Dealing with the Outside

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse some strategies of power, social control and legitimation during the Iberian Late Iron Age (6th–1st centuries BC). It addresses how the Iberian elites exploited the domain of the ‘outside’ to legitimise and to retain their status. A diachronic approach is presented seeking to analyse the role of the outside realm throughout all the examined period and the variety of its expressions within the Iberian societies. In particular, the paper focuses on the south-east of Spain, an area with a rich archaeological record which, however, have never been approached from this view.