Landscape transitions in Tarraco: Extending the understanding of provincial communities and their integration into the Roman Empire: European Association of Archaeologists Conference (EAA) 2021

The Iberian Peninsula has been repeatedly characterised by its wide diversity of landscapes and of communities inhabiting them in Antiquity. This circumstance has hindered the possibility of developing holistic interpretations of cultural change experienced by these communities. However, recent research (e.g. Moreno Escobar, Ojeda Rivera and García Sanjuán 2020) has highlighted how the analysis of landscapes can not only unveil dynamics of transformation but (most interestingly) can also generate a holistic interpretative model that integrates both archaeological analysis and historical contextualisation. This particular model successfully explored and interpreted the changes in local communities from very different regions in Baetica in connexion with their inclusion and integration within the political, economic and social structures of the Roman Empire. However, despite its success for these particular -Baetican regions, its suitability to interpret the integration of other regions of the Roman Empire remains unexplored. This contribution will focus on testing this model’s application to other areas of Hispania, taking the Roman city of Tarraco and its hinterland as case study. This region has been subject to a long tradition of research in the area, mainly on its rural occupation, territorial organisation, and more recently on its Roman port system. This previous work has resulted in the generation of a vast amount of archaeological data susceptible of reanalysis, which makes this region an optimal case study. By applying techniques of spatial analysis and statistical analysis, this work seeks to contribute towards the definition of a holistic interpretation of Tarraco’s development between Republican and early Imperial times and of this community’s integration into the Roman Empire.

Reference:
Moreno Escobar, M. C., Ojeda Rivera, J. F. and García Sanjuán, L. (2020) 'Effects of Roman rule on the Settlement Geography of Southern Iberia: A GIS-approach', Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 39(2).