Despite the importance of his opponents, Sarmento’s conviction was unshakeable. The Lusitanian world should consider itself pre-Celtic or, to be more precise, Ligurian. This term, which he used to define a specific ethnic framework, refers to a more complex reality which, in the light of contemporary research, is somewhat ambiguous, controversial and difficult to define. For this reason, this component of his historical interpretation is one of the most problematic aspects in a modern assessment of the methodological rigour of his research. In his view, the Ligurians arrived in this territory through migrations from more northern regions of Europe (from the shores of the Baltic), stimulated by movements of Celtic populations that long preceded the so-called “Celtic invasions”, which he placed in the 7th century BC. They were related to the Albiones and the Hibernians and, like them, had Indo-European origins. For this reason, he classifies them, using the terminology of the time, as “pre-Celtic Aryans”, considering that they had settled in the Hispanic West at an early stage and arguing that they should already be associated with the “dolmen civilisation”.

His anti- Celticism was complemented by his conviction that the populations of western Spain could boast of fairly early and close contact with Greek culture. The arguments supporting this idea were based on literary information and traces of material culture. With regard to the former, the indications given by Pliny were eloquent. He considered that populations of Greek ancestry had settled in a certain area of Galicia, which was evident from the name Heleni , but also extended to other indications, such as the existence of another entity, the Amphiloci . This onomastic data is supported by archaeological evidence, namely the existence of decorative elements such as a form of swastika, the tetrascelic cross, whose presence in ancient Mycenae suggests that some decorative motifs found on the Pedra Formosa and on the doors of houses in Briteiros reveal a cultural relationship with the Mycenaean world (“A Arte Micénica ...”, 1899).

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