El sacerdocio en época ibérica

Abstract

Este trabajo pretende llamar la atención respecto a un aspecto poco conocido de la religión ibérica: el sacerdocio. Tomando como base la propia estructura de la sociedad, las evidencias materiales y la comparación con otras culturas contemporáneas, se propone la existencia de un clero institucionalizado, ligado al progresivo desarrollo que alcanzan los santuarios y los templos en todo el sur y sureste peninsular a partir del siglo V a.C. Se indica asimismo la probable existencia de un sacerdocio femenino a la vez que masculino, y se presentan algunos ejemplos de posibles indicios arqueológicos de personas ligadas al culto.

This paper tries to call attention about a badly known aspect of Iberian religion: Priesthood. Taking account of the Iberian social structure, as well as of the material evidences and the paralellisms with other contemporanean cultures, it is proposed that there was an institutionalised priesthood, linked with the continous development of temples and sanctuaries on the peninsular south and southwest from the Vth. century onwards. It is also stressed that women should have exerted as priestesses as much as men, and some archaeological evidences are proposed to be interpreted as a proof of these people linked with the execution of cult activities.