Lusones

The Lusones (Greek: Lousones) were an ancient Celtiberian (Pre-Roman) people of the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania), who lived in the high Tajuña River valley, northeast of Guadalajara. They were eliminated by the Romans as a significant threat in the end of the 2nd century BC.

They spoke a variety of the Celtiberian language and were a subdivision of the Celtiberians. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the ancestors of the Celtiberian groups were installed in the Meseta area of the Iberian Peninsula from at least 1000 BC and probably much earlier. A mixed people, they included elements of early Italic (Osco-Latin) and Gallic affiliation, the latter possibly related to the namesake Helvetic Lusones from present-day Switzerland or from Pannonia, who migrated to the Iberian Peninsula around the 4th Century BC. Some scholars also reasoned that they might bear some connection with the Lusitani, with the latter people being actually an off-shot of the Lusones that migrated to the west of the Peninsula during the 4th Century BC.

The Greek geographer Strabo located the Lusones near the Tajo headwaters, whereas the historian Appian places them along the Ebro. In fact, their lands were located in the Aragonese region along the middle Ebro, on the Moncayo range (Latin: Mons Chaunus) between the Queiles and Huecha rivers, occupying the western Zaragoza and most of Soria, stretching to the northeastern fringe of nearby Guadalajara and southern Navarre provinces. Their presumed capital was Turiaso or Turiasso (La Oruña, Vera de Moncayo – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Turiazu); other key Lusones towns were Calagurris/Galagorina (Calahorra – La Rioja; Celtiberian mint: Kalacoricos), Cascantum/Cascanton (Cascante – Navarre; Celtiberian mint: Caiscata), Bursau/Bursada (Borja – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Burzao), Carabis/Caravis (Magallón – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Carauez). They were also involved in the foundations of both the ‘bandit town’ of Complega (site unknown; Celtiberian mint: Kemelon) and the Roman colony of Gracurris (Eras de San Martín, Alhama – La Rioja) by Tiberius Gracchus the Elder in 181 BC.

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