‘Networking on the Atlantic Façade of Hispania during the Republic and the Early Roman Empire’

There is evidence for networks of trade and communication between coastal communities of the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula and those of Ireland, Britain and Brittany from the late bronze age. This network diminishes during the iron age but re-emerges during the early Roman Republic. From the late bronze age there is also evidence of networking between the south-west of Iberian Peninsula and North Africa and the Mediterranean. These networks fostered the development of a relatively urbanised culture before the Peninsula came under Roman control. Caesar’s and Augustus’s policies consolidated both historical networks. This seminar reviews this network history before and after the coming of the Romans. It explores how the relationships between the Peninsula’s coastal communities differed from those between inland communities. The seminar concludes by showing how important elements of the Peninsula’s indigenous cultures continued well into Roman times.