ABSTRACT
The Spanish prehistorian Bosch Gimpera (1921, 1925, 1935) reconstructed the ethnic history of European influence in the Iberian Bronze and Iron Ages. In order to provide a synthesis he tried to integrate the archaeological, linguistic and historical data. The theoretical basis o f his studies could be summarized in the following way. O n the basis of similarities between elements of material culture from Spain and central Europe he recognized that ethnic movements did take place. These movements could be related to the names of tribes recorded in the written sources and their routes were understood to be marked by archaeological sites and Indo-European place names. The three pillars of Bosch Gimpera s interpretation, archaeology, linguistics and ancient history, were mutually supportive. The starting point which was assumed, but not demonstrated, was large-scale population movements with implicit reference to the barbarian invasions which destroyed the Roman Empire. In this way, archaeological cultures, identified as 'tribes', were moving throughout Europe akin to plates in the 'plate-tectonic' theory. Some tribes were 'pushing' others and initiating an 'invasionist dynamic', which was 'explained' by the populations' own mobility.
