The research developed in recent decades in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula indicates that socio-cultural development of the indigenous communities during the Iron Age –which led to the formation of state-like structures– was mainly due to endogenous causes. It is now also possible to prove that the volume and nature of Greek and Phoenicio-Punic imported pottery –as well as some of their indigenous versions– can be explained largely by the interests of local elites, who used this material to enhance their strategies of social control, and probably developed, starting in the fourth century BC, a class cuisine inspired by that of the aforementioned Mediterranean cultures. It is concluded that indigenous societies had an active role in colonial interactions, and that they may have even influenced the economic structures of the exogenous communities installed on or near the Iberian coast.