The term ‘Iberian Iron Age’designates a group of territories along the eastern limit of the Peninsula sharing a common past and diverse social processes (Ruiz and Molinos 1998). The terms ‘Iberia’and ‘Iberians’ were formulated by the Greeks to denote the broad region and its peoples stretching along the Mediterranean coast from the south-east of the Peninsula to western Languedoc. Later, from the 2nd century BC, these terms in Roman sources acquired a broader sense as they initially designated the area extending southwards and eventually came to refer to all the Peninsula (Sanmart� and Belarte 2013: 97).

Iberian society was far from homogeneous. It was divided into ethnic groups (or tribes) that formed independent territories or city-states very similar to other entities elsewhere in the Mediterranean. The processes of hierarchy and urbanisation followed different regional rhythms and forms, and have been interpreted according to the theoretical positions of different researchers. Certain authors identify the roots of the Iberians as far back as the 2nd millennium BC, as in the case of the Ilergete tribe in Western Catalonia (Junyent 2015: 170). Different views are held regarding the Iberians of the Catalonian coastal zone (Cossetani, Laietani, Indigetes) and the area of Valencia (Moreno 2011; Grau 2002) where profound cultural mutations emerged in the 6th century BC (Sanmart� and Belarte 2013: 98; Sanmart� et al. 2015).