Session: #417

Content:

From the 3rd c. BC onwards, especially after the end of the Second Punic War, the Iberian Peninsula became a growing pole of attraction for people, goods, and money, thus beginning a long period of intense commercial and cultural exchanges based on sea borne communications that lasted until the Late Antiquity. Accordingly, the center-periphery relations between Hispania and other regions of western Europe, as well as its major contribution to the economic growth of the Roman Empire, have capitalized on a large part of the research since the 1970s. The goal of this session is to offer an up-to-date and multidisciplinary overview to the mobility and connectivity between Hispania and overseas regions (including the Mediterranean basin and the Atlantic façade) from the 3rd c. BC to the 7th c. AD. We also aim to broaden the discussion to its methods of research, with special regard to the rigorous analysis of material culture.
The past decades research on fine wares, amphorae and other typologies has produced a watershed in our knowledge related to the main periods: Late Republic, High and Middle Empire and Late Antiquity. In addition to the geo-economic role of Mediterranean Hispania, with special emphasis on the Baetican olive oil and the Dressel 20 amphora, wine from the Mediterranean coast of Tarraconensis and fish sauces from the bay of Gades and Lusitania, a complex import-export network has linked the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, making Hispania a crucial pivot for our understanding of a globalising structure such as the Roman Economy.
General contributions and study cases on the following topics are welcome:
- Circulation of people, goods and ideas.
- Roman transport network analysis.
- Quantitative and big data analysis applied to distribution patterns.
- Stratigraphic approaches
- Interconnection between sea and land routes.
- Archaeometric studies.

Session: #417

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