Reassembling the Iberians : rain, road, coins, crops and settlement in central Hispania Citerior, 206-27 B.C.

Abstract

This thesis investigates Iberian communities in central Hispania Citerior during the Roman Republic. I demonstrate the usefulness of an actor-network approach for understanding a topic characterised by scarce archaeological datasets. This approach is not intended to create a new narrative for Roman Provincial Studies but instead allows us to ask new questions: what was at stake for these communities? What was of interest to the Iberians? How did things happen? Iberians lived primarily in small, often fortified settlements in elevated locations, although some larger settlements are known and during the Republic many sites were abandoned for new locations on flatter ground. I find that throughout the period settlements were often clustered, creating communities distributed in small groups of sites. These Iberian groups grew versatile staple crops in a variety of locations but may have tailored additional crops to regional environmental conditions. I consider the potential for collaboration in the autumn ploughing and conclude that any such collaboration must have relied on dense and wide relationships given changing patterns of variability in rainfall. I show differences within coin circulation that suggest Iberian coins were part of distinct sets of relationships. I also test the ability of carts to pass over various long-distances routes and find that some coins were bound up in the same assemblages as cart transport. The thesis positions the interface between all these different assemblages as crucial to further work on these communities. Key words: Iberians, Actor-Network Theory, Roman Republic, Roman provinces, Hispania Citerior, settlement patterns, communities, agriculture, ploughing, numismatics, roads