The Ethnonym «Iberians» and Its Cultural Meaning
Korotkikh Lyudmila M.
Native culture on the Iberian Peninsula developped according to the same laws as in Greece, Italy and Asia Minor and approximately within the same chronological limits (the second half of the 2nd millenium BC – the middle of the I millenium BC). Its development was modified by outer as well as by inner factors. The term of «Iberian culture» refers to the essence of the cultural world of the Peninsula, just in the way the terms «Hellenic», «Etruscan» or «Hittite» denote characteristic features of respective cultures taken on the whole (i.e. in defiance of local ethnic nuances within each of them). In economical and socio-political spheres, reflected in mythological systems and ritual practice, the Iberian culture exhibits characteristic features making it different in the eyes of ancient historians and ethnographers, who designated the bearers of this culture as «Iberians».