Manuel Fernández Götz, Eduadro Ferrer Albelda, and Franscisco José García Fernández (Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universidad de Sevilla, Spain)

During the last decades, archaeology of the Iberian Peninsula has experienced a renewed interest in ethnicity studies. In this respect, Iron Age represents without a doubt the most appealing period, since the incipient availability of written documentation about pre-Roman peoples has favoured the attempts to relate archaeological and literary data. Nevertheless, in many cases the methodology used in these studies has not changed much with regard to Bosch Gimpera´s pioneering works during the first decades of the twentieth century. On the other hand, after the fall of Franco’s dictatorship the development of the Autonomous Communities has driven the construction of “regional histories”. In many cases these Communities have sought to reinforce their identity by tracing back their supposed origins to Protohistory.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview about the different focuses applied to the analyses of ethnic identities in Spanish Iron Age archaeology. Therefore, we will start with a brief historiographical revision followed by an up-to-date introduction of the main interpretative currents nowadays. Despite an occasional processual varnish, many studies are still placed in a traditional culture-historical approach. Fortunately, there are also a number of new researches that integrate several recent proposals from Anglo-Saxon anthropology and archaeology. Finally, we will deal with the complex and problematic relations between academic research and pseudo- historic studies as well as the political implications arisen from some works. It is argued that a critical archaeological research, based on the current conceptualization of ethnic identity in the human sciences, can represent a valuable contribution in order to counteract the distortion of past on behalf of contemporary political agendas.