Andalusia is a place of passage for civilizations such as Romans, Visigoths, Muslims and Christians, but we must not forget that a culture was here previously, the Ibera culture.
Before the arrival of the Romans, numerous peoples from somewhere in Europe settled on the Iberian Peninsula. These peoples were the Iberians and were distributed throughout the Iberian peninsula, sharing lands with Celts, even merging with them, giving rise to the Celtiberians.
If it is true that the Iberian culture did not have great repercussion in Andalusia and this is limited to the eastern part, in the provinces of Jaén, Granada or Almería, however few know that the Turdetans, successors of the Tartessians, were most likely a tribe Iberia and settled in the Guadalquivir valley, founding a town next to modern Córdoba.
This town has left us samples of their art and their language, in fact the Spanish language has a lot of Iberian lexicon. However, from the customs of this town, their art has remained.

This Iberian people was finally absorbed by Rome after different wars against them or against the Carthaginians, of which we have testimonies that they were also allies of them.
Numerous necropolises are spread throughout Andalusia, but of Iberian origin one stands out, Cástulo, in which remains of statues in the shape of animals have been found that are preserved in the Linares museum or can even be seen in a public square in Baeza ( Jaén).
The art was related to zoomorphic sculptures such as the so-called boars which are statues of the hoofed animal type or lions very typical of these cultures, however the greatest find was the Dama de Baza, which is preserved in the Museum of History of Madrid although there is one replica in the Linares museum.
Seville has in itsArchaeological museum of Sevilla xamples of Iberian lions found in Espera (Cádiz) or a similar sculpture in the Archaeological museum of Córdoba.
However, specialized in Iberian culture, we find the Iberia Museum of Jaén, inaugurated a few years ago becoming the largest collection of Iberian art in the world and which aspires to become an international reference.Most of the remains come from the province and related archaeological sites highlighting a seated lion and a piece known as the Dama de Cerro Alcalá.
From here we invite you to visit this Iberia Museum of Jaén , located in an avant-garde building in keeping with the times and which gives a new attraction of cultural and monumental heritage to the historic city of Jaén.