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Vettones


The Vettones (Greek: Ouettones) were a pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula of possibly Celtic ethnicity.

Under a controversial interpretation, John T. Koch has proposed a western Hispano-Celtic classification for the Vettones. A Celtiberian origin has also been claimed. Organized since the 3rd Century BC, the Vettones formed a tribal confederacy of undetermined strength. Even though their tribes’ names are obscure, the study of local epigraphic evidence has identified the Calontienses, Coerenses, Caluri and Bletonesii but the others remain unknown.

A predominately horse- and cattle-herder people that practiced transhumance, archeology has identified them with the local 2nd Iron Age ‘Cogotas II’ Culture, also known as the ‘Culture of the Verracos’ (verracos de piedra), named after the crude granite sculptures representing pigs, wild boars and bulls that still dot their former region. These are one of their most notable enduring legacies today, the other possibly being the game of Calva, which dates to the time of their influence. The Iron Age sites and respective cemeteries of Las Cogotas, La Osera, El Raso de Candeleda, La Mesa de Miranda and Alcántara have provided enough elements – weapons, shields, fibulae, belt buckles, bronze cauldrons, Campanian and Greek pottery – which attest the strong contacts with the Pellendones of the eastern meseta, the Iberian south and the Mediterranean.


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