Places of worship associated with the more restricted scope of the family or lineage were linked to the cults and rituals of ancestor veneration. Collective sanctuaries reflected the power of a town and its community in the structuring of the political landscape. These urban sanctuaries could be collective or family worship sites.
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In general, archaeological research has focused on the analysis of sanctuaries or urban sacred sites that served to emphasise the ideological representational role of certain communities and their dominant lineages in the bosom of the power centres. The cultural and social diversity of the Iberian societies is reflected in their wide variety of urban and rural sanctuaries. Cemetery of Tútugi (Galera, Spain) Worship sites Left: Burial chamber of Piquía (Arjona, Spain) right: Burial mound 75. The necropolises of Baza and Tútugi (both in Granada province, Spain) are clear examples. In these landscapes, not only can we identify social groups differentiated on the basis of grave goods, tomb types and spatial distribution, we can also clearly see the relations with the ancestors and the divinity. It is noteworthy that, at a certain time in the late 5th century BC and, above all, in the mid-4th century BC, perfectly hierarchised funerary landscapes were laid out. The configuration and meaning of those spaces varied according to the historical period of the Iberian societies. All this was channelled through a funerary ritual characterised by the funerary banquet, the libations, the cremation and the definition of the spaces in the necropolis that linked the hereafter to the territory. The crossing of this threshold of death culminated in a celebration, a place of reunion symbolised by abundance. Supernatural and mythical beings, such as the Sphinx, the Griffin or the wolf, and sometimes the divinity, accompanied and guided the deceased on this journey. For Iberian societies, the hereafter was a continuity of life death was seen as the starting point for a journey symbolised by a crossing of the sea, the land or even the sky. the Iberian theological beliefs about the end of the world). A great example of this is Iberian eschatology (i.e. Sculptural group of Cerrillo Blanco (Porcuna, Spain) right: Patera of the Treasure of Perotito (Santiesteban del Puerto, Spain). Sanctuary of El Pajarillo (Huelma, Spain) centre: Griffin. All this gives us an idea of the ideological complexity of those cultures. Expounded in the towns, shrines and cemeteries, as well as into their myths, both heroic and divine. Studying this iconography offers us an insight into the ideologically complex beliefs, narratives, and myths of the Iberians.
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The art of these societies was characterised by powerful iconography: images were one of their best and most effective methods of dissemination and propaganda.
![iconographer definition iconographer definition](https://www.goarch.org/documents/32058/5108721/St.+Michael+icon+5.jpg)
This was decorated in red with mainly geometric forms, although in some areas (from Murcia to the south of Catalonia) figurative images were added. Image and funerary ritualĬertain cultural features define the Iberian societies, perhaps the most noteworthy being Iberian pottery. Today, we focus on the iconography shown in Iberian art and objects from archaeological research, and what it says about the social structures, beliefs, and myths of the Iberians. In last week's blog The history of the Iberians, we gave a high-level overview of the Iberian peoples.