Banquetes y rituales colectivos en el suroeste peninsular

Summary In this paper we put forward a new diachronic interpretation of religious rituals among the Celtic peoples in the Southwestern areas of the Iberian Peninsula during the Iron Age and the early centuries of Roman rule. We emphasize the outstanding importance of collective feasts close to and in shrines during the Second Iron Age. These banquets werw jheld around animal sacrifices and the subsequent ingestion of meat and a kind of local beer. Apparently, there was not a explicit presence of sacred images in these feasts in pre-Roman times. However, during the Roman perod, different favissae found in archaeological sites belonging to the Beaturia Celticorum have yielded numerous terracotta figurines of Roman goddesses besides a large number of small wine cups and big plates, probably for dried fruits and food accompanied by sauces. We consider these changes as true indicators of deep transformations in social and ideological structures among the Celtici in Roman times.