediterranean breezes, is more like Africa than Europe.

“On this peninsula, shut off from the rest of Europe by such a sharp mountain chain, long, long ago, before books were written, before people troubled themselves to make histories, there lived men called Iberians. No one can tell how they came to be living in this sunny southern corner of the continent. Probably they came across from Africa, and perhaps, when they did so, there was dry land for them to cross upon, where the narrow Straits of Gibraltar now lead the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to join those of the Mediterranean Sea.

“Geologists think there may once have been an isthmus at the narrowest point, at Tarifa, where the distance from one continent to the other is now but twelve miles, over which it would be easy to cross. There is a tradition of a canal being cut, with a bridge built over it by the Phoenicians. The waters of the Atlantic rushed in and widened more and more the opening, making Europe and Africa separate continents.

“Iberians were there, and are supposed to have come from the south. Other people came from the north, around the spurs of the Pyrenees, or over them through the easier passes. These were a part of the Celtic race, who at an unknown epoch had migrated toward the west from the plains of Central Asia. These Celts are supposed to have left Asia, and in immense armies to have poured over Europe. Some of them stopped in the valley of the Danube, some of them pushed as far as Great Britain, others came into the Spanish peninsula, where they found the Iberians.

“It is hard to know exactly what these people were like, and to keep any distinct idea in our minds of the difference between Celts and Iberians, or to trace the mingling of the two races into another called Celtiberians, as the historians of this early time do.

“We must imagine a warlike set of people, for they had to protect themselves from each other and from wild beasts. They thought every obstacle was to be overcome by fighting, so they threatened the sky with shooting arrows at it when it thundered, and drew their swords against the rising tide. They were generally friendly with each other, and often united to avenge an injustice done to one of their neighbors.”

Spain: A Poet’s Evocation

December 27th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Spain has the power to evoke powerful feelings in any person who has traveled there. No one that so many people, having once (or many times) visited the country, make a decision to move to Spain permanently.

It is difficult to convey the magic, beauty and mystery that still lives in Spain, even in the midst of its impressive modernization. The best course is simply to turn to the poet, and in this case we have the famous Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to thank for the following lines.  This is his famous poem on “Castles in Spain.”

How much of my young heart, O Spain
Went out to thee in days of yore!
What dreams romantic filled my brain
And summoned back to life again
The Paladins of Charlemagne,
The Cid Campeador ?
And shapes more shadowy than these,
In the dim twilight half revealed,
Phoenician galleys on the seas,
The Roman camps like hives of bees,
The Goth uplifting from his knees
Pelayo on his shield.
Yet something sombre and severe
O’er the enchanted landscape reigned
A terror in the atmosphere
As if King Philip listened near,
Or Torquemada the austere,
His ghostly sway maintained.
The softer Andalusian skies
Dispelled the sadness and the gloom
There Cadiz by the seaside lies,
And Seville’s orange orchards rise,
Making the land a paradise
Of beauty and of bloom.
There Cordova is hidden among
The palm, the olive, and the vine;
Gem of the South, by poets sung,
And in whose mosque Almansor hung
As lamps the bells that once had rung
At Campostella’s shrine.
But over all the rest supreme,
The star of stars, the cynosure,
The artist’s and the poet’s theme,
The young man’s vision, the old man’s dream,
Granada by its winding stream,
The city of the Moor.
And there the Alhambra still recalls
Aladdin’s palace of delight :
Allah il Allah through its halls
Whispers the fountain as it falls.
The Darro darts beneath its walls.
The hills with snow are white.
The Vega cleft by the Xenil,
The fascination and allure
Of the sweet landscape chains the will,
The traveller lingers on the hill,
His parted lips are breathing still
The last sigh of the Moor.
How like a ruin overgrown
With flowers that hide the rents of time
Stands now the Past that I have known,
Castles of Spain not built of stone,
But of white summer clouds and blown
Into this little mist of rhyme.

— Next Page »

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