I went to de Celadilla iberic ruins recently, and the guide was amazing.
Not only did she give an amazing explanation but tough me two new things, warning for infant death for one of them.
It's a very interesting site, primarily due to the bodies found there.
The iberians generally burned their dead, and then leave the remaining bones with their grave goods. So very little information can be gotten from them, a common theme when it comes to the iberians.
But due to fighting between different iberos this settlement was abandoned after a battle, and the bodies weren't properly buried. As bad as I feel that they didn't get their funerals, they are a wealth of information.
Very little of the actual settlement is actually uncovered, and 7 bodies have already been found, so who knows how many information there is buried under there. And some might never be discovered, since part of the mountain was blown up to let a road pass (ignoring the indications that more was still to be found).
They had an immense amount of pottery, and there are iberian shards all over the hill. I was shocked when she told me they were iberian shards, despite being at the latest from the 4th century BCE it looked like modern pollution (broken construction materials and such).
So, onto the two things that were entirely new to me.
In several iberian settlements, deliberately broken swords have been found buried under doorways. This is thought to have been in order to bring protection to the household, the strength of the weapon warding it. We don't know if in a house spirit way, though archeologist thing probably not . But we can't know, just that there isn't any archeological evidence.
Another common sight is infant burials, not incinerated, under the floor or in the walls. I'd heard that they didn't know why, but that source was a little bit old and didn't want to give theories.
But the current theory was that they were not introduced into society until they were around 3 months old. And if they died before, they were buried in the house they never left. Some have a scarified goats with them as grave goods, possibly so they would have milk in the afterlife. I can't get the thought of a tiny baby holding onto a goat, their only company in whatever awaited them.
Some scholars also argue that they were under the house as some sort of protection, but that is pure speculation.
I don't know why anyone who follows would be in the area, let alone speak enough Spanish to understand the guide, but I cannot recommend it enough.
